In the prime of her life, and the mother of two boys, Katie Schultz of Menasha couldn’t afford to sit on the sidelines as uncontrolled Crohn’s disease made her sick and sapped her energy. Katie turned to Froedtert & The Medical College of Wisconsin,where experts in the area’s only comprehensive program for Crohn’s and other inflammatory bowel diseases have helped Katie’s condition improve so she can finally get on with a normal life.


K


atie Schultz’s life suddenly changed 10 years ago. She was just 19, the wife of an Army serviceman stationed in Tennessee.


“It started out with fevers and nausea and a lot of pain


in my stomach,” Katie recalled. Her doctor believed she had a virus, but her symptoms persisted for weeks. She lost weight and felt increasingly listless.


“It was so frustrating. I thought there is something


wrong with me, because this is not going away.” That summer, Katie and her husband, Rick, returned home to Wisconsin on leave.


“I was on the couch the whole vacation,” Katie said.


“My mom said, ‘You’re not going back until we find out what’s wrong with you.’”


At a friend’s suggestion, Katie visited a gastroenterologist,


an internal medicine physician who specializes in the treatment of disorders of the gastrointestinal tract. She had an exam and several imaging procedures.


“The doctor called later that evening. She said I had Crohn’s disease.”


lifelong condition Crohn’s disease is a chronic condition that causes inflammation of the digestive tract. It usually strikes the small intestines, but problems can appear anywhere in the gastrointestinal tract from the mouth to the anus. A similar disease called ulcerative colitis affects the large intestines alone. The two diseases together are known as inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). More than a million Americans suffer from IBD, and experts say that number is on the rise.


According to Lilani Perera, MD, Medical College of


Wisconsin gastroenterologist and medical director of the IBD Program, IBD can be a taxing disease.


Patients may experience diarrhea with or without


blood, frequent abdominal pain, fever and many other issues. Symptoms may subside for a time, but flare-ups are a lifelong problem. In severe cases, IBD leads to weight loss and malnourishment.


“IBD is not caused by a single factor, but a combination


of genetic susceptibility and environmental triggers that lead to an unusual immune response,” Dr. Perera said.


Foreign substances (antigens) in the environment may


be the direct cause of the inflammation, or they may stimulate the body’s defenses to produce inflammation that continues without control. Uncontrolled inflammation damages the intestines. One goal of medical therapy is to help patients better regulate the immune system.


One unique aspect of IBD is that it most often strikes


people in their late teens and twenties. “These are very productive, active years of life,” Dr.


Perera said. “If you have undiagnosed IBD or poorly controlled disease, it can have a significant impact on your quality of life.”


drains energy


After Katie Schultz was diagnosed, she began taking prednisone, a powerful steroid used to control IBD flare-ups. Long-term use of prednisone can cause serious side effects, so she was switched to a milder medication as soon as possible. Over the next several years, Katie moved back and forth between steroids and other drugs as doctors in Tennessee tried to keep her disease in check.


Meanwhile her life moved forward. When Rick was


discharged in 2002, the couple moved back to Wisconsin and settled in Menasha. Katie and Rick started a family, with their first son born in 2004 and another son born in 2007.


Still, her health problems persisted. “Every time I got off prednisone, I would get sick again,”


Katie said. She suffered from frequent diarrhea, vomiting and low-grade fevers. She also began having new symptoms like sores inside her mouth and eye inflammation.


“Crohn’s is a really hard disease,” Katie said. “It drains


all your energy. Sometimes I would sleep for 12 hours at night, then get up for a few hours, then be back in bed for another eight hours. You sit and think about all the things you should be doing — doing the dishes, going to the store, taking the kids out to play, but you just can’t.”


froedtert.com Froedtert Today May 2011 11 continued


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