SBFT

Well, I survived the Small Bowel Follow Through test. I had an exceptionally nice radiologist doing the test. He did not write up the official report yet, but he told me that there is an area in my terminal ileum that seems to be missing the mucosal layer and is abnormal. I was able to point to where it hurts when I have pain, and that is the exact spot where the abnormality is on the x-ray. It doesn't look like a stricture or even greatly inflamed. He said he can't tell from the x-ray if it indicates active disease, or if that is what my ileum looks like after years of Crohn's. He did however think it was a reasonable assumption that I could have "leaky gut" in that area, which may be the source of the anemia.

Soooo, even thought I really thought the SBFT test was going to be a waste of time, it actually helped me a bit. He is quite sure there is no cancer (so I can quit my neurotic worrying) and he said it looks like classic ileal Crohn's disease. I have my follow up blood levels in a couple of weeks. If I'm still anemic, then I'll insist on Prednisone or some other treatment besides Pentasa, and if it has normalized because of my two iron infusions, then I guess I have to wait to see if it drops again. I'm still holding on to the tiny possibility that I could go into remission on my own, but I doubt it.

I think my GI is a dufus! This shouldn't be so complicated!!! It looks from all the tests like my Crohn's hasn't spread and it's probably still classified as mild disease. I don't understand why he didn't just give me more than a 5 day round of Pred and see if I could kick it back into remission. I have been dealing with this since April, probably unnecessarily! Oh, well, I guess I still have to wait a few more weeks. Thanks for listening to all my rants...you guys are the best!

Thanks Habs...we'll see if the written report from the radiologist moves my GI along. I need some Zen.....I'll get there when I get there:)