Crohns?? High calprotectin

[Katie2595]

Hi, I’m new to this forum and I’m hoping someone can help as I’m getting so drained from the ongoing challenges with doctors!!

I have had on/off episodes of diarrhoea over the past two years, sometimes with discomfort/pain. I also suffer with bloating and flatulence which usually increases significantly when having a flare up of diarrhoea. my diarrhoea is usually worse in the morning though, may go 6 times in 1 hour, but then it settles as the day goes on. No blood in the stools.

when I don’t have diarrhoea I still pass a lot more bowel movements than what’s classes as normal, but they are formed - can be 3-4 times a day.

Two stool samples done last year in the summer, one when my diarrhoea wasn’t that bad- calprotectin 170. One when it was worse and more of a flare, calprotectin 311.

Finally had a colonoscopy in November - this was clear.

I have just got out of hospital after a 5 day admission, symptoms were severe, agonising abdominal pain on the lower right hand side / central. They said when examining the pain was where my large bowel joins the small bowel (it was SO tender to touch). White blood count and CRP raises but no diarrhoea. Everything ruled out, doctors assumed gastro, antibiotics appeared to help.

Now waiting to see another gastro doctor after the hospital stay for hopefully further investigation but they don’t seem to think it’ll be in the small bowel and call my calprotectin borderline. coeliac blood test was negative.

Dads brother has crohns, only family member that I know of that suffers with it, but my Dads Mum has had bowel issues all of her life but nothing diagnosed (not sure they ever investigated properly though).

does this sound likely to be crohns? Is calprotectin high enough? Is the hospital stay even similar to that of crohns? I have never experienced such severe pain (I’ve got three kids, it was equivalent to contractions) and I’m so so scared it’ll happen again. Could it be IBS?

if anyone has a similar story or could offer advice I would be so extremely grateful.

Thank you!

 

[Scipio]

All your diarrhea combined with lower right side pain is definitely consistent with Crohn's, especially since it apparently involves the terminal ileum (where the large and small bowel join). About 70% of all Crohn's cases involve inflammation of the terminal ileum, either solely or in addtion to other parts of the gut, usually the large bowel. Also, while not shockingly high, fecal calprotectins of 170 and 311 are both definitely positive and indicate some sort of inflammation going on in the gut. I'd say that it is not certain that you have Crohn's but it is a reasonably strong possibility.

One problem with colonoscopy is that it doesn't do a very good job of visualizing most of the small bowel. I always had clear colonoscopies despite years of lower right abdominal pain and one big bout of severe anemia. So it wasn't until I had a capsule camera endoscopy that my Crohns ulcers were finally spotted in the ileal region of the small bowel, enabling my doctor to finally diagnose Crohn's.

So if you haven't already had one I suggest you ask your doctor about getting a capsule camera endoscopy and/or MRI enterography in order to get a more complete look at the small bowel.

 

[spursfan323]

just to put things in perspective , I am going through what I would call a moderate to high flare, and my calprotectin has been 1800, 3000 and 4000! so yours, while high, are not 'that' high