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Crohn's Disease
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Posted 6/8/2013 6:10 AM (GMT 0)
The last couple of weeks I have had periodic severe upper abdominal pain. I am 31 weeks pregnant, so since everything has been pushed around it's hard to tell where pain is anymore compared to where it was before and what it could be. I haven't really had any diarrhea except last night I started having some (8 times in two hours) but today it hardened again. It feels like someone is grabbing my upper intestines and just wringing them out. It also comes with a lot of nausea.

I've gone in to labor and delivery twice now for it. It's not my pancreas, and my last Remicade infusion was about two weeks ago. The hard part is I'm establishing care here since we just moved to a new state a little over a month ago. The GI keeps referring me to talk to the OB, but the OB doesn't know much about CD, so no one has a lot of answers. Obviously scans are out of the question.

The OB thinks that it's just acid reflux, but I have GERD and it doesn't feel anything like that at all. It's above my belly button and goes all the way across my stomach. The pain is anywhere from a 5 to a 7.

Any thoughts? This is my first pregnancy, so everything is new.
Posted 6/8/2013 2:50 PM (GMT 0)
I have not been pregnant with Crohn's, so I can't help with that, but I'm worried that you may be having partial obstructions.If you start vomiting or get in worse pain, you should go back to the hospital. It seems like a CT scan would be out of the question due to the radiation to the baby, but what about an MRI? I do remember times when I was pregnant that my uterus would harden like a rock for awhile...I assume it was some sort of contraction, but that would sometimes cause indigestion, but not at all like you are describing. Don't be afraid to go back and forth to the ER if needed----this is your baby----be assertive if you need to! Sorry you are going through this.
Posted 6/9/2013 11:23 PM (GMT 0)
I know, I was worried about that, too. The hard part with vomiting is that I've had morning sickness pretty bad this whole pregnancy, so throwing up is normal on a weekly basis. :) Being pregnant makes it tough in getting care, because the GI is afraid to tell me anything and the OB doesn't know anything about GI issues. At least, that was my experience in Utah (we just moved to Texas about a month ago, so I have new doctors). I have an appointment with my GI on Tuesday, so I plan on talking to her about it then. The ER's just send you straight to the labor-and-delivery part of the hospital, so I only get to talk to the OBs. I don't want to be seen as just looking for pain meds, either, but their view of pain is so different (as in, I'm not screaming in agony like I'm in labor so I mustn't be hurting that bad).

I just don't think that acid reflux pain could be that low.....it's just above my belly button, under my rib cage, and goes all the way across. It's also different pain, if that makes sense.

My intestines seems to be bipolar, too. Thursday I had diarrhea 8 times in two hours, then felt constipated until today when diarrhea started up again. But it doesn't correspond to the pain.

A part of me just wants to say, "Forget it, I don't care, I'll just wait until after I have my baby and then figure out if something is really wrong or not." Then I start hurting, suck it up for a while, and then my baby kicks my upper stomach. I thought Crohn's was bad, but Crohn's with a baby kicking the sore parts is pretty painful!! :)
Posted 6/10/2013 2:02 AM (GMT 0)
I wonder about gallstones, usually upper right quadrant pain, but the pain can go all the way across. I had Crohn's when I was pregnant with my daughter, but my disease was kind of quiet. I mostly had fatigue.

My daughter suffers from GERD and she regularly has severe upper abdominal pain. I would think GERD can worsen with pregnancy since there is extra pressure on things.

Many of us know the frustration of specialists in other areas not knowing much about Crohn's and kind of not knowing what to do. My (former) GI hardly knows what to do with Crohn's! I do hope it gets better or at least they can find out what's going on. -Joy
Posted 6/10/2013 2:08 AM (GMT 0)
Oh, sorry this is a P.S. I've experienced the gallstone pain going all the way across up under the ribcage, so that wasn't just hearsay. It felt like severe gastritis.
Posted 6/10/2013 1:42 PM (GMT 0)
Hi scifigal,
I completely understand your frustration with the different medical specialists, and it does make sense in one way to just wait until the baby is born, but you will know if it gets really terrible and something is wrong. In that case, trust yourself and be assertive. With my current flare, the GI and internist keep turfing me back and forth, and neither one it particularly helpful. I'm in a holding pattern...just waiting to see if I get better on my own, or worse so my problems are more obvious and diagnosable...so I do get what you are saying. I hope you start to feel better soon!
Posted 6/10/2013 2:34 PM (GMT 0)
@jasanne, that's a good thought. WebMD suggested the same thing but I had my gallbladder removed last year. I don't think that you can get gallstones if you don't have your gallbladder?

@gumby, thanks, I appreciate it! I hope you start feeling better soon, too. I have an appointment with my GI tomorrow anyway so I'm hoping that will yield some answers. I woke up feeling awful and threw up when I tried to eat breakfast, but again, that could just be typical morning sickness, you know?
Posted 6/10/2013 2:55 PM (GMT 0)
Scifigal, since you had your gallbladder out last year, do you think this could be bile irritating the colon? Have you or can you take cholestrymine?
Posted 6/10/2013 3:55 PM (GMT 0)
That's something I hadn't thought of. I've never taken it before; I'll ask my GI about it tomorrow. Thanks kazbern!
Posted 6/11/2013 11:06 PM (GMT 0)
Well, that was a little frustrating. Basically the GI said to wait until after the baby comes before worrying about it because they can't do anything about it now. She said to take 20 mg of prednisone if I wanted, but other than that there wasn't anything she could do that wouldn't require more invasive testing (pill cam, endoscopy, etc.). I kind of figured that's what would happen but I was hoping not. I don't think I want to try the prednisone unless the pain gets worse again. I really, really hate prednisone side effects.

The OB was a bit irritated about it, though. But the good news is that my baby's growth is going ok. As in two weeks ago she was in less than the fifth percentile and today she was exactly the fifth percentile.
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