I need help!!

[Navymom09]

Hello All,
I am new to this forum and was pretty excited when I found it. I am very familiar with Crohn's disease because my father has had it for 30+ years. I just recently began to have some similar symptoms, but am not sure if it is related or not. I've been back and forth to the doctor, but they do very little for me. Everytime I make a new visit when I'm not feeling well they think I am 'lying', which discourages me from even going anymore when I am in pain or something goes wrong. I am one of those people who absolutely hate hospitals and only will go if I am in great pain. I can usually deal with pain pretty well.

It all started back in September of 2011. I began to get hemorrhoids and other things that i just classify as hemorrhoids because i am not sure of what they are. They hang outside of my rectum and are usually soft and not very painful. But then there are other times when they are pink and fleshy and the pain becomes unbearable. I have also had issues with anal fissures for months now and im in so much pain that Im often afraid to even have a bowel movement. Afterwards when I wipe back there, there will be big stains of blood on the tissue. Sometimes i am constipated and sometimes im not. I also have cramping in my lower abdomen. The walls around my rectum are almost always flared up and i can feel it hanging out when im just sitting or walking, but there's really no pain until after i have a bowel movement. I would describe the pain as kind of like an open wound inside of me that burns and sometimes itches. When it's at it worse, it feels as though someone is pouring alcohol onto an open wound.

I've never had any problems like this before. I am in the military and the doctors here aren't really doing much to help me. I haven't had any tests done besides "looking down there" and a stool sample to make sure there wasn't any blood present in it. They just tell me what they think it is or what it might be. One nurse was very rude with me over the phone when i told her i was bleeding back there. I just feel like im getting the run around and think it would be better if i go to a civilian hospital instead. I'm not getting anywhere with this, it's very stressful. I'm worried, because this is an ongoing thing, not something that happened once and has gone away.

 

[Miss Underestimated]

Sounds like maybe you should see a civilian doctor, maybe one that specializes in gastroenterology, and would recognize crohns or related diseases.

If you are in the Norfolk area, there are several of us nearby, and we have listed our doctors in the database on here.

 

[Grumbletum]

Hello there. Very glad you found us I'm sorry you're not getting much help and agree with Miss U that you need to see a different doc. The fleshy lumps that you are describing could be skin tags, which are common when you've had hemmies and fissures.
If you pop over to our subforum, you'll find lots of info and advice that might help you get some relief til you can go and see a different doctor.

 

[Navymom09]

Thank you everyone! I was denied by the GI and surgeon, whom the ER doc had put in a consult for me =(
Back to square one.

 

[Angrybird]

When you say denied, do you mean they refused to see you or that they saw you and decided not to do a thing to help? What grounds did they give for this inaction?

 

[Gutrot]

"Afterwards when I wipe back there, there will be big stains of blood on the tissue."

That isn't as bad as it sounds.

If it's red and recognizable as blood, it likely came from the hemmoroids, not higher up.

Blood leaking from your intestines for example, won't show up as red blood when you wipe, you will never see it, and needs to be identified by stool sample or other methods like monitoring blood counts or observation.

To identify internal bleeding is different than seeing it when you go to the can.

 

[Navymom09]

The ER doc was not sure what it was when he looked back there, so he said instead he would put a consult in for the surgeon and GI. But in the notes he put possible fistula/fissures, from what the nurse told me when i called back. And the GI denied me because he said that they do not deal with fistulas and fissures, that the surgeon deals with those kinds of things. So then the surgeon denied me because I am not just coming back from deployment.
I don't understand how they could come to any conclusion because they've never seen me before, except for the ER doc who was not even sure of what it was he seen back there.

Gutrot, I'm pretty sure that the blood is coming from my fissures and hemorrhoids. The pain is horrible though when this does occur with my fissures. I never really thought about it coming from higher up.

 

[Angrybird]

This sucks, is there anyway you can get onto someone at the ER about this again and be REALLY persistent. They need to make it clear to the GI/surgeon that they need to at least see you before they start saying what they can and can't do. Kick up a huge stink if you have to. I can't understand why no one is helping you. Where are you based?

 

[chrisnsteph1022]

Do you have a source for this? I've always heard that bright red blood was from hemmies/fissures, but dark red blood is from the colon/rectum. And black is the stomach/small bowel.

 

[Gutrot]

Do you have a source for this? I've always heard that bright red blood was from hemmies/fissures, but dark red blood is from the colon/rectum. And black is the stomach/small bowel.

No source other than the nature of blood itself, and the dr. who explained it at the time.

Look at the bright blood that comes out of a cut often, then look at the colour of the scab that forms.

Blood darkens, here's a simple explanation, that holds with what you have heard - the longer it's in your system, the more oxygen it looses, and the darker it gets. So it's fresh on a fistula, stale from the gut, more stale the longer it's been in you, and the less oxygen still intact, thus the darker/lighter colour. Hard to even notice if it's not from a hemorrhoid or fissure, given the colour of **** often when it's from higher up, which is why they do blood tests of stool or blood tests to count your blood levels and monitor them over time.

Internal hemorrhages are hard to determine, and a slow leak might go totally un-noticed even in otherwise healthy people.

