Nobody asked about my Crohn's before prescribing

I keep a note of what my normal actually is, written down when I am well, because from inside a bad fortnight I cannot remember.

What I did not expect was how much better I felt once somebody acknowledged that the combination was complicated. The acknowledgement itself helped.

My team's approach was to change one thing at a time and wait, which was frustrating and correct.

I want to say clearly that nothing in this circle replaces the specialist who knows your history. We are company, not a second opinion.

I have nothing to add and I did not want to leave it unanswered.

A pharmacist spotted a timing interaction that two doctors had not, and it explained about six weeks of difficulty.

I had surgery years ago and that changed the picture substantially, and I want to say that anybody in that position should be talking to a specialist rather than to a thread.

Mine required one pause and one restart in eighteen months and both were planned rather than emergencies. That is a good outcome for a complicated gut.

You have described the bit that nobody warns you about.

Picking up Nyala’s point rather than starting a new one.

Coming back to say we found a workable arrangement, slowly, with two teams and a lot of notes, and I have been stable for a year.

My gut was already complicated before any of this and the general advice mostly did not apply to me. Bringing it to somebody who knew my history was the only thing that worked.

I had my existing condition reviewed before starting rather than after, and my gastro team were much more involved than I expected them to be.

The hardest part was working out which symptoms belonged to which thing. After twenty years I knew my usual pattern, and this was a new pattern layered on it.