Could this be Crohn's?

[shelly]

Hello everyone,

I'm having a lot of stomach upset. Usually mild but sometimes intense. I don't usually have diarrhea, but I've had some obvious mucous come with each bowel movement. I have what feels like tiny pinches surrounding the area near my belly button. Sometimes my stomach hurts to push in on it, but I'm not bloating or have gas. Many times the tissue right behind my belly button feels swollen. My other symptoms are unexplained arthritis in fingers, toes mostly. I have an unexplained case of amino acid deficiencies with taurine, lysine, glycine, histidine and low on others. Lots of sleep disturbances due to my doctor and I think are related to the low amino acid levels. My heart seems to be restless.

Is there such a case of only mild abdominal pain and no diarrhea but still having crohn's?

Thanks!

 

[skeet]

Aloha Shelly and welcome to the forum. There's a whole constellation of disorders that could explain your symptoms. Has your doc run a G.I. series, done scans or run other intestinal tests?

 

[mikeyarmo]

Many people have Crohn's Disease (or any form of Inflammatory Bowel Disease) with either no symptoms or very mild ones. Some on the other hand are fine one day, and in the emergency room the next day for emergency surgery (which is when they learn they have a form of IBD). Most people have diarrhea, but then others (like me) would be constipated.

What I am trying to say is that it is common for people to have different symptoms and have different experiences with their disease, so there is no right way the disease will show itself. The best way to know for sure is to see a Gastroenterologist (GI specialist) and have some tests performed. These can range from blood tests, x rays, CAT scans, to scopes (endoscopy, colonoscopy, etc.). Overall they are not too bad, and are all performed on you as an outpatient. Some require preparation with laxatives, but all allow you to return home once they are complete.

Your symptoms do seem to have some Crohn's Disease simularities (mal absorption, mucous in bowel movements, pain, and surprisingly arthritis is also a common symptom, as inflammation can occur throughout the body).

As we are not doctors though, it is best to have some tests done by a specialist to properly diagnose you. This should be done sooner rather than later, as it is best if they doctors know the severity of the disease so that they can treat you accordingly.

Good luck and don't stress over this. It really doesn't have to be too big of a deal and it is manageable (especially when taken care of sooner rathe than later).

 

[Jeff D.]

Welcome. This disease can affect different areas for different people so you can have one symptom lets say not D but instead have C or even regular bowel movements. Some people have pain in different areas.

Best of luck

 

[Cathy]

Hi Shelly...
I am new to IBD.. I had my colonscopy in August and even tho the doctors did find ulcers in my colon, they haven't been able to diagnose me yet.

What I can tell you is that I had almost the same symptoms that you are having. I started out with abnormal looking bowel movements with mucous and I had the pinches you describe. Only difference is that the pinches actually started out in my back, then I started having them on my right side between the hip and lowest rib.

The arthritis is also something I have. It actually started about 3-4 years ago, and I have never ever had any kind of trouble with my stomach. (except for the occasional stomach flu)

You don't say much about you stools, but if these are abnormal, I would have it looked in to.

Good luck to you!

 

[Ruthg]

Hi, Shelly

I have Crohn's but my syptoms were slightly different to the ones you describe, thats not to say you don't have it, it just means we're all different and you need to get it checked out more. My brother had symptoms similar to you and underwent a colonoscopy, but they didn't find anything. He was eventually diagnosed with reactive arthritis which was rather surprising as he had bloating and that feeling of fullness when eating.

Make sure you get this investigated fully, the sooner you can start treatment the better, less damage will be done.

Good luck and keep us posted