Hello All,
Everyone here has been so helpful with my hubs I'm hoping someone can give some insight/advice about my dad.
About 15 months ago my dad started having severe debilitating abdominal pain that brought him to his knees for days at a time and eventually landed him in the hospital for about 4 days last Jan due to extreme loss of blood, uncontrollable vomiting and D, the works. It was awful and terrifying. Well he had an endoscopy, 2 cts and loads of blood work....all of which were normal except his gallbladder was "sluggish" so they took that out and said he tested postive for Celiacs, said all problems would be solved and that was that. Fast forward to last summer and nothing was getting worse, it was getting far worse and came in cycles (very similar to how my hubs was before diagnosis except hubs never had bleeding or urgency, just pain) so they arranged a colonoscopy fulling expecting to find something, because by then he also started passing large amounts of mucus and blood (tmi I know) well....colonoscopy showed...nothing, not a thing. GI said he took biopsies (and supposedly were clear). He's stayed on his diet well for the celiacs and is still incredibly sick with debilitating abdominal pain, breaks out in a sweat, shakes and cannot function. Passes blood and mucus and is knocked down for days. Then it passes, he's good for a week or 2 and comes back with a vengeance. We are at a total loss. He really thinks it's Crohns or UC as his symptoms are just so awful. Blood work has been normal but my husband's is too and typically has been. But as a family we are at a loss. His doc acts like there's not much else they can do, but I disagree. I've recommended he get a fecal calprotectin test, a CT entography and a pill cam scope as well as another colonoscopy and request several biopsies and food intolerance testing. I'm worried he's going to live this way forever and just get sicker and weaker and have zero life. I feel as if this can't simply be IBS or "in your head" my SIL and BIL have IBS/C and IBS/D respectively and while their symptoms are bad...they don't have the other symptoms (bleeding etc) that my dad does. Any insight or similar stories or further testing recommendations would be greatly appreciated. Thank you all so much!!
Everyone here has been so helpful with my hubs I'm hoping someone can give some insight/advice about my dad.
About 15 months ago my dad started having severe debilitating abdominal pain that brought him to his knees for days at a time and eventually landed him in the hospital for about 4 days last Jan due to extreme loss of blood, uncontrollable vomiting and D, the works. It was awful and terrifying. Well he had an endoscopy, 2 cts and loads of blood work....all of which were normal except his gallbladder was "sluggish" so they took that out and said he tested postive for Celiacs, said all problems would be solved and that was that. Fast forward to last summer and nothing was getting worse, it was getting far worse and came in cycles (very similar to how my hubs was before diagnosis except hubs never had bleeding or urgency, just pain) so they arranged a colonoscopy fulling expecting to find something, because by then he also started passing large amounts of mucus and blood (tmi I know) well....colonoscopy showed...nothing, not a thing. GI said he took biopsies (and supposedly were clear). He's stayed on his diet well for the celiacs and is still incredibly sick with debilitating abdominal pain, breaks out in a sweat, shakes and cannot function. Passes blood and mucus and is knocked down for days. Then it passes, he's good for a week or 2 and comes back with a vengeance. We are at a total loss. He really thinks it's Crohns or UC as his symptoms are just so awful. Blood work has been normal but my husband's is too and typically has been. But as a family we are at a loss. His doc acts like there's not much else they can do, but I disagree. I've recommended he get a fecal calprotectin test, a CT entography and a pill cam scope as well as another colonoscopy and request several biopsies and food intolerance testing. I'm worried he's going to live this way forever and just get sicker and weaker and have zero life. I feel as if this can't simply be IBS or "in your head" my SIL and BIL have IBS/C and IBS/D respectively and while their symptoms are bad...they don't have the other symptoms (bleeding etc) that my dad does. Any insight or similar stories or further testing recommendations would be greatly appreciated. Thank you all so much!!