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Colon thickening

I am a 29 yr old female with a question.

I went to ER for abdominal pain I'd had for a couple weeks. My gallbladder ultrasound was negative. All the blood tests were too. The pain is in center of upper abdomen and I've had reflux too. I was dxd with GERD nine years ago but rarely have issues. At the ER that night they did a CT and found thickening in my colon. I've also had bowel issues lately (urge to go suddenly, going more often, constipation and sometimes diarrhea.) they said I probably had colitis abd gave me meds for that.

The gi I went to wants to do endoscopy to check my esophagus for damage and then said we should probably do a colonoscopy because they found the thickening.

I'm nervous. I'm feeling better since starting the Gerd meds she gave me.


Is it possible nothing is going on? Or does it mean something Is definitely going on? We have strong family history of colon cancer.
 

Scipio

Well-known member
Location
San Diego
Thickening of the bowel usually means inflammation. Now the inflammation may or may not be due to Crohns or ulcerative colitis, but you need to find out. Thus, I think the doc's plan to do a colonoscopy to get a look at what's going on down there is a very good idea.
 
Ask for pill cam, less risky and more thorough, endoscopy is pretty harmless though. It's your call to take a wait and see approach, as if the recommendations they gave are helping that's a good sign right? You can also do diet modifications if you feel you could be eating better. Your pretty young for cancer yet right? The ultrasound test for GB does not detect cholesterol stones which are most common in the U.S. I've had abdominal pain for 6 years so bad I figured I'd be dead long time back now so save your worries for later.
 
Sometimes I get an all out emergency urge to go and have to run to the bathroom! And sometimes I notice what looks like a bright red cherry almost in my stool but I haven't eaten/drank anything to explain it. It's happened on and off since February.
 
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Don't worry yourself sick or anything. Red is usually blood, it tends to clot and form itself like how you describe, blood that is from farther up your bowels tends to be black, red more near the end. This could be something like fissure, hemorhoid not to super major, bad is when your bleeding allot, or often, losing weight, anemic, etc. Ask for an iron panel it's not a routine test. Needing to run to the bathroom that's very common with intestinal stuff. Have you ever heard of the Specific Carbohydrate Diet? The body is always trying to heal itself somehow, but giving it the right things is more difficult as we hurry through life, food quality is getting pretty bad and we all know people who have gut problems now, except for all the people where it's not bad enough or they are afraid to talk about it. It's good that you are talking about it, your taking a step in the right direction here. Your going to find out that doctors cannot heal your intestines, the meds they give you do not heal but can help control symptoms. A few books I have read, the loving diet, GAPS, breaking the vicious cycle, restoring your digestive health, and many books on yeast, I've attended a couple of summits, recently the heal your gut summit, and the microbiome summit, wish I was an expert but I'm not which is why I follow the experts, MD's, they are guided by the AMA, insurance, big pharma, and their bosses, oh .. and they work for a for-profit system/company so you add it up, what pays the bills in that environment?, sickness, or health? STILL, they will provide tests that can check for bad things that are wrong with you so see your doctor as getting a diagnosis is the first step in healing. Good luck, be well.
 
It's over and I survived. Whew.

Well, she said I had signs of diverticular disease and she took a biopsy but isn't concerned about that.

I have gastritis. She biopsied it and I'll know more soon.

So glad for answers! Ty for support
 
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