Distal Colitis

[lara5559]

Hi,

After months of having diaherra after a virus and my first bad flare up with weeks of bleeding I was told yesterday I have distal colitis. The consultant said it wasn't crohns! Can they tell from the biopsies they take. How do they tell, is it by the type of inflammation you have? I should of asked I guess, but was in and out so quick I was able to catch my early train back home. He was pleased the tablets were stopping me from flaring and said it may just burn out and could have been the virus that caused it I will see him again in a year unless I get worse, then if everthings fine,he said he would sign me off. I thought once you had colitis you had it for life?

Regards

Lara x

 

[littlemissh]

Hi Lara,
You can get post infectious colitis. The biopsies can give a clue but often they say 'needs to be correlated with the clinical picture'.
It seems a bit strange he isn't seeing you for a year. Have your symptoms settled and what tablets did he give you. If you have an open appointment in case your symptoms come back then that would seem reasonable ( if symptom free) but otherwise I would be wanting a follow up appointment to make sure I was better.
Was the appointment a follow up after colonoscopy where they had the biopsy results?

 

[nitty]

Hi, Lara!

I think the doctor will be basing his conclusion on a combination of your history (i.e. the diarrhoea) and examination. It is not uncommon for diarrhoea/antibiotics/NSAIDs to cause colitis.

Did you have a colonoscopy or flexible sigmoidoscopy? It may be simple to diagnose from the pattern of inflammation - colitis generally spreads upwards from the distal end of the colon without any breaks, whereas crohn's occurs in patches with healthy tissue in between.

I was initially diagnosed with ulcerative colitis, but then the colonoscopy found a couple of patches of inflammation further round, and so the diagnosis was changed to crohn's.

The diagnosis is not always made from biopsies, often these cannot differentiate between the different IBDs. In my case they did not use them for diagnosis, I think because my condition is mild and so cellular changes were not significant (not how it seemed to me though!!).

You will see from this forum how difficult it can be to nail down a solid diagnosis for some people. Hopefully yours will be a case of colitis with a specific cause that can be simply treated and never return - that happened to my mum nearly 40 years ago, she never knew what caused it, but was treated successfully and never looked back.

Good luck, hope you feel better soon.:thumright:

 

[lara5559]

Thanks

I had a sigmoidoscopy. All the inflammation was in the rectum, then I think the biopsies may have showed something further up, so first I was given Predfoam then mesalamine. Funny about the antibiotics because that is what I had about 2 weeks before the bad flare and 1 lot of amoxcillian then a strong combination for the helicobacter pylori i suffer from. I also had tried citatropalm for depression in the same week as the virus had left me feeling very low, then I was diagnosed with post viral fatigue. I dont know what virus i had but its basically wrecked my immune system! I am on the mend though!