Could the colon inflamation just be a temporary problem not UC?

Generally they take blood test and stool tests to confirm disease or if it's just a "bug", they don't go by what a colonsocopy reveals alone...there are many cases of mild IBD (either CD or UC) and that could be your case if you feel that you are mild or fine right now.

:)

Just wondering because my Dr didnt say alot he just said you have one of these 2 things take this asocol.
Thats all I know so I wondered if it was diagnosed by process of elimination or if the biopsy itself would show something.
After 8 months of problems Im just trying to figure out why after the colonoscopy all of the sudden everything seems fine all of the sudden. I thought maybe just maybe he misdiagnosed but maybe im just in the denial stage.

oh and he said the rectum and small intestine was unaffected just the whole colon does that mean anything

Find a new doc, his flip remark of "you either have one of these 2 things" would send me running.

There are differences between the inflammation of CD compared to UC, with UC the entire area will be inflammed, with CD there are skipped patterns of inflammation and the inflammation can go deeper through the intestinal lining, with UC it stays on the surface of the lining (which is why UCers don't experiance fisutlas).

Colon cancer risks increase slightly (compared to healthy people) each yr the colon is affected by inflammation...I've had constant crohn's colitis (CD affecting the colon) for 17 yrs straight and to date I have no cancer or signs of cancer).

If your entire colon is inflammed that's referred to as pancolitis...CD can affect the entire GI tract from mouth to anus and it can appear in more than one area at a time or be limited to one area...UC is limited to the colon/rectom, you can still have UC even if your rectom is currently unaffected....I'd find another doc if it was me, but of course that is your decision.

:)

What a bizarre doctor, and why did he mention Cancer for? What was that to achieve except frighten you? Let's get one thing clear - our life expectancy is the same as others without the disease if that helps.

Can I ask one question to the whole board though, say in those 10 years we have a few years of remission on and off, does that get taken off the 10 years? Does it have to be continuious inflammation for 10 years? When I was in remission these past 9 months before this latest flair a sigmoidoscope showed a totally clean colon without a trave of inflammation.

As for UC I thought you HAD to have rectal inflammation for it to be UC or it's Chrohn's?

As I mentioned above, UC doesn't ALWAYS involve the rectom, crohn's can involve the entire GI tract from mouth to anus (which includes the rectom) and with CD it can appear in more than one area at a time or just be in one area at a time.

:)

LondonRed, chances are it's crohn's, only patchy involvement is linked to CD not UC regardless of where the CD is affecting.

:)

pb4 said: LondonRed, chances are it's crohn's, only patchy involvement is linked to CD not UC regardless of where the CD is affecting.

_________________________________

Thanks pb4 - yes I know that patchy inflammation means CD. However most CD involves the small bowel and after after having a Barium MRI - that isn't the came. There is alo no inflammation in my ileum but do have it in my rectum - which is again not usual for CD. Which leaves me with a IBD but neither Chrohn's or UC at the moment. I will know after the biopsies come back, but the last ones I had last year didn't confirm UC or Chrohn's just non specific.

The not knowing is difficult.

LondonRed said...
pb4 said: LondonRed, chances are it's crohn's, only patchy involvement is linked to CD not UC regardless of where the CD is affecting.

_________________________________

Thanks pb4 - yes I know that patchy inflammation means CD. However most CD involves the small bowel and after after having a Barium MRI - that isn't the came. There is alo no inflammation in my ileum but do have it in my rectum - which is again not usual for CD. Which leaves me with a IBD but neither Chrohn's or UC at the moment. I will know after the biopsies come back, but the last ones I had last year didn't confirm UC or Chrohn's just non specific.

The not knowing is difficult.

Yes, most CD does involve the small intestine, but for me it only did the first couple of yrs of having CD, but the entire 17 yrs it's involved my colon constantly with no full remission, my rectom on and off (thank god for Cortifoam) and constantly in/on my anus with perianal crohn's skin tags.

Don't go strictly by theory of it "always" or it "only", with IBD nothing is cut and dry and that needs to be remembered, my mom has UC and her UC started in her colon, NOT in her rectom, although it may be common for UC to start in the rectom and move up into the colon and for CD to start in the small intestine and travel throughout the GI tract, that doesn't always mean that's how it goes.

My CD actually started in my anus with the anal skin tags, and moved up from there...not typical for a crohnie but I guarantee you it happend that way for me.

Not knowing would be hard (I was an easy case to DX because of the anal skin tags which are only associated with crohn's and also at my DX as I stated above I had it in the anus, rectom, colon and small intestine...but know this, the same meds used to treat CD in the colon/rectom are also used to treat UC.

 

:)