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Colitis and Crohns❓

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Posted 11/13/2015 7:12 AM (GMT 0)
Hello all,

I am writing on this forum because I'm confused and frustrated with my doctors. A little about me: I was diagnosed with Crohns in my ileum in 2010 and after several hospital stays on prednisone and asacal which didn't work followed by more flares I am now on Remicade (5mg?) every 8 weeks for infusions.

Last month all of a sudden I woke up with a massive migraine followed by heavy d, vomiting, chills, insane light and noise sensitivity, my head was so hot I needed a cold cloth on it. I did not take a temp but after a few days of this I contacted my GI and they had me give a fecal test and do a CT with contrast. Fecal came back fine but my crohns was lightly flared and she said there was inflammation in my rectal area. She said the ct also showed colitis.

I have not ever had colitis problems and ever since that day i had lower left side pain. It came on slow but now I cannot lay on my left side anymore. I used to notice it mainly at night but now it's getting worse. I am on my Mensa and the left side pain is burn-like and shooting pain down my left thigh and buttock.
I have a colonoscopy next month and I am hoping my doc can tell me more about what is happening to me. She wants to add imuran to my remicade pill intake and move my infusion from 8 weeks to 6 weeks. It's a mess any thoughts about my left sided colitis symptoms would be appreciated.
Posted 11/13/2015 8:09 AM (GMT 0)
Colitis means inflammation in the colon. Since Crohn's can affect the whole GI tract, it's possible to get inflammation in the colon and rectum too.

Since it's now left sided, I think adding enemas would be a good idea. I hope you find relief soon.
Posted 11/13/2015 3:35 PM (GMT 0)
I noticed you have endometriosis. I have both colitis and endo and I can tell you prior to my hysterectomy I had "episodes" like yours with hot flashes, diarrhea and vomiting. They were all related to my hormonal fluctuations. You might want to have your obgyn do a pelvic ultrasound. Mine showed very large cysts. Haven't had one episode since the surgery....other than my colitis flares which are entirely different.

I also had constant lower left abdominal pain for at least 2 weeks every month. It felt like a pinched nerve in my lower belly and radiated to my upper thigh and lower back. It's been gone since my hysterectomy last February but just returned this week. My gi said it's not from colitis and my obgyn said it might be endo related since there may be scar tissue. Not sure I buy it since it's worse after bowel movements and is relieved a bit after passing gas. It's annoying and there all the time!
Posted 11/13/2015 3:37 PM (GMT 0)
Colitis is not UC, so figuring out the cause of the pain and acute colitis is important. There may be more people on CD forum who have had bouts of acute colitis.

You should have been on Imuran (or something like it) with Remicade form the start. So starting that is a good idea.

Increasing frequency of infusions is also common when flares are not fully controlled.

It may feel messy, but the steps being taken are reasonable.

The real issue is the pain. I hope you get answers soon.
Posted 11/13/2015 4:13 PM (GMT 0)
I have crohn's colitis (CD affecting the colon) and it's also affected my TI and rectum all at the same time with my colon, CD can affect more than one area of the GI tract at one time. I am currently in remission with my Crohn's using Humira weekly...still battling with my IBS though.
Posted 11/13/2015 4:23 PM (GMT 0)
Thanks for the quick responses all,

I have never had any left sided issues and I think the word "colitis" just freaked me out. I just did a full vaginal exam internally and externally with my Gynecologist. To add extra icing on the cake she also did a uterine wall biopsy. She did however state that she did not see any cysts or fibroids and did not think my left sided pain was due to my ovary on the left. A hysterectomy just freaks me out especially at the age of 36. I had no idea that endo could cause the hot flashes I have been having. Both my primary doctor and gyno agree that my next step is the colonoscopy.

I have not done rectal enemas before just suppositories (do too little) and laxatives (kill me for an entire day). I guess I will just have to wait until next month to find out what is really wrong.
Posted 11/13/2015 5:37 PM (GMT 0)
You can't have both UC and Crohns.

Source: www.inflamed-and-untamed.com/post/20903022852/can-you-have-both-crohns-disease-and-ulcerative
Posted 11/13/2015 6:09 PM (GMT 0)
Yes but you can have Crohn's disease and colitis.
She did not state she had both.
Because CD can affect the whole digestive tract it is actually "normal" for cronies to have colitis which is inflamation in the large bowel
Posted 11/13/2015 7:16 PM (GMT 0)
The shooting pain to the thigh and buttocks along with left-sided pain is not something I can ever recall seeing in a thread on the UC forum. I can tell you that my UC is what is sometimes called "left-sided" and I often have pain in the lower left abdomen that is somewhat like the pain you might feel the day after doing a lot of sit ups. I'm not sure if that's what you mean by "left sided" pain.

I once had pain in the upper buttock and base of my spine that was pretty much constant for 4 days until it was so unbearable I couldn't sleep and could barely walk. It was a mix of sharp and dull. I hobbled into the doctor's office. This turned out to be a perianal abscess, which a surgeon incised. He also told me that he rarely sees this in UC patients, but sees it all the time in Crohn's patients. That pain never coincided with the left-sided pains though...completely separate thing.
Posted 11/14/2015 11:09 PM (GMT 0)

emilp89 said...
You can't have both UC and Crohns.

Source: www.inflamed-and-untamed.com/post/20903022852/can-you-have-both-crohns-disease-and-ulcerative

Thats actually not true. I thought it was for the longest time, but Ive found at least 3 cases of both CD and UC in one patient described in the literature, going back at least until the 60's
Posted 11/15/2015 2:01 AM (GMT 0)
emilp89 clearly made a type-o writing "you can't" as you can clearly see in the link they provided it says "you-can-have-both" so emilp89 obviously meant can not can't.
Posted 11/15/2015 4:30 PM (GMT 0)

pb4 said...
emilp89 clearly made a type-o writing "you can't" as you can clearly see in the link they provided it says "you-can-have-both" so emilp89 obviously meant can not can't.

The link says "can you have both?". Im 99% sure I know which link that is and im 99% sure its one that argues you CANT have both. I used to agree with all of its points, until I found that cases studies I referenced above.
Posted 11/15/2015 5:33 PM (GMT 0)
Well my bad then, for misreading what the link title said....you definitely can have both, I've known that for over a decade, it's a small chance, like about 2% that one patient will have both but because they are 2 separate diseases you can definitely have both UC and CD (which is not the same as having crohn's colitis) for anyone else that may get confused with this topic.
Posted 11/15/2015 5:50 PM (GMT 0)
That blogger is full of crap. There isn't a single expert she quoted that actually said you cannot have both UC and Crohn's. They said everything else, but not actually that.
Posted 11/15/2015 6:00 PM (GMT 0)
For future reference:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11826335

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1420082/?tool=pmcentrez
Posted 11/15/2015 6:13 PM (GMT 0)
Discussion on it here if anyone is interested: www.crohnsforum.com/showthread.php?t=47849

Until somebody presents a scientific explanation of why UC and Crohn's cannot co-exist I'll continue to believe that they can - a rare event, no doubt, but not a literally impossible one. And yes I do know the differences between Crohn's colitis, UC and indeterminate colitis... *rolls eyes*
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