Crohn's & CT (constipation showing- HELP)

[ddavis.1396]

Recently diagnosed with Crohn's and adjusting to this disease is no fun, as you know. I'm a 23 year old college student working a part time, yet very demanding job and I seem to have lost any social life for fear of feeling ill. I'm also lactose intolerant, and have a connective tissue disorder.

I have multiple questions.. the first starting with my most recent situation and what to do about it, or how to avoid it

Today is Sunday for reference- I went to the ER Friday after loose bowels for two hours and immense pain from 530-8am. The ER gave me Toridol which I've never had, and that did nothing. They gave me a bag of fluids, and then Diludad (spelling?) which eased the constant pain, but not the spasming from the inside. The doctor wanted to hold off on a CT scan because of my age and likelihood of radiation in the future "lets save it" he said..

After pumping me of meds and my blood work coming back fine, they sent me home with a script of Bentyl which I said "isn't that Dicyclomine" and he said "no"...IDIOT....until I could get into my gastro doctor on Monday (tomorrow)

..Needless to say, left ER, slept, ate broth, next day felt horrible still - lower right abdomen pain as my gastro found it's mostly my ileum being attacked. Yesterday I did eat some chicken, and tolerated that well.

Woke up this morning in excruciating pain again and after a few hours of burning myself with the heating pad (sad, but relief is hard to find) I called my gastro and got answering service - it's Easter - waited 3 more hours for a call back before just going to the ER. He called as I walked in ER- said go in, get pain meds, and CT scan, see you tomorrow.

3 IVs of Dilaudid, Zofran, Vistapro, and a CT scan later - what did they find? Constipation.. how?!?!?! I've been doing nothing but having loose stools for days now, with painful gas - I look about 5 months pregnant, and am extremely nauseous.


WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON? :ymad:

Could the CT not show what my issue is? Could it show constipation but be something else? Someone, anyone, tell me this has happened to you and what resolved it.


I didn't realize I was typing so much.. guess I needed to get that off of my chest. Fewef.

 

[Trysha]

Hello D
Sorry you are having such problems and it may be better to see your GI about all of this.
CAT scans don't always tell the whole story and it can depend on who is doing them
Did you have an IV contrast for the CAT scan?
It may be you need further investigations with other tests.
It is good that you will be seeing your GI tomorrow.
It must be very frustrating to say the least.It is my opinion that
Emergency medicine is all very useful for immediate treatment but does not replace your GI specialist.
Good luck tomorrow---let us know how it goes for you.
Feel better soon
Hugs and best wishes
Trysha

 

[Ihurt]

Unfortunately I dont hold a lot of faith in these tests they have. Put it this way, I was in the ER in January when I was having horrid pain in my lower abdomin. Well after I had the CT scan the ER doc told me they found fibroids tumors in my uterus. Well for me this was something new and NOT normal. I questioned the ER doc about how big were they, where were they located etc... He told me I had a nice size one about 4 to 5 cm. big and a few others from what he could see. I was freaked out as I seriously thought maybe this was the source of my pain. Well Fast foward I get in to see the gyne and she does a vaginal ultrasound. She comes back to me after the ultrasound is done and says, "umm, everything looks great, you have 1 fibroid that is less than a half an inch big, meaning it was only like 1.5 cm!!!! and they only detected one!! I asked her WTH that ER doc was talking About then, as he told me I had a BIG 5cm fibroid. She just looked at me and was like' He obviously did not know what he was seeing or what he was talking about"!

Anyhow, it is important to remember that your test in only as good as the person doing it or reading it! Always get copies of the CD from your scans in case you end up going somewhere else. Why they said you were constipated I have no clue. They probably have no clue either...Maybe you have a lot of gas inside and they just took that as constipation. I would follow up with your gastro doc, I mean they will know at least a little more then the ER docs I would hope. Maybe he can give you a different medication. Hope you get some relief soon...

 

[UnXmas]

It's possible to have an impacted colon from severe constipation, and then have liquid stool from further up the bowel leak round the outside of the impaction - so you end up passing diarrhoea. You'd feel full, bloated, etc. from all the stool impacted in your bowel even though you're having loose stools. It's sometimes called "impaction and overflow".

They found I had an impacted bowel when I had a laporoscopy, and I didn't understand at first because all I ever seemed to have was diarrhoea, and that's how my doctor explained it to me. It might be that this is what they meant by telling you the scan showed constipation. I hope you get to talk to your doctor soon and get an explanation.

 

[Formerlymac]

What was the verdict?! What happened? Did you pass the stool? I went into the ER last night with horrific abdominal pain. I’ve had a ten pound baby naturally and it was worse than that. Very similar story. After a CT with contrast I was told it was a 6cm impacted stool even though I was still having diarrhea. They sent me home with a drink that was supposed to make me pass it. I was up all night with diarrhea. No urge to push out a giant piece of stool. No relief. I have lymphocytic colitis and my uncle passed away from colon cancer at 52. Could it be something else? It’s now been 12 hours since the drink they gave me and I’m still in pain but haven’t passed anything but diarrhea.