Waiting to be diagnosed

Hi Everyone,
I am currently going through the process of being diagnosed with Crohns or UC. I so far have had the blood tests and an exam, and I will be having a colonoscopy and endoscopy at the end of Feb. I was "diagnosed" with IBS about ten years ago (told PCP about my stomach and bowel movement issues and he said, oh you have IBS, there is nothing we can do for it) so I never really complained about it again. Ten years of loose stools, bleeding, vomiting, exhaustion culminated in a perianal abscess and fistula emergency surgery in September. Since then I have been very sick to my stomach, constant loose stools, thrush in my mouth and sores on the sides of my mouth, and can barely get up in the morning and generally felt awful. However about a week before my long awaited GI visit I started to feel a little better (which has been how it has been for the last ten years, some weeks awful, sometimes few symptoms). So while my stomach issues have been improving (I was placed on levisn for stomach and cramping pain while I await diagnoses) about a week before my GI appt I started getting a weird rash on my hands and feet about an hour to two hours after I eat. It seems to have no bearing on what foods I eat, just the process of eating. It starts on my hands usually, with my right hand always worse, it swells up, gets red and covered in small red dots. It will then start on my feet and travel up my legs, sometimes all the way to the back of my thighs. If I ignore it or take benedryl it will eventually go away. Has anyone else had this? It is not environmental as I have changed and switched everything I can, it does not happen if I don't eat. But I have tried every type of food imaginable and it happens with any of them. It is driving me crazy. Could this been a Crohns symptom? It is so strange! (and annoying!!) Any ideas?

Welcome to Healing Well, kcturns! Question - were you on the levisin when you started getting the rash? A rash is one of the side effects of Levisin, If the rash began before the Levisin, then it is an odd event for sure. I got a rash like you describe on my feet after showering, taking a bath, or going swimming in a heated pool. Eventually the rash reached from feet to thighs each event.

In my case, three different doctors had no clue. I took pictures of it so the doctors could see it since it was always gone by the time I got to the doctor's office. The fourth doctor I mentioned it to was am allergist that I was sent to. It was an allergic reaction to temperature change. I would ask your PCP about this. Or you could buy some over the counter Claritin or Allegra and take it one morning and see it you still get the rash that day after eating.

Please let us know what the diagnosis ends up being. Also if you ask about you rash, tell us what the PCP says. Also, I totally understand about being told that all the gut issues are just IBS and then sucking it up for 10 years. In my case it was 30 years. I went to the doctors for 10 years complaining about my gut issues. Finally just decided I wouldn't say anything. Then had 20 years of ups and downs and sucking it up. When I finally hit my low point and I was a mess!