Crohns or colitis?

I was diagnosed with UC in 2004. When I was diagnosed the GI told me it was Crohns and my dr called it colitis. Now my current GI isn't sure. Isn't there a test that defines which one? Either blood or tissue. This is starting to bother me, especially because they are thinking about removing my colon. Yikes...

This whole UC / Crohns ? is driving me nuts as well! I was originally diagnosed in 1999 - thought I could 'ignore it' and pretty much controlled my symptoms through diet or dealing with it. Then recently I've had a terrible flare-up. So back in to first fam practice dr....had my colonoscopy...tons of labs...she said it was Ulcerative colitis. That was a week ago. Never put me on meds & now tonight I went to her - she got GI on the phone & he said it looks more like Crohns. Wants to get a CT - took 4 more viles of blood - and now they want me on Entocort?(sp?), once a night x 4 wks & hoping I can get in to see him(GI) by then. WHAT DO I HAVE??? you can see my symptoms in posts from this past week. I'm so frustrated & just want to cry!!! So you are TOTALLY not alone!!! Seems like this whole disease is SO CONFUSING & FOREIGN to these dr's? I live in MinNesota & thought we have such good healthcare....what is going on!

Crohn's colitis is crohn's affecting the colon, col=colon, itis=inflammation so when there's inflammation in the colon it's referred to as colitis, but it's generally either crohn's colitis (because CD can affect the entire GI tract from mouth to anus) or ulcerative colitis (which is limited to the colon/rectom)....

The problem is these stupid doctors need to be more clear with their patience as to what exactly they are referring to when they throw the term colitis around.

Also keep in mind, it's not always easy to tell via colonoscopy and the stool and blood tests are not 100% either, but a general rule is, with CD the inflammation can go through the many layers of the intestinal lining, where as with UC it only affects the surface of the lining and with CD the inflammation is usually a skipped pattern with healthy tissue in between, where as with UC the entire area will be inflammed with no skipped patterns of healthy tissues.

There is also a 2% chance of one patient having both CD and UC, very rare, but it happens.

:)

Blood tests may be done including an erythocyte sedimentation rate (ESR or SED Rate), which may help in detecting inflammation, a test to determine the presence of the HLA-B27 genetic marker, and/or a C-reactive protein, which is another test that may help detect the presence of inflammation in then body. "May help" but not 100% accurate.

I would also tend to think that if biopsys were definitive then there wouldn't be so many that are misDX...it's the skipped patterns of inflammation and the the depth of the inflammation that is about the best guidline in differing between UC and CD, but of course a good GI will not those differences better than a not so good GI and it can still be kinda tricky with some patience otherwise I would think DX would be much easier to come to than it is for many.

:)

I am dealing with the SAME thing right now, I feel your pain!
I am currently scheduled for step one of the j-pouch surgery on March 5th, but before that I'm having another full c-scope and a "capsule test." I'm assuming of course it has another, more technical name..but basically you swallow a tiny capsule that takes pictures of both your large and small intestines. Ever heard of it? Sounds a little absurd and I'm not 100% sure about the details, I have an appointment to discuss it more thoroughly.