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Advice please :)

Hello

I've just joined this forum for advice on IBD. I suspect Crohn's due to the symptoms I have. I have a colonoscopy soon which I think is primarily to rule anything out - my GP suspects irritable bowel syndrome.

I just wondered if I should be eating things that make my symptoms flare before I have the procedure? That was my plan, but I can't stay awake during the day, and feel really really ill and exhausted. If I am not "flared" can whatever is wrong with me still be diagnosed?

With thanks and best wishes
 

Scipio

Well-known member
Location
San Diego
How soon is your colonoscopy? You don't normally need to a be in the middle of a raging flare for the ulcers and inflammation to be apparent by colonoscopy. But if somehow your gut heals up completely when not eating your trigger foods, then I guess it would be theoretically possible for your doc to miss the IBD if you weren't flaring. But that seems pretty unlikely to me. If that were true then you could essentially cure yourself of Crohn's by simply avoiding those foods. And I've never heard of anybody actually pulling that off. That would be the dream.

A far more likely way for your doc to miss seeing the Crohn's lesions is if they are located only in the small bowel where the colonoscope can't reach. In that case you would need to be examined by either MRI or capsule camera endoscopy to find evidence of the Crohn's.
 
Hello Scipio

Thanks for the reply , it's next week so not long to wait I'm just exhausted....Will continue eating stuff I would normally avoid!

Thanks again :)
 
Hey, have you had your pre-med about the colonoscopy yet?

You'll be given a list of foods you can consume prior to the colonoscopy, before prep, it's quite limited, white bread, chicken, rich tea biscuits, white rice I think, no fluids other than water if I remember correctly.

In any case hopefully the colonoscopy will shed light on your issues, let us know how it goes :)
 
Hello Erk, yes I've got some weird orange stuff to drink and instructions about the white bread etc. It's a lot of information to take in!
 
Hello

I've had the test today and thankfully they found nothing. Am so relieved. "Functional diarrhoea" which I believe is IBS.

Just want to thank everyone here - so much useful information. I was scared of the colonoscopy and your posts and info really helped me prepare.
 
That's great news! If that means IBS hopefully you can now take steps to get it under control :)
 
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