Recently diagnosed and confused

Hi all I'm new to this so I ll explain my situation. I started with bleeding with bm and some mucus without bm in july last year , after seeing 2 GP's I was told I had hemmoroids an sent on my way with suppositories. I saw a third gp and explained how anxious I was and she agreed to blood tests and a stool sample, all bloods came back fine but the stool sample showed raised calprotectin levels so I was referred to a gastroenterologist. I saw the consultant in October who was sure it was hemmoroids but sent me for a sigmoidoscopy which I had on the 24th of November. During the sigmoidoscopy I was told they could see inflamation in the first 4 inches of my rectum and diagnosed with proctitis. 7 biopsies were taken and I was given a prescription for asacol suppositories and sent away to wait for the biopsy results . I received a copy of the letter sent from the consultant to my gp which states I they suspected proctitis during the sigmoidoscopy but my biopsies were all completely normal .there was no inflamation at all . He has said he will have a follow up appointment with me and possibly get another sigmoidoscopy done if i continue with symptoms . Since starting the suppositories I have had the odd bm with a small amount of bleeding and a small amount of mucus without bm but I think that could be down to drinking coffee ( I only seem to get it for a few days after if I drink coffee ) . I am still waiting for my follow up appointment with the consultant but really don't know what's going on

Thank you for your reply. I believe the bleeding is from low down as both drs that diagnosed hemmoroids said they could see the bleeding when they did a digital rectal examination.

It sounds like you've already gotten some good advice from the posters above.

To expand a bit on what's been said: Proctitis is a type of onetime infection that can cause raised calprotectin levels indicating inflammation. If you had it, a single course of medications could clear it up and then no worries henceforth. Ulcerative Proctitis is a form of Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) and a chronic disease. Similar sounding but very different in prognosis.

It's possible that the prep for your scope caused the first few inches of your rectum to look red and inflammed, thus your doctor said proctitis and the biopsies later said not. It's common for a prep to make things look a bit reddened.

IBS can cause mucus, diarrhea, constipation, and increased bm frequency. IBS doesn't include inflammation. Signs of IBD are inflammation and bleeding. It's a little tougher when you have hemmeroids, but a doctor can always check to see if that's the cause of your bleeding (via a finger or rectoscope).

I'd wait a while and retest the calprotectin if your symptoms get worse again. I'd then assist on another stool test to look for pathogenic causes. I'd also insist on a full colonoscopy, as it's possible the inflammation was higher than the flexible-sigmoidoscopy could see. A colonoscopy goes twice as far and might find Crohn's disease (another type of IBD).