Ouchy... B12 Injection!

After convincing the doctor that, 'Yes I do need these injections, as you can see from my blood test results I am deficient in B12', I swear sometimes doctors think because I am young, I have no clue what is best for me! He asked for my left arm and approached with the dreaded needle. Now I am really not scared of needles and as a Crohnie am used to regular blood tests, but 'Oh my' I was not expecting the, 'slight sting' that the doctor explained, to be such a burning, continuous pain! Once the injection was over I began to feel very hot, the feeling I have recently learnt to be the start of a process that results in passing out. I quickly got up, thanked the Doctor and left his office. Walking down the corridor and my eyesight began blurring and ears started to ring, this is when I know I am getting close to fainting. I made it out the first front door, into the little hallway as a nice gentleman caught me on my way to the floor.

As you can imagine the prospect of having to have another Vitamin B12 injection on Friday doesn't really thrill me! Hopefully these injections will mean that some of the side effects I have been experiencing will disappear, so I guess it’s all worth it.

Non-Crohnies, I think I should explain why I'm having these B12 injections. This will be my interpretation of what the doc's have told me, so apologies if it’s all wrong.

As I said previously I was originally given a diagnosis of Ulcerative Colitis, the docs have always told me there is a chance it could be Crohn’s because of my family’s history of Crohn’s Disease. While in London at Uni I read that people that suffer from Crohn’s disease can be deficient in Vitamin B12, this can cause symptoms like tiredness, fatigue and flu like symptoms, which I have been experiencing. I decided to ask the doc's in London to check my B12 level at my next blood test. When the results came back I was in fact deficient in B12.

At my next appointment with my GI consultant, I showed him these results and he found them very interesting. My consultant explained that B12 vitamin is only absorbed by one part of the body, this is the small bowel. Now Ulcerative Colitis (UC) does not affect the small bowel which therefore means that people that suffer with UC do not get deficient in B12.

This has led to having a Barium follow through test. This involves fasting for 24 hours before the test, taking laxatives to make sure your system is clear and then drinking a very thick, chalk like substance and having your small bowel x-rayed. Hopefully this will show where the inflammation is and subsequently see if I have Crohn's Disease in my small bowel.

Next Steps...

If this Barium follow through comes back that I do not have Crohn’s disease then I could have a rare form of anaemia (can’t remember what it was called, oppsie) or Coeliac Disease as well as Ulcerative Colitis. To be honest, I’m not really too sure what would be the best outcome of these three options.

This Barium follow through will happen the begining of next week and then its back off to Uni after three weeks rest at home. I am looking forward to getting back to Uni but nervous about getting back to dancing, I just want to enjoy it with NO pain again!! Fingers Crossed!!