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Crohn's Disease
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Posted 7/16/2012 7:51 AM (GMT 0)
I have been diagnosed with Crohns for 2 years, I am now 63 years old. The colonoscopy (twice), and other tests have verified with no doubt that I have it. However, I have never had any symptoms, the illness was found by coincidence during my first colonoscopy. After seeing 2-3 gastro doctors specializing on Crohns, the conclusion was to wait and see; thus, I have never been treated.
A few weeks ago a very strange phenomenon began occurring. As the day progresses, and supposedly I eat (do not follow any diet, but eat healthy), I begin to feel pressure on the middle of my back, not pain, but pressure. Just about the time I go to bed, the discomfort has also moved to the front and I feel it in my upper abdominal section just below my chest cage.
The cycle from no signs of discomfort in the morning to significant discomfort at night, which at times prevents me from falling at sleep, occurs almost daily.
Question: is this possibly signs of Crohns??
Thank you for your input.
ERwin
Posted 7/16/2012 2:01 PM (GMT 0)
Hello, Erwin.  I have been wondering how you were doing.  I'm sorry to hear that you are having this uncomfortable problem at night.  It sounds like a gas problem to me, and maybe it's related to your Crohn's.   Maybe not.  It could be that you have developed an intolerance to some foods due to your untreated bowel inflammation.  You might try an elimination diet to see if there is any one culprit.  I would start with the most common ones, like lactose and gluten. 

Lactose intolerance is really easy to discover, and very simple to manage - you just take a lactase enzyme pill or two before meals.  To discover if you are lactose intolerant (almost every adult is, to some degree) you can ask your regular DR, or maybe drink a glass of milk on an empty stomach and see what happens.

Gluten intolerance is more challenging to diagnose and more challenging to manage.  I tried a gluten free diet for 3 weeks to figure out if I was sensitive to gluten, and by the time 2 weeks had passed the evidence was clear to me.  I haven't eaten any gluten (except by accident or special choice) in more than a year.  I feel a lot better.

Posted 7/16/2012 2:55 PM (GMT 0)
Kazbern,
Thank you so much for the input. You may be right that gases is the problem. I have had more problems with gases than usual. I will try your suggestion on different foods. I eat lost of fresh vegetables, specially tomatoes. Also milk with my decaf coffee and feta cheese with the salads. On bread, I eat almost exclusively rye bread/crackers. No red meat but chicken and fish, specially salmon.
Erwin
Posted 7/16/2012 3:09 PM (GMT 0)
Gluten is a complicated protein. The scientific terms for the different kinds of proteins in grains are more than I can learn or communicate on this forum, but essentially the three kinds of grain that most people find problematic (and contain the kind of gluten that is bothersome) are wheat, rye and barley. So you might want to cut out all of the bread you're eating, plus anything else that contains one of these grains (tabouli, especially), in order to evaluate whether gluten is bothering you. It is important to understand that the digestion of gluten takes more than a few hours, and most people find that they need a couple of weeks completely gluten free to determine if there's an intolerance.
Posted 7/16/2012 5:47 PM (GMT 0)
i was younger and having a lot of stomach pains and they never found anything wrong with me. The only doc that kind of believed me said that it could be something i was eating. i would take a little maalox before certain meals (for example kilbeasa killed my stomach as a kid). Whenever i was about to have a meal that may bother me i woudl take a small dose of that and it would help. maybe its something similar?
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