Comment Re:Surprised? (Score 1) 582
You are essentially correct. I suffer from Chrohn's myself, and was only diagnosed about 2 years ago (I'm 27 now). I had periods of chronic flareups, including what I thought at the time were incidences of food poisoning, as far back as when I was 14. I never even saw a doctor for most of it. I ascribed it to certain foods (I suspected a lactose intolerance or possible issues with starch), and just tried to avoid stuff that 'didnt agree with me'.
When I finally saw a doctor at the ER it was because I had a flareup that didn't end for several months, and was unable to eat towards the end and keep it down. The ER gave a tentative diagnosis as Chrohn's, but I was literally moving 2 states away the next day, and at the new location it took a specialist a further 2 months to confirm for sure it was Crohn's. They basically went with a process of elimination, dropping possible causes one by one, til Crohn's was really all that was left.
It seems to be one of those conditions (of course there are many) which isn't fully understood, and theres only a slowly growing awareness about it; I see more and more stuff on it recently that wasn't around a couple years ago. Its not surprising that she went so long without a proper diagnosis given the way it behaves.
I just wish there was a more reliable way of treating it when the diagnosis is finally made, and since that girl seems to have a pretty bad case, I wish her luck. I've been on prednisone for 2 years now, and the side effects from it are most unpleasant, but its the only thing thats worked.