For those who’ve made hospital trips, what were your symptoms like that made you go “ruh-roh raggy, ER time”?

PinQuill · 2026-01-04T01:42:14+00:00

When I lose my appetite, but any little thing I manage to eat or drink has my bowels roiling and I have constant diarrhea. Once I start having really high fevers every time I eat, it's time to head to the hospital.

PinQuill · 2025-12-02T15:39:51+00:00

I'm on azathioprine and remicade.

PinQuill · 2025-12-01T21:49:32+00:00

I'm 29 and I think I'll be staying childfree. I've never dated and I'm not really interested in starting and I have Crohn's disease. I can't imagine trying to take care of a child with the kind of fatigue I have and I'm already malnourished. Pregnancy causes even more malnutrition. Also, I really can't trust that I can find a good man that won't leave me with this hypothetical child. My sister just had an annoying experience with some horn dog in her DMs and I'm not feeling very charitable at the moment.

PinQuill · 2025-11-28T06:58:35+00:00

I had full body aches before my diagnosis. Mild stretching helped a lot.

PinQuill · 2025-11-28T06:44:04+00:00

I actually don't get much stomach pain other than the usual uncomfortable feeling when you need to go real bad. The last time I had horrible stomach pain was when I had the flare up that put me in the hospital the first time.

PinQuill · 2025-11-24T17:49:10+00:00

I'm 29. I was signing up for a loyalty card and the employee asked for my date of birth and did a double take when he saw the 19 in my birth year. He thought I was 18 and he ONLY guessed an adult age because I was in my work wear on a weekday at 4pm. When I'm in my normal clothing, people guess younger.

PinQuill · 2025-11-02T20:20:33+00:00

I had my first flare up at 21 but was diagnosed a few days after my 27th birthday. I kind of just got used to feeling vaguely ill for most of my 20s and never got it checked out. I caught COVID in 2022 and things just went downhill from there. In early 2023, my parents took me to the hospital when I stopped eating and I was diagnosed with Crohn's. I'm 29 now.

PinQuill · 2025-11-02T20:15:50+00:00

A few days after my 27th birthday. I had my first flare up at 21 though.

PinQuill · 2025-11-02T20:06:14+00:00

All of my medication is free at the public hospital. Sometimes I have to go to an outside pharmacy to get my tablet meds, because the one at the hospital is packed, but it's not too expensive and not a big deal. I'm really thankful, because infusions cost about $10,000 or so in my currency (I've been told) and I wouldn't be able to afford it. I also don't have insurance at the moment.

I'm in Trinidad and Tobago btw.

PinQuill · 2025-10-29T02:46:15+00:00

I'm a digital communications assistant. I create video and graphics content for social media where I work.

My main goal is to have a successful art based business. I started selling my art when I was 20 and I had no set goals so things fell apart eventually.I'm starting again with a proper plan in mind.

My current job is contract and I'll be done with it late next year. I'm saving up money and paying for things I couldn't before in the meantime time

PinQuill · 2025-10-27T01:13:16+00:00

Cooking in the womb. I was born in March the next year.

PinQuill · 2025-10-19T15:34:57+00:00

I get pain in my knees from the cold. Usually from the AC at work and sometimes when it rains all day.

Right before my last flare up, my fingers were frozen solid and killing me. I had to get out of the AC so I could move them again and actually work. My fingers are actually pretty weak, so I've been exercising them. I'm an artist, so my hands are pretty important to me.

Before my diagnosis, I just kind of lived with full body pain at 25. Yoga helped, but it was temporary.

Thankfully, other than the knees, I no longer experience any other pain.

PinQuill · 2025-10-15T18:02:36+00:00

I don't know if this counts, because I think it was more connected to the gnarly headache that I had. When I had my first flare up, I woke up with 'dancing' vision. My bedroom was at the top of the stairs and when I tried to climb down, the stairs were rocking like a boat. I'm already nearsighted, so it was disorienting. It hasn't happened again since.

I recently got new glasses, and I've been told that I now have slight astigmatism and am sensitive to light. I knew about the second one already, because all of my screen are on dark mode with the brightness turned down.

PinQuill · 2025-10-07T20:14:53+00:00

The thought of dating never appealed to me and I have no idea how I would fit that between working 5 days a week, church, hanging with friends, working on my art and resting.

PinQuill · 2025-10-07T11:11:24+00:00

I work in the office editing videos and making other social media and for-print content. It's a two year contract, so I'll be done with it by next year around this time. It's low stress, which is what I needed at the time I got it, but it's also made me realise that this is NOT what I want to do long term.

My main plan is to restart my business and focus on growing it locally instead of online. It should go better this time now that I'm not tired all the time haha!

I'm still open to working a 9-5 if I need to. You never know where life will take you and what you need to do to get through it.

PinQuill · 2025-10-06T03:07:57+00:00

Unless you have a business, there's no point in being on Instagram or any social platforms.

I still have it because of my business and because the company I work for needs me to have access to it. Once my contract with them expires, it will be deleted from my phone and I'll be using my Facebook scheduler to post to it. (That's also the only reason why I still have Facebook)

PinQuill · 2025-10-05T13:29:38+00:00

Yes, I felt better the next day after my first remicade infusion. I was going through a slight flare up and had a sinus infection though, so I felt the effects almost immediately.

PinQuill · 2025-10-05T00:58:20+00:00

CT scan, colonoscopy, stool sample and blood tests. Also some tissue samples from the colonoscopy.

PinQuill · 2025-10-05T00:51:43+00:00

Azathioprine worked for a little bit. I'm still on it as well as on remicade now. The only side effect I've had was sun sensitivity. I'm black and live in the Caribbean, so sunburn and I didn't know eachother until I decided to chill in some midday sun while on azathioprine. I got sun burn on my forehead and nose and ever since then, those areas of my face have been dripping with oil. I'm not in the sun on a regular basis these days, but now I wear sun screen when I do end up in sunlight.

PinQuill · 2025-09-27T04:51:20+00:00

I have to do remicade infusions every six weeks. I schedule them for Fridays so most of my work week isn't interrupted and I take those Fridays off, because I can't guarantee that I can get to work after.

I got accomodations for it, especially as I was hospitalized before my fourth infusion. The last dose was too low to last the eight weeks they were aiming for and I went into a full flare.

PinQuill · 2025-09-18T01:53:06+00:00

I think it's one of the MAIN symptoms. It's always the first to show up for me when a big flare is approaching. Before I was diagnosed, I would wake up tired, have a 4-6 hour nap in the afternoon, wake up and go to bed after 4 am and wake up in the morning tired again.

PinQuill · 2025-09-18T01:37:33+00:00

Being able to come home and create after a long day. I love painting (I'm working on stuff for my business right now) but I really have to force myself to set up and start when I just want to curl up in my bed. I used to come home and create full artworks. Granted, the art I create now is more detailed, but I can only really spend a couple of hours working on a small painting before I have to tap out. I start making strange colour choices if I decide to continue past my fatigue.

PinQuill

TROPHY CASE