Can Crohn's Disease be found during a colonoscopy when the person is coming off of a flare?

[be_kind_to_owls]

Hello Everyone :

I have a quick question that I was hoping to get an answer to. I have a colonoscopy scheduled for this upcoming Friday. This is my first one and I am kind of nervous, but I am hoping this test will give me some answers for why I have been so sick lately.

I feel like I am just coming off of a flare. I still haven't had a normal bowel movement for about two months (either intense diarrhea or extreme constipation), but my appetite has been coming back and the pain levels have been going down. Although I am thrilled that I am feeling better, I am worried that I might be going into remission and therefore no inflammation will show up when I have the colonoscopy performed.

Will inflammation still show up when I have the scope performed if I am feeling better? Or should I just go to the hospital the next time I am in a serious flare and see if they can rush the tests then? I have a lot of symptoms that point in the direction of me having an IBD (Elevated CRP, waking up due to stomach pain and having diarrhea in the middle of the night, an excessive amount of mucus in my stool, anal bleeding after intense flares, vomiting during a flare, unintentional weight loss, etc.) but my CT scan was normal and I am still undiagnosed. Granted the CT scan was the only test I had thus far, but I don't want to face all the discomfort of a colonoscopy if it is not the right time to get the test performed. Any advice that I can get will be much appreciated!

 

[Trysha]

If it was me I would go ahead and have the endoscopy as scheduled.
There is no quick fix for IBDs.
Some people are asymptomatic when the colonoscopy is done , but the signs are there in the colon and in the biopsies.
It could be a big mistake to delay the colonoscopy to a time when your symptoms are more acute.
You are still having symptoms although to a lesser degree from what you say.
CT scans are not infallible there are limitations to the techology.
Colonoscopy is the gold standard.
My symptoms had abated when I had the first colonoscopy and like you I had expected normal results.(CRP was raised).
Far from it---there was extensive inflammation and biopsies were positive for crohn's.
I have been in trouble ever since.
My advice---don't defer it get it done now.
Hugs and best wishes
Trysha

 

[therainbowrevolts]

I've been to the ER several times when my symptoms have been the most extreme and they tell me every time that there's nothing they can do for me (just an IV with pain meds or anti-nausea or whatever; usually they do bloodwork that comes back normal or maybe an xray that comes back fine. I had an MRI once that came back clean, too) and then they send me on my way after a few hours. If you have a procedure actually scheduled, definitely go through with it - you never know what can happen if you wait, and you wouldn't want to be fobbed off when you're going through something extreme.

 

[kiny]

the only way to be correctly diagnosed is colonoscopy with biopsy

it's really rare that if you have crohn's disease it shows "nothing", even in people in remission a colonoscopy and especially biopsy shows signs of disease...only in people on certain antibiotics therapies and on things like infliximab have I seen "clean" biopsies and colonoscopies in studies, and even with infliximab, it takes weeks before a bowel is somewhat healed

a bowel doesn't just heal in a matter of days...it takes a long long time to recover

if a colonoscopy really bohters you, which is understandable, they can fully sedate you too, you'll wake up 30 minutes later and won't even know what happened