Interesting talk with doc today

So I asked my dr today if I could possibly have chrons as well as UC and after some discussion it seems that it is possible even tho you are diagnosed with UC, you could also find out later you have chrons too. He said we would have to have me swallow a pill with a camera in it to see for sure. Unfortunately I can't afford it :(. But I do hope I just have UC because if I needed surgery I know for sure I won't have problems anymore ( I hope). But my question is do drs know for sure that we only have UC?

A few are initially diagnosed with uc and are later diagnosed with crohn's disease, however, I do not belive it is common though. Ditto the biopsies, uc has shallow tissue damage, starts at the rectum, and has a continuous inflammation pattern. Crohn's has deep tissue damage and often has spotty inflammation (patch of inflammation, normal tissue, patch of inflammation). Crohn's-colitis looks more like uc though. I'd say the odds are against you having crohn's disease, unless you've been having fistulas, fissures, or other crohn's-like things going on. Crohn's isn't always more severe than uc either, as their are mild cases...

@Chrissysoul, your doc is right. there is not 100% guarntee one way or other. Not even biopsy. Granulomas are found only in 20-30% of people with crohns. I have indermined colitis that means they can not tell uc or crohns. My GI wants to see how it develops over time. He had one patient who had surgery 25 years ago now has been diagnosed with crohns.

 
There are different types of crohns based on disease location and pattern. Based on disease locations Gastroduodenal Crohn's Disease, Jejunoileitis,Ileitis,Ileocolitis and Crohn's Colitis.

Based on pattern it could be Inflammatory,Fibrostenotic or Fistulizing.

So if some one  have crohns colitis and inflammatory type, it is almost like UC. But if some one have UC and  ends up with fistula or narrowing than most probably it is crohns.

Narrowing I believe, is caused by inflammation...in regards to having BOTH UC and CD, yes, it's actually possible, it's estimated that 2% of IBD patients do in fact have both forms of IBD, this is not the same as being misdiagnosed or one form of IBD "changing into the other" (which sadly some are led to believe) then there is crohn's colitis which is actually crohn's affecting the colon and doesn't necessarily always include the rectum as it does with UC but it often can, however this still doesn't change the fact that it's crohn's disease...Colitis simply means inflammation in the colon specifically just like proctitis is inflammation in the rectum specifically. There are 5 subtypes of Crohn's disease.

Since Crohn's can affect any part of the GI tract from mouth to anus and UC is limited to the rectum and colon as well as the fact that with CD it can affect the many layers of the intestinal lining where as with UC the inflammation remains on the surface only and with CD the inflammation is patchy, UC inflammation will affect the entire area and not be patchy like crohn's and crohn's can affect more than one area in the GI tract at once as well...those are the major differences between the two forms of IBD.

When inflamation is deeper like in crohns, scar tissue forms and narrows the GI track. This narrowing is permanent as oppose to narrowing caused by active inflamation.It usually happens in small bowel but can happen in colon too.

When it comes to chrons there really is no cure right

But they can't take it all out tho?

Chrissysoul, there are some cd patients that have very little left of their bowels, this generally happens over a very long period of time to get to that point and it's not written in stone that it is every CDers path with their disease either, more often than not many have most or even all of their bowel intact but are still very sick...don't stress yourself out about what might happen, it's best to try and take each day as it comes...I don't want to freak you out with info on IBD because you don't need to add the "what ifs" to your stress of already dealing with IBD...try and not let yourself get too wrapped up in the possibilities of the worst case scenario when it comes to IBD.

Me too Chrissy but take my situation for example, although my CD has affected my small intestines for the first couple of years when I got sick (going on 25 yrs next spring) I also had it affecting my colon and rectum...it has stayed constant in my colon for all these years, on and off in the rectum and like I said, only the small intestines for the first couple of years I became sick...it's also stayed constant with perianal crohn's skin tags which is actually how my disease started...I was told they were hemmies and I got them banded while the anal tags were in a flare so due to that banding the anal tags have also stayed in a flare all this time...its wasn't long after I got the banding done that my CD when into a full flare and very aggressive at that and yet to this day I still have all my parts (no internal surgeries at all) so anything is possible with this crappy disease.

It's a challenge for me to not stress as well but I've learned that stressing doesn't help either, usually makes things worse...we are really stuck between a rock and a hard place with having IBD.

I agree that working would make dealing with this disease that much harder and I feel for everyone that has no choice but to somehow hold down a job when they have IBD holding down their life...I don't work and I still struggle a lot mentally and physically when it comes to dealing with this disease, I couldn't even imagine having to worry about a job on top of this disease. I'm as frustrated as you (and likely everyone else dealing with IBD) life is hard enough as it is without a chronic and intrusive disease like this.