HELP!! Unsure about colonoscopy results

[Price007]

Hey everyone,

I am a 45 year old male with a stressful job and 6 kids. In 2015 I started having lower left abdominal discomfort and very occasional diarrhea with no blood. The diarrhea I think was mainly due to when I ate greasy foods. I had a colonoscopy February 2016 and the GI doctor said the scope and biopsy looked good. I got a copy of the colonoscopy and part of the sigmoid colon looked swollen. I spoke with the GI and he said the swelling could have been from the colonoscopy and he thinks its ok. Has anyone else experienced swelling or irritation from a colonoscopy? Would anyone get another opinion? My symptoms are still mainly abdominal discomfort. Any input would be greatly appreciated.

 

[ronroush7]

I have not had this happen but you might still want a second opinion. Let us know how you are.

 

[Susabelle]

I agree with Ronroush that a second opinion wouldn't hurt.

I'm no expert, but if the swollen sigmoid was in the colonoscopy results, it seems strange they would say it was caused by the colonoscopy. I guess it depends on how quickly it became swollen.

With the biopsy results I know from speaking with my consultant that an issue can be missed if the biopsy isn't taken from the 'right' place. Especially in crohn's where the disease is patchy.

I would recommend getting a fecal calprotectin test, it's a non invasive test with high sensitivity which gives an indicator on whether you have an IBD, in which case they would need to do further testing to find out where and to what extent. Calprotectin shows how much inflammation you have in your bowel.

Fecal calprotectin test is meant to be higher accuracy than testing for C-reactive proteins (CRP) in a blood test. Though I think it can depend on where the problem is in the gut.

From personal experience a calprotectin test is how they caught I had IBD as I didn't have many symptoms in the beginning, but my calpro was 742 and the normal range is 0-50, so the doctors knew before the colonoscopy something was wrong, which means they did more biopsies during the colonoscopy and caught my IBD. For me the CRP can be normal in my blood but the calpro can be high, so they do no correlate in my case.

Hope this helps!

 

[Price007]

I agree with Ronroush that a second opinion wouldn't hurt.

I'm no expert, but if the swollen sigmoid was in the colonoscopy results, it seems strange they would say it was caused by the colonoscopy. I guess it depends on how quickly it became swollen.

With the biopsy results I know from speaking with my consultant that an issue can be missed if the biopsy isn't taken from the 'right' place. Especially in crohn's where the disease is patchy.

I would recommend getting a fecal calprotectin test, it's a non invasive test with high sensitivity which gives an indicator on whether you have an IBD, in which case they would need to do further testing to find out where and to what extent. Calprotectin shows how much inflammation you have in your bowel.

Fecal calprotectin test is meant to be higher accuracy than testing for C-reactive proteins (CRP) in a blood test. Though I think it can depend on where the problem is in the gut.

From personal experience a calprotectin test is how they caught I had IBD as I didn't have many symptoms in the beginning, but my calpro was 742 and the normal range is 0-50, so the doctors knew before the colonoscopy something was wrong, which means they did more biopsies during the colonoscopy and caught my IBD. For me the CRP can be normal in my blood but the calpro can be high, so they do no correlate in my case.

Hope this helps!

Thanks for the replies. I very much appreciate them. I looked at the report again and the GI did take biopsies from the sigmoid colon and the results were no inflammation. I think I will still pursue the fecal test.