metastatic Crohn's disease Bioposy?

I know a couple people out here have Metastatic Crohns.  Can you tell me what the bioposy process consisted of, as I go later this month?

I've never heard of metastatic Crohn's.

Ides yes a skin biopsy that is being done by a dermatologist. How painful was that? Since my issues are near my butt and female parts I am nervous. I will call the office but was hoping to get some input to calm my fears.

From what little I understand about it my perianal crohns may be spreading outside my rectum and manifesting as a skin issue.

Post Edited (want_2_be_well) : 2/15/2011 7:18:14 PM (GMT-7)

Metastatic Crohn's disease is also called cutaneous Crohn's or meatastatic cutaneous Crohn's. It involves granulomous lesions that are found on areas of the body not connected to the intestines. It is an extraintestinbal manifestation of Crohn's disease.

These lesions can be found anywhere on the body but most often are found on the female or male genitalia or near the rectum. The lesions have also been found in such places as the ear or nose. These are very rare occurences.

I have been dealing with cutaneous crohn's (or metastatic, same thing) for several months. I've had about twenty boils, mostly on my butt, but also on the labia, hip, and one on the armpit. A few got really big and painful and had to drain, but most have been held in check with bactrim, so they are just ugly.

The biopsy, as others say, is not that big a deal. The shots to numb the area hurt a little when going in, but then you don't feel anything. The dermatologist said in advance that he'd wait to decide whether to put in a stitch or two. In my case, he didn't, and let the boil drain. It hurt more for maybe a half a day after the biopsy, but then it hurt a lot less as it was drained.

My biopsies showed granulatomas, which actually first gave me the official diagnosis of Crohn's colitis, as I was indeterminate w/UC for years before.

The hardest part about the cutaneous crohn's is that it's rare, and it really felt like the doctor was experimenting in trying to decide how to treat it. He wanted to give me Augmentin, but I didn't want to take it because it's a penicillin derivative, and both my parents are allergic and I've never had it. I took the bactrim because it'd helped w/boils in the past. I went on dapsone for a while (there's a thread where I talk about that) ... it's a leprosy drug, that part was a bit creepy .... but it was not kind to my liver, so I was only on it for about two weeks. The bactrim seems to keep them in check, but I missed a dose or two last week and got another boil right away..... not fun.

Good luck w/the biopsies.

I am having surgery next week (permanent ileo etc). It's not clear whether the surgery will take care of the cutaneous condition, though .... but I hope so.

Bluegrass thanks for the information, I assume the bioposy took a week or so to find out results? I wonder if it always manifest as boils as my issues are more like cuts/fissure looking. Although no treatment yet has seemed to improve it, so that is why they are looking into this route now. Good luck with your surgery next week!

Sorry to disappoint all of you. The explanation of metastatic CD I gave in the above post was not a "cut and Paste." If you look carefully it contains typos due to my arthritis typing style.

Post Edited By Moderator (MMMNAVY) : 2/16/2011 1:42:02 PM (GMT-7)

Well I got lucky they didn't do a biopsy after all as the Dr is thinking it is

inverse psoriasis.  This might also solve the multi-year mystery of why my crack always cracks too!  Guess we see how this reacts to treatment, although you think it would have reacted to the Remicade since that is used for psoriasis as well.  Nothing like 3 Drs and 3 differing opionions on the diagnosis.  Almost makes me want to go to a fourth just for fun.  Oh well, at least I have hope again that perhaps this Dr can heal the open  lesions.  Thanks for all the info!