How quickly can abscesses form?

[Akcat]

I was diagnosed with Crohn's about 6 weeks ago. (Well, diagnose is not confirmed yet, but my GI is fairly certain and I've read enough posts here which could have been written by me, so I suspect the diagnosis is correct).
I had a colonoscopy 6 weeks ago which showed inflamation and some ulcers. At the time I was having some diarrhea and upset stomach pains, but the majority of my issues were upper right quadrant pain. In the past few weeks though things have started to go downhill fairly quickly. I now have nausea, diarrhea, and spasms throughout my entire abdominal area every morning for several hours. Those particular symptoms come and go throught the day, but in general, they improve as the day goes on. The URQ pain as well as now LRQ pain tends to kick in gear in the afternoon and increases as the day goes on. Just the past few days I have started getting a sharp stabbing sensation that seems to be a few inches inside my anus towards my tailbone. Now 6 weeks ago things didn't look great on my colonoscopy, but there was no immediate signs of abscesses. Does anyone know how quickly these things can form? I'm worried about letting things go to far, but also don't want to race back to the doctor when I was just there 6 weeks ago.

 

[Ignitus]

I recently had an experience with an abscess and some of the symptoms sound similar. I had LLQ pain that would be fine in the morning and begin to ache badly by the end of the day. I also had a stabing pain that only lasted for a second but hurt extremely bad and happened several times a day.

I had a CT scan at the end of May because I went to the ER thinking I had an ubstruction and it turned out to be just bad inflammation, this was due to different symptoms however. The symptoms I was just talking about developed around mid June. The first Friday in august I went to the ER due to these symptoms and another CT was performed this time showing an abscess.

So from my experience it seamed to form fairly fast, and I would definatly book another appointment with your doctor to discuss this.

 

[archie]

I agree my 1st CT showed bad inflammation in the terminal ileum and I wasn't feeling great but as I was waiting for my GI app a couple of weeks later I became really sick feverish nausea etc and 1 month later had a repeat CT showing a 4 cm intraabdominal abscess causing a perforated bowel,. Go and get checked rather safe than sorry

 

[Grumbletum]

Hey Akat
Sorry to hear you have Crohn's but really glad you found us here. I used to be terrible at putting off going to the doctor...... Until I was diagnosed with Crohn's. But I've experienced and heard that some of the complications can sneak up on you and escalate very quickly, so I tell my GI as soon as I suspect something. You'll learn to read your body signals really well.
Let us know how you get on - I hope it's not an abscess, or if it is, that you can nip it in the bud.

 

[DustyKat]

Hi Akcat,

My son was diagnosed with Crohns on the 1st of December last year. His colonoscopy and then CT Enterogram the following day showed no signs of perforation, fistula or abscess and biopsies judged his disease to be mild to very mild.

On the 17th of December he was admitted to hospital with LRQ pain and although unable to be visualised at the time it was generally agreed that he had a microperforation and abscess. He was treated for 8 days and then discharged. The following 12 days saw no real improvement but no great deterioration either until the morning of the 6th of January when it all came back with a vengeance and he was admitted again...they found the abscess and fistula this time.

I would err to caution and have it checked out. If they find nothing you are no worse off and you can chalk it up to experience but if there is indeed something going on then as Helen says...you can nip it in the bud.

Dusty. xxx

 

[Akcat]

Thanks for all the feedback! It sounds as though I better get to the Dr. So much for wishful thinking! I have an appointment with my GP on Tuesday. I will talk to her about it then. My GI is 360 miles away, so anything I can handle locally, the better. Maybe I can have a CT here and head to the GI if it shows anything to worry about.

 

[DustyKat]

Sounds like a plan to me!

Good luck with your appointment and keep us posted with how you get on...:goodluck:

Dusty. xxx

 

[Akcat]

Had my appointment today. The past couple days have actually been probably the best I have had in a month or so. Based on that, we are holding off on a CT for the time being (yay!). She prescribed me azathiroprine and prednisone (I've had enough random "decent" days to be fairly certain this has just been a few better days and not anything more) (doesn't mean I'm not crossing my fingers though!). My problem now is I'm not sure who's treatment I should be following. My local GP or out of town GI. I wrote a new post on it - Confused about which doctor to use.