Hi Shaynelle,

You poor thing, you have a lot on your plate at the
moment! I am sorry to hear your sad news.

I have UC, not Crohn's, but my rheumatologist was
pretty thorough and did a million x-rays and scans for
me. I have osteoporosis (a DEXA/bone densitometry
diagnoses this), plus mild sacroilitis which is
detected on x-ray. My x-rays revealed no AS which is
good. Lucky for me I don't have any back pain at the
moment - I hope it stays that way! My arthritis can be
quite problematic at times though. A good
rheumatologist is a godsend - if you have anyway of
consulting with one, I highly recommend it. GPs and
gastros just don't know enough.

If you are having trouble accessing a good doctor, I
wonder if it is possible to park yourself in emergency
and hopefully get seen by a rheumie that way? If your
GP or gastro knows any rheumies personally, perhaps
they can phone them for you and get some advice? I
managed to avoid a long wait to consult with my
rheumie because a GP I saw just happened to know a
good one.

Good luck, I hope you find someone who can reduce your
pain - it sounds very disabling.

Take care,

Amy.


--- shaynelle <shaynelle@...> wrote:

> I was diagnosed with Crohn's early last year. I
> had symptoms for
> about 8 years.
>
> When I started experiencing back pain at night in my
> early 20's –
> about 14 years ago I mentioned this to the doctor
> she told me "get a
> new mattress". She didn't even ask any further
> questions nor did
> she do any medical tests on me!.
>
> So for years I spend thousands of dollars on new
> mattresses, foam,
> coil, you name it I tried it. I was a student at
> the time, and this
> was very financially trying for me. No mattress
> made any bit of
> difference so I just lived with it.
>
> Then the pain became so severe in 2004 I had to quit
> my fulltime job
> and work part time because I wasn't getting enough
> sleep and I was
> falling asleep at work. My doctor still would not
> take my pain
> seriously.
>
> With my back pain it gets progressively worse
> throughout the night
> and I wake up every half hour or so and have to get
> up and walk
> around in order to be able to fall back asleep
> again.
>
> I have spoke with a number of doctors on this and
> the only one that
> even took me mildly seriously was a rheumatologist.
> Unfortunately
> less than a month after seeing this specialist my
> husband (air
> force) received a posting message and we had to
> move.
>
> My doctor in my new city doesn't seem to believe the
> level of pain I
> experience at night. He told me he would prefer if
> my
> gastroenterologist referred me to a rheumatologist,
> but my gastro
> only tested for spondylitis, which came back
> negative.
>
> For the past couple of days I've been noticing pain
> in my
> breastbone, and I believe it's the same pain that is
> involved with
> my back as it seems to also get worse at night.
>
> I would consider switching doctors but here in
> Canada where I live I
> am just lucky to HAVE a doctor, so there is no
> chance of me
> switching doctors as there simply are not any others
> accepting new
> patients in my city.
>
> Has anyone experienced similar circumstances?
> Remember I have been
> tested for Ankylosing Spondylitis and it came back
> negative. I have
> been battling infertitily for over 10 years now,
> with four losses
> including a child lost six weeks ago due to
> incompetent cervix –
> they had to induce to save my life and she lived for
> less than two
> hours. I say this because I'm dealing with that
> pain and then this
> back pain on top of it all is really getting to me.
> I'm starting to
> get angry the doctor isn't taking my back pain
> seriously and I don't
> know what to do. I just want some relief from the
> pain!!
>
> Shaynelle




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