If not Crohn's or Celiac disease... then what?

[nikolii]

For the past couple of years, I've had a lot of bowel issues. I've had two major attacks which have lasted two weeks or more which relate to constant vomiting, diahrrea and fever like symptoms. They both faded away in time and I thought nothing of them. In those two years too, I had a lot of bouts of two weeks or more, with painful stomach swelling and explosive diarrhea. At this point, I thought I was just unlucky in my choice of restaurants. Since January this year and May, though, I've had horrid bouts of explosive diahhrea (by this term, I mean, completely uncontrollable and without warning, between 10 and 20 bouts a day) lasting between 1-3 weeks at a time. In the middle of May, my, what I can only assume now is a flare up of the same problem, started again. I was visiting my grandmother, who lives 100 or so miles away from my regular address, when my symptoms became worse than usual. I started puking up with streaks of bright red blood which looked like it had small pieces of my flesh in it too. I became easily dehyrated, dizzy, disorientated and in considerably more pain that usual. I decided to register as a temporary patient at the local doctor's office. He advised me that he thinks it could be either Crohn's, Celiac or absolutely nothing. He wanted to send me to a hospital appointment there and then but I requested that I book one myself at my local hospital (as it's generally much better and I was planning on returning to my town in the next few coming days). He agreed, and gave me two weeks worth of Omeprazole to calm the bleeding. I went to see my regular GP at my home town, she booked me in for a blood test and continued my prescription of Omeprazole. I reported at this time my symptoms were less severe - that the blood and lumps of flesh had stopped appearing in my vomit. When the blood results came back, everything came up as relatively normal - the only issue that showed is that I had a low level of potassium, which she said is because I was vomiting a lot. This, reported to me, ruled out the possibilities of having either Crohn's or Celiac disease. She's now given me some antibiotics and has said if they don't clear the issues within a week that I should get back to her. It's been 5 days so far and nothing has changed, so that rules out an infection too, doesn't it? I've also had a check for HIV just in case, although I really, really doubt that as I've not been very sexually active at all with my issues constantly flaring up and all sex I've ever had in my life has been protected anyway.

The reason that I ask is because despite medical requests my symptoms are still going very strong, and made me hit a new low in town this morning. My bowels exploded in the middle of the high street. Luckily for me, I live very close to the town centre, so it was a 5 minute walk. A 5 minute walk which really, really destroyed my esteem because it was very visible at what that happened and the town is quite a busy place. I came home, had a shower and threw my clothes in the washing machine. When I started drying, I felt the sudden urge to vomit. Despite taking my Omeprazole, there was blood in the puke again. It also smelt very sour, and food from two or three days ago were still evident. So it appears that I'm not even digesting my food anymore?

I figured this was the best place to find advice, seeing as it appears a lot of you know what you're talking about more than my GP seems to know. :ybatty:

 

[Clash]

There is no blood work that can rule out Crohn's disease. The gold standard, presently, is colonoscopy with biopsy but if they don't happen to biopsy an area with granulomas or if the disease is located in the small bowel or else where in the GI tract(Crohn's can appear anywhere from mouth to anus) a colonoscopy may not be enough.

A referral to a GI specialist would be the first step. He may have you take a fecal calprotectin stool test which will show if there is inflammation in your bowels. He can perform an endoscopy(to see down to stomach and first part of small intestine as well as take biopsies), colonoscopy(to see up through the whole of the colon into the last part of the small intestine and take biopsies), imaging(to see the rest of the small bowel) and pill cam(another test which can show the insides of the small bowel), if necessary.

If you are still having symptoms a referral to a GI is probably best, GP do not specialize in disorders of the GI tract. Hope you find relief soon

 

[valleysangel92]

Hello there

As said above, there are no blood tests that can either fully diagnose or rule out IBD. There are blood tests for coeliac but they are very specific and have to be ordered separately , they are not usually part of a routine blood check, so before you accept that you can't possibly have it make sure that you have had the correct bloods done.

The fact theres been no change on antibiotics does not totally rule out infection. Sometimes there isn't a noticeable difference until the full course has been taken, sometimes the infection is stubborn and needs a prolonged course, sometimes it needs a specific type of antibiotic etc. Although I don't think that all your problems are being caused by an infection, it is possible that it's a contributing factor.

My advice to you would be to ask for a referral to a specialist. Although GPs can be great, they are rather like the handy men of medicine. They are generally capable of basic repairs but they can't do anything specialized.

You need to at least get some imaging done, preferably an MRI scan which can be used to view the entire digestive system. If at that point you still don't have answers then it's time to consider having scopes.

You know your body , don't let the doctors talk you out of your instincts. You clearly need medical help and proper testing, so don't stop pushing until you get real answers.