I had the small bowel series last Friday. According to my GI, it showed narrowing of my terminal ileum and what might be the "string sign." Still, however, I don't have a Crohn's diagnosis. Since I had abdominal pain during the small bowel series, he said the narrowing could be spasm. Since I had a normal colonoscopy that seems to be holding up the diagnostic process. I also had an abdominal CT in January for a suspected appendicitis (negative) and the radiologist didn't note anything about my small bowel being inflammed, which also is holding up the diagnosis. The GI wants to run one last CT and if confirms the narrowing, then I'll be officially diagnosed with Crohn's. The GI doesn't want to do the video capsule test because since I have what looks like narrowing of the terminal ileum, he worries that the capsule might become stuck.
The GI also felt my abdomen and the area in which I'm experiencing pain, is the same area that's abnormal on the small bowel xray. He also said he felt a slight hardening in that area.
So, I'm still waiting....All this testing is getting old fast.
ETA: Along with the string sign, the GI also said that the terminal ileum looked abnormal in the sense that it was much smoother than the healthy areas of the small intestine. The terminal ileum didn't show the fold marks the healthy intestine did. I'm not sure what it means, but the doc associated it with Crohn's. So, I have the string sign, narrowing, almost all extraintestinal symptoms, an elevated sed rate, but still no diagnosis. Hmmppph.
Post Edited (kdlalib) : 4/21/2011 2:01:41 PM (GMT-6)