Explanation:

Blood contains a protein called hemoglobin. Hemoglobin, which contains iron, is found in red blood cells and is the ingredient that makes blood red. Hemoglobin transports oxygen from the lungs to wherever it's needed throughout your body. You've probably noticed that sometimes blood is bright red, while other times it is dark red. The difference in color comes from the changing amounts of oxygen in the blood. Arteries, a type of blood vessel, carry blood away from the lungs and heart to the rest of your body. That blood is rich in oxygen, which joins with hemoglobin to give the blood its bright red color. Tiny blood vessels called capillaries, which have narrow walls through which tiny substances can pass, distribute oxygen and nutrients to all of your body's cells.

One of the waste products produced by your body's cells is the gas carbon dioxide, which enters your bloodstream by slipping through the capillary walls. The capillaries take that oxygen-poor, carbon dioxide-filled blood to the veins, another type of blood vessel, which carry the blood back to the lungs and heart. The lack of oxygen in this blood gives it a dark red, almost purplish color. When that blood reaches the lungs, the carbon dioxide in it is transferred to your lungs. When your brain receives a signal that carbon dioxide is building up in your lungs, it causes you to exhale, or breathe out, expelling all that carbon dioxide into the air. You then inhale, or breathe in, oxygen, which goes to your lungs, and the process begins again.

 

[Miss Underestimated]

The ER doc was not sure what it was when he looked back there, so he said instead he would put a consult in for the surgeon and GI. But in the notes he put possible fistula/fissures, from what the nurse told me when i called back. And the GI denied me because he said that they do not deal with fistulas and fissures, that the surgeon deals with those kinds of things. So then the surgeon denied me because I am not just coming back from deployment.
I don't understand how they could come to any conclusion because they've never seen me before, except for the ER doc who was not even sure of what it was he seen back there.

Gutrot, I'm pretty sure that the blood is coming from my fissures and hemorrhoids. The pain is horrible though when this does occur with my fissures. I never really thought about it coming from higher up.

Time to call around to GI specialists. Find someone who knows that fissures/fistulas are Crohn's - related and should not be repaired by surgery. This was in medical schools in 1982. This is what happened to me. They did surgery instead of diagnosing my Crohn's. My current GI just shook his head.

Find another doctor. Write yourself up a little script that describes your symptoms, and tell them you think you might have Crohn's, and are not being diagnosed. You'll find one.

 

[handle]

I agree that you should find a good G.I specialist. It may be that you only have hemorrhoids, and that there are also some fissures, possibly from straining too much or from dry hard stools. There may also be some other underlying issue, given your father's condition.
All the best.

To clarify regarding color of blood from intestines - blood changes color from red to maroon to black in the intestinal tract due to being affected by digestive enzymes, and bacteria. (It is a different scenario to that of oxygenation levels inside veins and arteries, which make blood appear to be red or blue.)

 

[Gutrot]

I agree that you should find a good G.I specialist. It may be that you only have hemorrhoids, and that there are also some fissures, possibly from straining too much or from dry hard stools. There may also be some other underlying issue, given your father's condition.
All the best.

To clarify regarding color of blood from intestines - blood changes color from red to maroon to black in the intestinal tract due to being affected by digestive enzymes, and bacteria. (It is a different scenario to that of oxygenation levels inside veins and arteries, which make blood appear to be red or blue.)

I would suggest starting with a whole body approach. Demanding a gi specialist for some hem provides and a sore tummy is kind of like playing dr yourself.

I suggest starting with a good general practitioner and going from there.

Your body is a system and because one part is having issues, doesn't mean the cause and cure are isolated to that system.

Don't mention crohn's to the doctor and let them look at you, and do their job, but find a good general practitioner as a starting point, and don't jump to conclusions.

 

[handle]

Gutrot, please don't quote my post and then add your own subjective spin which has no bearing on my remarks. Thanks.

 

[Gutrot]

I agree that you should find a good G.I specialist. It may be that you only have hemorrhoids, and that there are also some fissures, possibly from straining too much or from dry hard stools. There may also be some other underlying issue, given your father's condition.
All the best.

To clarify regarding color of blood from intestines - blood changes color from red to maroon to black in the intestinal tract due to being affected by digestive enzymes, and bacteria. (It is a different scenario to that of oxygenation levels inside veins and arteries, which make blood appear to be red or blue.)

The enzymes and bacteria affect the levels of oxygen in the blood as if moves through your gut, that effect of enzymes you reference is a chemical reaction, they break it down and part of that breakdown is breaking and weakening the molecular bonds that bind the oxygen - as opposed to blood in your veins and arteries where the oxygen is absorbed for use by your body and filled with co2.

 

[handle]

Gutrot, I ask you again to please not quote my posts simply to push your own personal, confusing spin. I am a chemical engineer so I know that you are grossly confusing reaction types.Thanks.

 

[Navymom09]

Gutrot, thank you, but your posts are not helping me in anyway. You are not telling me anything new or anything that I haven't already done. You actually sound like the doctors who have done very little to help me. Please stop....

I appreciate everyone's help. I am in the process of goint to a different hospital/doctors. I'm hoping that things turn out much better. I don't want to wait until things get worse before I find out that I have a problem. No one who cares enough about themself should.

 

[David]

Sorry for the gutrot trouble folks. As always, feel free to report problem posts by clicking on the

found at the bottom left of each post. Thank you

 

[Angrybird]

Navymom, keeping fingers crossed and let us know on how you get on.

 

[Navymom09]

Thank you Angrybird! I will definitely keep you all updated! =)