Any input would be appreciated!

[Gemma]

Hello!
A bit of a long story here, sorry in advance & thankyou to everyone who takes the time to read it!

I'm Gemma, 24 living in the UK.
A few weeks before I got married (about 5 years ago now) I had sudden D, anything I ate went straight through. It lasted 2 weeks and i lost about 10lbs, the doctor gave me immodium & buscopan and they took about 4 days to stop it. No-one else in the house was ill.
Fast forward to 10 months after I got married, I woke up one day feeling like i couldn't swallow properly (like residue was left at the back of the throat & i would dry swallow continuously but it wouldn't make a difference). I went for an upper endoscopy but that didn't come up with anything.
It took 6 months for doctors to come up with LPR (type of reflux) but they weren't 100% sure. By this time i had a phobia of choking and was eating nothing, i also developed a feeling of a lump in my throat on the right hand side and it felt like food got stuck there. They put me on lansoprazole & 4/5 months passed, it was getting slightly better but nowhere near normal. Twice in that time i had really, really bad pain in my oesophagus, just above my stomach - the hospital said it was spasms. I was given an u/s of where i felt the lump but nothing showed up, when i went back to the doctor - he said he had seen this before & to take Amitriptyline.The first night i started it i could tell a difference in th lump feeling & started defeating my choking phobia to get well again - all in all i lost 5 stone from it.
Since then I've had frequent periods of D lasting upto 2 weeks, needing immodium & buscopan to help it. I've had 3 bouts of really, really bad pain on my left lower abdomen that lasted 2 hours each. I have D when I'm stressed all the time and mucus is present most of the time.
I recently got in contact with my brother for the first time ever and he told me he has been diagnosed with crohns, i'm now wondering if it's a possibility for me too?

Thanks again,
Gemma x

 

[Jandeacs]

Hi gemma .. Its frightening . I know , but when they get to the bottom of it you will feel much better , giving things a name beit not pleasant it does help .
good luck in your journey

Bless Jan .

 

[Walt]

Hello!
my brother told me he has been diagnosed with crohns, i'm now wondering if it's a possibility for me too?
Thanks again,
Gemma x

Hi Gemma,
Welcome to the forum!
Sorry you have been suffering, many fine folks here have dealt with similar odd symptoms.

Having siblings formally diagnosed with CD does increase the chances you
might possibly have some form of autoimmune disease or another.(?)

We have an excellent subforum here for the undiagnosed. (link)
http://www.crohnsforum.com/forumdisplay.php?f=75

I hope you find some helpful answers for your issues.
be as well as you can be,
Walt

 

[David]

Hi Gemma and welcome

As Walt said above, having a close family member diagnosed does indeed increase your chances. If it was me, I would make an appointment with my GI, provide that information, and ask to be tested for IBD.

Hopefully it's nothing, but it's best to be safe.

I wish you all the best!

 

[rygon]

hi. Yeh I would make an appointment with your doc saying that your bro has crohns and you think you are showing signs of it, will be worth finding out if it as sooner rather than later. good luck

 

[Dayz]

This happened to me. I had D during a very stressful time and then all of my other symptoms began. The choking feeling and phobia of swallowing was definitely one of them. I also had all over pain and a burning feeling in my rectum. After going through numerous tests I was diagnosed with somatization disorder and was given amitriptyline and lexapro. After two months I have zero pain. I get little headaches and some shooting pains in random places but this only lasts a couple of seconds. I know you have a brother with chrons and this may make you more susceptible to it due to the genetic factor but I would take this all into consideration as the medicine did work. It would be worth it to check out somatization disorder, the mind is very powerful...Trust me. Good Luck and keep us updated.