Gastric Crohn's?

[gstewart88]

Hi there, I have previously been diagnosed with colonic crohns and my doctor has just decided he wants to retest me for gastroduodenal crohns and I was wondering if anyone else had this and what their symptoms were?
Many thanks!

 

[Keepingfaith]

I have Crohn's disease affecting my mouth, esophogus, stomach, ileum, entire colon & rectum. All of my biopsies show Crohn's granulomas affecting all parts of my stomach.

My upper GI symptoms are: Throwing up blood, hacking up blood(throat ulcers), easy satiety, extreme nausea, bloating, abdominal distenstention(to the point where I switch bras for eating), sharp pain above my belly button after eating, reflux, dull aches, stomach nawing & extreme belching.

 

[gstewart88]

Thats quite interesting. I get chronic nausea all the time, its so damn annoying! Also, pretty nasty pain right in the middle of my tummy below my sternum (which has always been put down to indigestion) almost always after eating, worse if I move around. I also get reflux. I don't throw up at all though.

 

[archie]

I had crohns in TI and when 1st diagnosed my ct showed thickening of the duodenum also but biopsies didn't show any active crohns so I was diagnosed with duodenitis. It flares up from time to time for which I take Nexium. It can be pretty sore but short lived. The usual spicy food and too much alcohol flare it up.

 

[littlemissh]

I have gastroduodenal crohn's. I had pain when I ate anything as soon as it hit my stomach and also a lot of nighttime pain, they say which was the duodenal ulceration.
When at its worse it was constant epigastric pain. Quadruple doses of omeprazole did nothing for it. It has settled mostly on humira and other meds (see sig) though am still having EN into jejunum to bypass the stomach. I also have small bowel crohn's which is causing issues at the moment.
Interestingly I had a CT the week before my duodenum perforated which was clear.

 

[mainekitty]

gstewart88 - I have gastroduodenal Crohn's (as well as other areas) and your symptoms are very like what I've had when it's flaring in my stomach or duodenum. I tend to throw up easily, have a lot of nausea and have an upper-centric abdominal pain that radiates into my back.

Have you tried taking something like omeprazole? That helps my symptoms a lot.

 

[Manzyb]

ugh, yeah the nausea, vomiting and severe upper stomach pain are all big clues for me when mine is flaring in the stomach/duodenum.

Hope you get to feeling better soon.

 

[gstewart88]

Im on 40mg omeprazole a day and it helps a bit but not much. I was accidently taking 80mg for about 2 weeks (they labelled my tablets wrong) but even that didn't really help that much!
Im getting a gastric scope hopefully in the next month or so, so I will know whats going on.
Thanks for all the replies! There isnt much info out there on gastric crohns.

 

[mainekitty]

Aww I really hope that they can give you something that helps. For me, omeprazole and pred were what took care of the gastric stuff, but you may need something else. Best wishes - and I hope that you are feeling better soon!

 

[littlemissh]

I was on 80mg omeprazole for several months and the ulcers didn't improve at at all but adding in humira to the aza and pred did the trick.

 

[keeleyann]

I have gastro-duodenal crohns, symptoms same as all above. Currently have NJ tube for feeding and PICC for IV meds - I'm 'lucky' as I'm also a GI nurse, therefore am considered qualified to administer my own IV's, although not morphine or any other controlled drug of course! I had many many probs with duodenal stenosis, so before Xmas last year I had half of my stomach removed and duodenum bypassed, this has helped with the frequent obstructions I suffered, although as predicted and is often the case with crohns, if you remove an affected area surgically, it finds somewhere else to bother, for me that appears to be the upper part of my small bowel, so it's stricture city again there, with frequent obstructions. Thankfully (kinda) I have the NJ tube, which would be part of treatment if you go to hospital with obstruction; they pass a tube and leave it on free drainage to relieve pressure, so I just do the same at home, which I'm always told off for! As far as treatment goes, I've been on Mercaptopurine, Infliximab and now on Thalidomide, which has been great, but as it's unlicensed I can only stay on it for a year. My consultant has suggested I consider stem cell transplant next year in view of my age (36) and that I have 2 children, as last year I spent all but 11 weeks in hospital. This is definitely something I will do if the opportunity is still there for me. Anyone else considering stem cells??