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Crohn's Disease
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Posted 7/21/2009 11:50 AM (GMT 0)

Good morning Forum,

I've been lurking for about a month now and decided to take the plunge and introduce myself.  I have been having issues since November 2008.  It started with recurrent diarrhea that affected my daily life (I missed a couple days of work because I couldn't leave the house).  I went to a GI in January, and had a colonscopy done.  Came back clean with the exception of internal hemmies.  A month or so goes by and it starts back up again! Between Feb & now I have had off and on bouts of diarrhea and constipation (sometimes bloody).  I started seeing a new GI back in late May.  In June I had tons of blood work done (6 vials!) and stool samples.  Came back with possible Crohn's/anemic.  I also tested positive for Shigella (bacteria in case you've never heard of it)  I'm currently waiting for them to schedule my capsule endoscopy (which I've been waiting for over a month now because of them going back & forth with my insurance company!) I took antibiotics for the Shigella and since then have only had one bout of diarrhea and one bout of constipation (which was about 1-2 weeks ago).  I still want to have the pillcam done because it' been so off an on for months now.  I feel ok now but tomorrow I could have it all over again!  My question is how many of you started out this way?  I have read the many posts on this forum and it seems that if it is Crohns it's a relatively mild form of it.  The doctors suspect it is in my small intestine due to the fact my colonoscopy came up clean.  I'm just so confused over this disease!  Any insight and/or experiences anyone would like to share would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks! :-)

Posted 7/21/2009 12:11 PM (GMT 0)
It is definitely possible to have Crohns confined to the small bowel with no evidence of inflammation in the colon. That is why the pill cam is likely to shed some light in your case. It may also be that you had a simple bacterial infection. One thing you will quickly learn from scanning posts here is that IBD presents in many different ways . . . there really is no typical case. It is also common for diagnosis to be delayed or uncertain early on. See what the pill cam shows and that should give you a good idea of where to go from there.

Posted 7/21/2009 2:16 PM (GMT 0)
What blood tests did your Dr. do? I believe most of us have elevated CRP and ESR levels, I am not exactly sure what else these tests could be indicative of but I know mine are generally through the roof, of course I only bother to go to the dr when I get really sick and have been curious as to what they would be when I am not in a full on flare. Good luck with all of your tests, the waiting is really hard it took about 7 months, 4 or 5 dr's and lots and lots of tests before they officially determined mine was crohn's.
Posted 7/21/2009 10:01 PM (GMT 0)
It's good you are having the pill cam. You may have had an infection that instigated worsening irritable bowel. Probiotics can sometimes help with this, so I think you should definitely give them a try. You may or may not have Crohn's...just keep following up with your doc. My neice has more severy IBS symptoms than me, but no Crohns or colitis. The Prometheus blood tests are also helpful for diagnosis if you haven't had those.
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