Christopher’s painful symptoms were incompletely addressed, until the team at NYU Langone’s Inflammatory Bowel Disease Center, including nurse Amy Arsuaga and Dr. David P. Hudesman, found a solution.
Photo: Karsten Moran
By the time Christopher met with David P. Hudesman, MD, at NYU Langone’s Inflammatory Bowel Disease Center in March 2015, he was frightened and exhausted.
His ordeal had started more than a year earlier, with excruciating abdominal pain, blood in his stool, and vomiting that made it impossible to keep down food. Doctors at two different emergency departments diagnosed Christopher with hemorrhoids and sent him home with medication that didn’t help.
After his third trip to the hospital, where a colonoscopy revealed 32 ulcers and a nearly perforated colon, Christopher was in the hospital for 10 days, “praying, crying, and thinking I was going to die.” Doctors diagnosed him with ulcerative colitis and prescribed medication. He started to feel better, but the symptoms returned within a year.
“The doctor told me, ‘I can’t help you. You need a specialist,’ and he referred me to Dr. Hudesman,” Christopher says.
At his first appointment with Dr. Hudesman, Christopher began to feel hopeful for the first time in a long time. “Dr. Hudesman saw the terror in my face and said, ‘We’re going to fix you up.’ He was so calm, like, ‘I got this, don’t worry about it.’”
VIDEO: Christopher, 52, came to the Inflammatory Bowel Disease Center to discover the cause of nearly disabling symptoms.
To help Christopher, Dr. Hudesman knew he needed an accurate diagnosis. He performed a colonoscopy and an MRI scan, which indicated that Christopher’s condition was not ulcerative colitis, but Crohn’s disease, another type of inflammatory bowel disease. He prescribed medication—infusions of Remicade and a daily dose of vitamin D—and recommended some lifestyle changes, including weight loss. A year later, Christopher was in remission.
“Dr. Hudesman and everyone else at NYU Langone, I’d give them 5 stars, 10 stars, a thousand stars. They’ve all been fantastic.”—Christopher, Age 52
Today, Christopher is feeling happy and healthy. He’s exercising more and watching his diet. “I’ve lost 70 pounds, and I’m getting myself back in shape,” he says. “I get infusions every eight weeks, but that’s it. Crohn’s disease doesn’t negatively affect my life anymore.”
“I thought I was going to die, and Dr. Hudesman saved my life. He’s a rock star. I love him.”
