Both UC & CD? Or Switch?

What exactly did they have written down in their sig?

There is actually aprox 2% of patients that do have both (very rare), there are also many that get confused when their doc mentions the word colitis to a crohn's patient, the patient assumes that the doc means they also have UC which isn't the case at all, it infact means the patients crohns is affecting their colon---crohn's colitis (which is CD affecting the colon). Then there are those that have been DX as having CD for example and then it's reDX as actual UC instead (or visa versa), then there are those that are DX as having indertminant colitis, which usually means the doc doesn't have enough smarts to tell the difference between CD and UC...with CD the inflammation is skipped and has healthy tissues in between inflammed, with UC the entire area will be inflammed, with CD the inflammation can go through the many layers of the mucosal lining (it doesn't always for every CD, usually depends on severity of disease as well), whereas with UC the inflammation is limited to the surface of the mucosal lining only.

With CD it can affect any part of the GI tract (from mouth to anus) and fistulas are more common with CD, with UC the disease is limited to the colon/rectom only and fistulas are very uncommon for a true UCer.

:)

That would be me you are talking about. I was dx'd with UC in 2000 and then dx'd in 2008 with CD by a different Dr .
Believe me if i had to pick the lesser of two evils it would have been UC. Don't know that i have both but i asked
both Dr's that were treating me at the time if they were sure it was Crohn's they were both sure, said the test results
were very conclusive.

Could be, I've just been trying so hard to feel better i haven't thought much about it. I will find out when I see the Dr. next time though.
I just know I was dx'ed at first with UC by three different Dr's and took treatments for that until last year when I was hospitalized and got new Dr's and a new dx.

Tj1, The good news is that the same meds are used to treat crohn's colitis as used to treat UC, of course it's natural for anyone to want to know for sure which one they have, but aw long as they can help you find remission soon (and a nice long one) I don't blame you for concentrating on that more than anything else...just watch for fistulas, if you end up with one (and of course I'm crossing fingers and toes that you never experiance that) then that will be a huge indicator of CD as well.


goldy, sorry for what you've been through, it's frustrating and heart-breaking to here stories like yours time and time again...that's why surgeons are suppose to make their pateints aware (before any surgeries) that there is the risk that although they are convinced you have UC the DX could be wrong and that you may actually have CD, not that stating that risk to the patient makes much of a difference, many CDers that have crohn's colitis still end up getting their colons taken out and wear the bag since the j-pouch is not a good option for CDers as it is for UCers due to the fact that CD can affect any part of the GI tract and typically when diseased area(s) are removed, at some point CD will usually make an appearance close by the surgery site (or anywhere it feels like for that matter), it is a nasty disease and definitely in that respect crohn's is a whole different beast.


:)

I have Crohns my boyfriend has UC. Lucky for us we have three toilets