Colonoscopy results

Hi everyone. Just got back from my gastroscopy and colonoscopy today. So glad I am through with the fasting and bowel prep... boy was that torture.

Good news is my large intestines are completely inflammation free, fully healed yay!

Bad news is that they found a few ulcers on my terminal ileum so there could be a possible rediagnosis of Crohns disease instead of UC. My G.I has taken some biospies and says the ulcers are currently very mild but are there none the less. He says since the ulcers are mild, my current treatment (Pentasa supp and Salofalk granules) should do the trick.

I must admit, I am more disappointed with the results than pleased since I had been feeling little to no symptoms. No blood, no black diarrhoea, nothing and hence was hoping for a completely clean scope. More over, from my knowledge, Crohns is a bit more serious and difficult to treat than UC.

Oh well, that's how life goes I guess. I'll probably be browsing the Crohns forum a bit more from now on.

Bittersweet results. I hope the doc took lots of biopsies as well.

The asacol granules hopefully will deal with them...but how long were you on them already? I don't see it in your siggie.

Thanks for letting us know how it went.

q

i think it's GREAT news your colon looks fine. we all wanna hear that! if your GI thinks your current treatment will help the ulcers, then i don't think you should be worried. from what i've noticed, crohn's and UC have most of the same symptoms and are both as miserable as each other. i don't see one being worse than the other.

I don't know about Salofalk granules, but some 5-asa tablets do release in the last part of the small intestine. I would make sure I was taking something that included the terminal ilium and the bit right before it.

IMO, day to day managed Crohns and UC are similar, but you are correct that Crohns can involve more complications, and when out of control can be more fatal. Lets hope you stay pretty symptom free.

" don't see one being worse than the other."

Eh, no. Crohn is worse than UC. UC is confined to the colon/rectum. Crohn can be everywhere in the digestive track.

With surgery can you remove UC. In crohn's case, with surgery you take out pieces of the small intestine. the small intestine is more instrumental to digestion that the large colon.

In crohn's you cannot have j pouch, you are forced to have a bag. Furthermore, you still need to continue treatments. (i.e. there's a guy at my remicade place, he has a bag and does the infusions.

MaxMilian, my cousin has Crohn's (it's kind of odd, as she's adopted, yet we're the only two in the family with IBD) that mainly affects her ileum -- at least that's the only place any activity has been detected in scopes. She uses oral Pentasa and is doing quite well on it. She's in the US, for reference with brand names of medication.

Thanks for the replies guys. We do have Pentasa in oz too so I might mention it to my G.I. I certainly hope it is still UC but involving a little bit of the ileum. I previously did have cecum inflammation and rectal inflammation as well but these have cleared up. The ulcers on the ileum are mild so perhaps it was already in the process of healing just before I stopped my oral meds.

Max...I would agree that the cecum was obviously helped by using the oral meds, and for the reason alone you should always be on them .

But, now the playing field has changed and it has to be dealt with. The granules might touch on that area, but I think the pentasa is better in releasing before the TI.

q

Generally, the next step up after 5ASA are the immunomodulators, 6MP/Imuran.

Hey, Max. My disease presents like yours. I operate as if I have CD, but none of the 3 GIs I've been to have been willing to give my IBD a name. Nonetheless, I did much better on Pentasa than on Asacol.

The side effects from Pentasa finally got me to quit using it, but only after I'd taken it for about 6 years. It can cause tinnitus, which I already struggle with because I live in the subtropics and my allergies are awful. I replaced Pentasa with balsalazide and so far, so good. My scope was last week, too, and I had no visible inflammation anywhere, including the TI and cecum and rectum. I get biopsy results on Friday.

I don't think the contest of who's IBD is the worst is how anyone should spend their time. YOUR IBD is what you have, and you need to figure out how to best manage it.

Oh, and the next step to treating your TI is probably not imuran but entocort, although you can't take that for more than a few months.  Since the involvement of the TI seems to be mild, I'd hope that Pentasa can take care of all of it.

MaxMilian, the only side effect I ever had from Pentasa was tinnitus, and that was only for the last year or so. My GI was encouraging me to continue using it, but I was about to lose my mind from the ringing. It went away (mostly) after I stopped the Pentasa. The remaining tinnitus is clearly due to allergies and sinus issues.

Entocort is available as an oral medication. The enema is a later version of the same medication. (and since I have allergies and I know this, entocort is also available as an inhaler called Pulmicort!).

Max..just realise that it would be wise to start on a low dosage of the Pentasa initially. Better to climb up with no side effects than too high with possibles.

Blood in your urine might have been an issue that wasn't related to the granules....but they do have aspartame in them, so it could be another possibility..even a kidney or bladder stone that passed through.

q

The frequent loose stools could be from food, supplements, drinks, stress..etc.

So, since the colon was free of visual inflammation..how was the rectum?

The treatment dosage of Pentasa is 4000 mg daily, maintenance is 2000 mg daily. See what your doc suggests.

It seems the highest treatment dosage for the granules is 3000 mg and the lowest for maintenance long-term is 1500 mg.
q