Crohn's Colitis?

Have any of you heard of Crohn's Colitis? What is it? Symptoms of both conditions?

Ugh Just Ugh is correct, I have crohn's colitis, it's simply crohn's affecting the colon where UC typically is...symptoms are very similar to UC and often for those of us with crohn's colitis, our rectum can be involved as well, another issue for those with crohn's colitis is that we tend to have disease activity in/on the anus (fistulas or perianal crohn's skin tag type issues).

Some people mistakenly think crohn's colitis means that you have both CD and UC which is not the case. The same meds used to treat UC are often used to treat crohn's colitis as well (meds that reach the colon where inflamation is).

PB4

I have lots of back pain when I am flaring and not on prednisone....is there a connection with the colon? My back pain is usually lower right side.

Thanks for the info...it seems that is what I have going on. I am just hoping the current drugs and diet changes help and I can get some relief for a while. I am feeling pretty good now and I will start tapering the pred on Monday.

I see a chiropractor for the back pain...I will have to ask him what else we can do as I taper the pred....the back pain always comes around after the pred gets lower and my stomach is in a flare. Maybe if I don't flare back up then i won't get the back pain so severe.

Thanks again!

pb4 said...
Hey Duckstar,

One of the major differences between crohn's (regardless of which part of the GI tract it's affecting) and UC is that the inflammation is always patchy, with UC the inflammation is continuouse (the entire area affected is inflamed with no patchy/skipped pattern of inflammation). The actual part that is inflamed with crohn's has some healthy tissues among it unlike with UC where the entire area that is inflamed will have no healthy tissue.

Also, when my CD is in a very sever flare, I get the worst lower back pain (this is fairly common for UCers as well since the colon is affected it's likely the reason for the lower back pain), my back pain always covers my entire lower back (I feel for ya cuz I know how awful it can be).

Unfortunately with these diseases, I don't think we can ever say things like "always" or "never". I have CD. I had continuous inflammation in my colon--several pathologists thought it was UC until I had surgery and began getting inflammation in the small intestine

I had patchy inflammation when my last flare was at it worst (February 2010) and my doctor still thinks I have UC because the pathology reports came back UC and he saw nothing in my ileum. I have another complete scope friday so, we shall see what the inflammation looks like this time! :o)

when I was first diagnosed my GI lent me a book about UC (can't recall the name right now- but it was from very credible sources) It stated that a very small population of UC suffers have atypical colitis. "does not follow normal symptoms or patterns." Patchiness was also mentioned. It took over a year to get my diagnosis of such "atypical patchy colitis". Neither my GI nor my GP have any belief that I may be CD but I think like most factors of these IBD diseases... there are no 100% answers... Until told otherwise I believe I have only UC but with patchiness.

Research is key when it comes to IBD. It's bad enough that to date enough is still not know about IBD to cure it...but when researchers finally do discover differences between the 2 IBD's (CD and UC) it should not be dismissed...the facts they have are the facts and those facts have not changed once they finally came to the realziation that there are some major differences between CD and UC.

I don't believe everything is black and white, I'm realistic to the fact that when it comes to IBD there are still too many grey areas but bottom line is, if you really do your research and you have a good GI, it's pretty common knowledge that CD involves patchy inflammation, UC does not....CD can go through the many layers of the intestinal lining, UC does not, CD can affect the entire GI tract and more than one area at a time, UC does not, UC is limited mainly to the colon and rectom but they can both share the same extra intestinal manifestations, they both have almost identical symptoms D, frequency, ect.

Visiting the CD forum alone shows so many supposed UCers being re-DX with actually having CD because their CD happens to be affecting their colon only, not to mention how many IBDers have had their colon's removed because they were told it was UC, only to find out after they've lost their colon that they infact had CD all along.

Sorry, but anyone that is told by their GI they have UC but it happens to be patchy, should be looking for a new GI, just my opinion, not here to ruffle any feathers, just don't want the inexperianced or newbies to get confused because although UC and CD are both IBD (Diverticula are most common in the lower portion of the large intestine, called the sigmoid colon. When the pouches become inflamed, the condition is called diverticulitis which is also a form of IBD) they are still 2 seperate entities. There are infact a small percentage of patients that even have both UC and CD, although it's rare, it's still possible.

Of course everyone is entitled to their opinion, I just base mine on the 20 years of having crohn's and yrs of doing research on it and the fact that my mom had UC so naturally since I have children and have been living for 2 decades with this dreaded disease, I believe I am well informed about the differences between the 2.

take care and be well, after all the goal is to feel better and find remission, wish I could find complete remission but so far it's not in the cards for me.

I guess I will  continue to learn about IBD.  As for now I don't have a definite diagnosis from my GI.  Since UC and CD are treated almost the same I guess what I am doing for now will be fine.  I am finally feeling relief and seeing next to no blood so that is amazing.  I start a slow taper on the prednisone starting today!!!!  Woohoo!  I just hope the symptoms don't come back but who knows?  IBD is a sneaky be-atch!

I didn't have patchy inflammation in my colon, so maybe I am one of the 2%
I don't think it's just lazy GIs, though, because the one I'm seeing now is supposed to be an expert in IBD and I travel an hour and a half to go to him because there wasn't anyone else in my area to see. I don't have a colon anymore and none of the meds have ever worked for me (I thought Humira was this time but it only seemed to for a couple of weeks)

I am curious as to something as well...I have had undetermined Colitis for a very long time. It was first diagnosed as UC then after a biopsy, it was CD because of patchiness..It has been limited to my colon with no small intentine activity or any fistulas. Now I find out that eventhough my colon showed signs of pathiness the biopsies on the supposed healthy tissue showed that there was inactive microscopic colitis present....So, is that still considered patchy or is that considered contiuous? It looks more like UC than CD and it always has..

 

Thanks PB4, that's what I was thinking..I'm kinda wondering if they were not taking biopsy samples of the healthy looking tissue and just assumed it was heathly by looking. I know I may have to make a surgery decision in the near future, so it would be nice to know!. Thanks for your insight..I have had this disease many years and seem to still know nuthin!

Donna

UC can be cured with surgery. Chron's cannot.

Doctor's might treat the Chron's and Chron's Colitis the same; however, I would be less inclined to get colon surgery if I had Chron's even if it was Chron's Colitis.