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Inflammation always Crohn's or UC

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Crohn's Disease
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Posted 3/16/2013 4:22 AM (GMT 0)
Hi
I had a colonoscopy after I thought I saw blood in my stool, no symtoms of anything else however and besides the odd abdominal cramps I suffer when I get nervous I've never really had stomach issues. I'm in China where the expat hospital tends to want to test for everything hence the colonoscopy. Anyway the biopsy report says

mild chronic inflammation of the mucosa on the ileocecal valve and the rectum. The original colonscopy report says there were small patches of hyperemia and edema on detected on the ascending colon also but they didn't take a biopsy there (only from the I.Valve and the rectum area). All other areas are listed as grossly normal, no lesions , ulcers or erosions anywhere including those areas mildly inflammed

Went to the GI who told me I had very mild regional colitis and that the biopsy pictures and report were not indicative of Crohn's or UC. Told me no real need to do anything as I've never had any real symptoms of IBD and the test results show are not consistent with those of Crohns or UC. I'm confused though as researching I see nothing indicating other reasons for inflammation of the colon so I'm starting to doubt his optimism. Anyone else receive a similar diagnosis which may put my mind at ease?
Posted 3/16/2013 8:03 AM (GMT 0)
Just to add they did see the terminal ileum as well which was described as grossly normal in the report, could the mild inflammation be from the prep itself? I know others have also reported no symptoms but there seems to be some difference of opinion regarding the need to medicate if no symptoms exist beyond mild colitis. Just worried if I should push for medication to eliminate the inflammation or just move on. GI suggested I maybe do an allergy test but he's satisfied it's not Crohn's or UC even though he didn't do any of the other tests for Crohn's.
Posted 3/16/2013 1:21 PM (GMT 0)
chill68 - have you had an stool occult blood test? Even though you report no symptoms, have you had a complete blood work-up to check nutritional status (vitamin D, B-12), anemia, inflammatory factors?

It seems likely to me that the mild inflammation found on your scope is an IBD, but I'm just a patient, not a doctor. Can you find a GI stateside who will read your chart and discuss it with you by phone?

My inflammation has always been rectum and TI/cecum. None of my GIs have been willing to say UC or Crohn's. I've done better medically with a Crohn's approach - I took Pentasa for many years, which is a 5-ASA that is active in the small bowel. Now I'm only treating the colon and it's been fine, but I adopted a gluten free diet which has seemed to resolve the small bowel issues I was having. I still don't have a name for my condition but I'm grateful for taking the 5-ASA meds - but I was having symptoms like diarrhea, joint pain and fatigue, plus being anemic.
Posted 3/16/2013 1:39 PM (GMT 0)
I had blood work done as part of a full check up 6 months ago and was told everything looked great then but of course they weren't specifically looking for any one thing as Crohn's was never suspected. Never had D or constipation issues that I can ever recall of any significance and I'm 45 years old. I neglected to say in my first post however that the colonoscopy was done 3 years ago. I never bothered to speak to a GI as at the time I assumed mild colitis was no big deal. It was only afterwards when a friend was diagnosed that I grabbed the old report and headed to the GI here. The GI stated the histopathy was not consistent with Crohn's or UC and that I shouldn't worry, however he has scheduled me for another colonoscopy/endoscopy as a check hence I'm worried. All this worry because a plate of beets caused me to suspect I had blood in my stool. I would never have had a colonoscopy but for that and would have been blissfully unaware. Sorry for going on as people here are doing it much tougher than me but Google is doing my head in and the stress is now causing me to really get stomach cramps!
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