possible crohns

Hi everyone! I have periodic symptoms where I have severe abdominal pain, sometimes constipation with nausea and last year joint pain in my knees that comes and goes, and periods of exhaustion. I keep going in to see the doctors every time I have a 'flare up' but am told it's just IBS and they do no tests. The more I read about Crohns I am thinking that what I have sounds like this. I know from the way I feel that it's not just a food sensitivity like they keep telling me... I have full blown pain that makes me have to stop driving the car, or that might wake me up at night. The last time I went in my doctor told me she didn't think it was Crohn's because I had had flare ups for so long and hadn't had any worse symptoms. Based on your own experiences, before you were diagnosed, could you tell that something was wrong but didn't have really bad symptoms like bleeding or something? I keep going back and forth, I really want to be tested to know for sure, but the doctors treat me like I'm making it up.

Crohn's can simmer along at a low-key level for years, yes. It's not always characterised by severe flare-ups, or else it can take years for the damage of Crohn's to set in (strictures, fistulas etc.). A minority of people have a lifelong mild course.

What makes me think you are less likely to have Crohn's is the lack of diarrhoea. It's unusual to have Crohn's without ever having had diarrhoea, something which I can't tell applies to you or not. That said, I think it's a bit appalling the way you have been fobbed off with IBS and 'food sensitivity'. In theory, IBS is a diagnosis of exclusion; that is, IBS is only diagnosed after all other possible causes of have been excluded. But all too often, IBS is the first diagnosis.

My advice would be to find a different doctor and get some tests done. Blood and stool tests to begin with, then further GI investigations if necessary. Ask for a faecal calprotectin test; it tests for a marker of intestinal inflammation and is a decent way of distinguishing between IBS and IBD. (NSAIDs can induce false positives, I should let you know, just in case you are taking any for your pain.)

Edit: I'm tired and I don't seem to express myself very well nowadays, but I didn't mean to imply the faecal calprotectin test is the be-all-and-end-all of diagnosis. If it's negative, it almost certainly isn't IBD, but there are other causes of abdominal pain, which should be looked into.

Post Edited (NiceCupOfTea) : 9/23/2013 7:36:51 PM (GMT-6)

Thanks, I'll see if I can get a referral to a GI. I'm nervous that they'll find something and also that they won't figure out why this is happening to me... I know that if it is serious it would be best to find out sooner than later. Thanks for the input, I appreciate it!

I can totally relate to you. My flares started 5 years ago which consisted of severe abdominal pain on my right hand side, back pain, and usually lots of vomiting and constipation (never D)... I heard IBS and even just stress before a new GI finally mentioned Crohn's last year (the Prometheus test showed inconclusive but he thought Crohn's was the most probable cause of my issues). Good luck, I hope you find a good GI dr!

Mostly the same time. I dont think i go to the bathroom as much as "normal/healthy" people do. Sometimes ill get minor abdominal pain and I'm just not hungry at all, and I don't vomit. When it gets bad, I get like sharp pains that come in waves and then I vomit so much until I am vomiting up bile. I wounded up in the hospital a month ago because of that, the pains got so bad that I couldn't walk, stand, or even lay comfortably and I was so dehydrated from throwing up.

huntWcrohns said...
get in to see a gastro doctor I went through the same crap years ago alway`s dimissed and told to avoid dairy for 2 week`s.. if you have nausea after eating along with what feels like your backed up you could have a stricture or several of them, your body is telling you something`s wrong don`t let a doctor spin you off go see a gastro doc!!! sooner than later, I wish I would have, I found out the hard way when I ended up haveing ER-surgery, for 8 strictures and 2 fistula`s and that was after 11 years of being put off, then a nurse who had crohn`s saw me in the ER and called her doc, then i got some where, so please go see a gastro doc, you`ll save yourself alot of headache and pain down the road......

Nausea was your only sympton?? No vomiting, no D, no constipation, no blood? And sorry, but what do you mean with "feels like your backed up" ?

thanks everyone for your feedback, I have a GI appointment scheduled for November, we'll see how it goes.