HealingWell
Search Close Search
☰

Experiences of diagnosis

Support Forums
>
Crohn's Disease
✚ New Topic ✚ Reply
❬ ❬ Previous Thread |Next Thread ❭ ❭
Posted 1/3/2015 10:15 AM (GMT 0)
Hi all/anyone

I am currently experiencing bowel problems (

I have a history of them; started after being hospitalised with food poisoning in 2006. I would have awful periods of diarrhoea, urgency at times (with a lot of accidents) they started with colonoscopy, which showed nothing. In 2010 I had an endoscopy, I had gastritis and a hiatus hernia, negative for coeliac. I saw a dietitian who suggested eliminating gluten and my diarrhoea resolved and I felt fantastic.

However over a year ago I had my daughter and have been experiencing small episodes of chronic abdominal pain, diarrhoea. The pain is always located in the same place- my right lower abdominal. Due to the headache I have experienced in the past I was reluctant to do anything, however 3 weeks ago I started to experience the pain again but no diarrhoea, instead I am constipated and swollen. My GP had prescribed a huge cocktail of laxatives (plus pain medication), and with them I have loose stools (obviously) but without them I am blocked. I stopped taking the laxative to have an ultrasound- and it showed I was full of wind/poo, it was a fasting scan and my dinner from the previous night was still in my stomach and the water I had drunk had not made it to my bladder. Originally my CRP was raised (3 weeks ago), however all other bloods is normal (no anaemia- b12 or folate). Last night I was in so much pain I went to a & e, and after 4 hrs (normal blood results, x-ray showed nothing- had been taking laxatives) I was discharged with more pain relief (I'm now on tramadol, naproxin, buscopan and the newly added cocodomol) and a suggested diagnoses of IBS.

I have a gastroenterology appointment in 10days- the swelling at no point has gone (it has got bigger, when really constipated), I have vomited quite a few times, I have had migranes, nausea (prescribed domperidone and another anti-emetic), dizziness. Since having my daughter I am 11kg lighter then my pre-pregnancy weight. I also have a family history of crohns (my granma, her sister and my aunt all diagnosed). I am sure this is not IBS (its probably helpful to note that I qualified as a dietitian last year- not that that means anything)- but am so scared of not being investigated properly and having to live with this pain/problems because bloods show nothing.

I just wanted to know other peoples experiences of being diagnosed-

thank you for reading
Posted 1/3/2015 1:14 PM (GMT 0)
welcome to the forum Binky15! well, for me it started out as just mild gas and got increasingly worse to where it felt like there was a balloon in my guts. over the course of 6 months i didn't tell anyone, and than i stated to lose weight. at first i couldn't finish my whole meal and then turned into where i couldn't eat without feeling like i was gonna puke after every bite. after getting the courage to tell my family i went to the doc and had a bunch of tests done which didn't show much. after i had scopes done though the docs knew exactly what it was and was diagnosed within a few days of the test. i guess i was lucky to get a quick diagnosis, took about 4 months i think, its all a big blurred memory. after that i took remicade for awhile, then liquid diet, then scd diet, over the course of about 3 or 4 years with steroids sprinkled in all between. im curently on humira and its been a year and a half of pretty stable crohns. the longest time i have felt ok with this disease. thats pretty much the jist of my story. i hope you find out whats wrong and you feel better soon, best wishes going your way. :)
Posted 1/3/2015 3:37 PM (GMT 0)
I was DX with severe IBS by age 16 with a colonoscopy...I went through periods of severe diarrhea and constipation/bloating for years..My symptoms worsened and was DX in the early thirties with CD..I had blood tests, MRIs, CTs, endos, ect..I had repeats for about two years in early thirties before the DX..My DX went from severe IBS to IBD unspecified to CD.. Some are DX fairly quickly while others it is a gradual process. My doctor was very hesitant to make CD as a diagnosis due to the ramifications (It does not go away).
Posted 1/3/2015 6:50 PM (GMT 0)
Thank you for sharing your experiences, I really do appreciate it.

Cindywchrone, how did you cope with the period in which it was diagnosed as IBS? I have been swollen consistently for 3 weeks now and people are congratulating me thinking I'm pregnant, plus the pain is at times uncontrollable- any tips would be very welcomed.

Thank you Rango16, I hope the Humira continues to work. I will ask my GP if he could do a stool sample (not done as of yet), thank you for the well wishes :-)
✚ New Topic ✚ Reply