What do you think originally triggered your disease?

I can't think of any triggers, aside from maybe puberty.... but I was diagnosed at 16, well into puberty for me (my voice had already dropped, etc).

The odds were stacked against me, though. my mom has fibromayalgia and my dad has rheumatoid arthritis.

I've had it for 30 years. I think it's actually an inflametory disease which is exagerated by different conditions. For instance if I drink coffee it gives me the scoots which is bad. If I eat refined white breads or surgars it's the same. I have no tolerance for those things.

Ironically my 3 year old has diabetes which is also an inflamitory disease so we genitically are prone to similiar things. Mercaptopurine, omniprazole, and metamusal seems to do a great job of keeping me healthy.

I don't know what triggered my CD, but I do know that I have had stomach pains for as long as I can remember. I have asked my mother before and the only thing she has come up with is that I have had some sort of stomach disorder. They always blamed it on different things, when I was a baby it was colic, then when I was alittle older it was my apendix(which they could never find anything wrong with), then it was menstral cramps, then finally I was admitted into a hospital and was told I was faking my stomach problems.. Finally at the age of 22 after losing 50 lbs and being so severly anemic my skin & lips were the same color, I was admitted to a hospital and was finally diagnosed with Crons. so I never had a stressfull event that origninally set it off, unless you count beig born by a c-section and being a tiny little premie. Also I have a very large family and 90% of them all have severe crohns.

To the best of my knowledge, I didn't have anything set it off either unless it was puberty. I remember the stomach pain starting around the age of 11 which was about the time I got my first period. I was always a little chunky growing up and suddenly every time I ate I would have severe stomach pain and would stop eating. My mom aways complained about the food I was wasting and would take me to the dr every other month. First my dr said I was faking it, then he said I was anorexic, then he put me in the hospital and did a 24 hour pregnancy test (this was back in the late 70's) and a laproscope, saw infection around my uterus and put me on antibiotics. My mom took me back again insisting there was something wrong with me, that I looked like hell, and that I looked like one of those kids you saw in National Geographic. I think he put me in the hospital again just to please her. They did a lower GI and discovered the crohn's then. I thank God that my mom wouldn't be put off and kept insisting he run more tests.

Birth of my son (c-section).

I had some sporadic sacroiliac problems for several years before that, but no problems with food or BM's until then.

Wow- my son was on anitbiotics for acne in high school.  A few weeks before he started with the bloody stools that was eventually diagnosed as Crohn's he had his wisdom teeth out and was on anitbiotics because he developed an infection.  I always thought there was a correlation between having the teeth out and the flare up but never realized it could have gone back to the treatment for his acne.  I feel horrible.  I pushed him to go to the dermatologist and that could be what has caused all of his pain. 

food poisoning while we were in Israel 20 years ago...I got so sick and I've never been "well" since.