Thanks for the info. Crohn's is an auto-immune disorder where the body attacks the intestines as a foreign and causes ulcerations in different locations of the intestines. This can cause elevated white blood cell counts, intestinal bleeding, fevers, diarrhea and bowel obstructions due to thickening of the bowel wall. There is not much they can do but try and keep you in a state of remission as long as possibe with drug therapy and then when an attack occurs they have different drugs to try an keep the attacks short. My last attack lasted over three months. They say it can be inherited (not in my case) or caused by a severe illness which overloads the immune system. I think this is probably my case. In 1990 I had peritonitus (sp) which made me very sick for a long time. This also caused the "keloid" type scarring on my intestines. I have other adhesions from previous surgeries as well as a hysterectomy, but the bowel adhesions have caused me the most pain. I am also having many of the symtoms you have described for fibromyalgia. I hope I don't have this as well?! I do know that Crohn's can cause the arthritis I have in my spine (prior to my diagnosis they kept telling me I was too young to have arthritis even though it was right there in the test results) eye disorders and other problems. Thanks again for the support. You take care as well. Ginny
At Tue, 17 Aug 1999, sherry wrote:
>
>Hi Ginny, The information I have regarding chronic pain makes a
>connection between adhesion/scar tissue and mixed connective tissue
>disorders. The article states that when any soft tissue
>(muscle,tendons,nerves,fascia,ligaments) are damaged, the body produces
>scar tissue (adhesions). In many patients, esp. those who suffer from
>mixed connective tissue disorders such as fibromyalgia, Epstein-Barr,
>chronic fatigue, etc. the scar response is amplified many times
>resulting in "keloid-type" scarring. Fibromyalgia is a syndrome of
>widespread pain involving mainly muscle, but also tendons, ligaments,
>bursa and joints. In addition to causing pain, FS causes stiffness(esp.
>in morning), fatigue, numbness, feeling of weakness, swelling, cold
>intolerance, poor sleep and headaches. Regarding autoimmune system, the
>article states that the body's immune system, for various reasons, can
>start to recognize some of the proteins as foreign. The body's defense
>mechanism actually starts attacking its own protein and, if severe
>enough, can cause serious illness. This happens in certain types of
>arthritis and connective tissue disease. More investigation needs to be
>done to clarify the autoimmune factor and determine whether it is a
>mechanism in all of fibromyalgia or just a certain subtype. Could you
>explain a little about Crohns? I do not have any info on this and I
>would like to be informed. I want to support you and I want to
>understand what you are going through with. Love and Prayers, Sherry