Hi all
I suppose a good place to start is the beginning, so pleased to have found this forum and really welcome to any advice you may have.
I am 29 years old and my story started back in March of this year, before then had always been relatively healthy with no major health concerns apart from raised cholestrol which was incidentally found a few years ago on a routine blood test.
So in March I guess I had been under some stress, nothing major just a very busy mum with a 2 year old. I had been having these weird dizzy spells for a few weeks when one day I had been working in the garden one day when I started to feel a bit unwell with chest pain. Went to pick my little boy up who had been babysat that day and as I was driving the car had a massive spasm in my chest with a taste of blood in my mouth. Scared the hell out of me, managed to get home somehow and ended up calling an ambulance. As it was chest related they ran blood tests and done an ecg which was all fine apart from slightly raised white blood cells and basically made out it may all be in my head (yeah, thanks!) Tried to put it to the back of my mind but these 'chest spasms' were becoming more and more frequent and knew it wasn't in my head. Returned to my GP several times who kept dismissing it as stress until I literally felt like I couldn't breathe, was getting the worst burning mouth, everywhere hurt! Looked up myself on line and came across acid reflux so back to the doctors I went and they threw some PPI's at it. These did help for a while.
This was all in the space of about 6 weeks. I then went away for the weekend with my family, thinking it might do me good even though I felt exhausted and not with it. First night away went for a meal and when we got back had the worst diarrheah ever, hot and cold sweats, you name it. Was on and off the toilet for an hour and was still having the chest spasms etc. Was so frightened at this point as was being fobbed off my doctors.
From there I was just having the oddest bowel motions, usually always loose, a variety of different colours, urgency to go, mucous covered, you name it. I did have stomach pains but really quite mild, they didn't debilitate me. But I was exhausted throughout this whole time. And the pains I did get were more of a burning, stingy pain but in no particular place.
During the worst points, I had a whole host of other symptoms too, pains in my arms and legs. The pains in my legs were the worst, had real bad stinging sensations, especially in my left leg, and my leg even swelled up, not noticeably but was very painful, mainly in my shins. I even went to get tested for a DVT due to it and the doctor confirmed my leg was swollen but no DVT, so sent me on my way with no further input.
I had really bad pains in my ears and one of my ears felt like it was constantly blocked, I still suffer with that now. Eventually I went back to my GP mentioning that my mum had ulcerative colitis and her aunt had crohn's. Only then did they take me seriously and was referred onto a colorectal surgeon (even then should have been referred to gastro) but the colorectal consultant has been fantastic.
I first saw his registrar who said he thought it was probably gastritis but they would do a stool sample, endo and colonoscopy just to see what was going on. While I was waiting for these appointments I fell pregnant so went back to see the consultant to see what he thought. He was going to happily put off any further tests until I asked about my stool sample. He didn't have it in front of him so the nurse went off to find the result. He took one look at it and said 'oh dear!' My calprocten level was over 300 (didn't give a specific amount) and he said this strongly indicated IBD. I went on to have the endoscopy and a flexible sigmoidoscopy but both came back fine.
My symptoms have calmed down sooo much now, all the swelling in my legs has gone down, the only thing left at this point in time is the acid reflux which although unpleasant is bearable. I am now happily 22 weeks pregnant with a little girl but obviously all this going on during pregnancy has worried me. I now have to wait until after I have delivered to have any further tests or treatment. I just hope if that was a flare up then I never have to go through it again.
So can anyone shed any light? If you think it could be crohn's any idea as to where in the bowel it could be? Anyone have any similar experiences/symptoms? Thanks so much in advance and thanks for reading my story.
I suppose a good place to start is the beginning, so pleased to have found this forum and really welcome to any advice you may have.
I am 29 years old and my story started back in March of this year, before then had always been relatively healthy with no major health concerns apart from raised cholestrol which was incidentally found a few years ago on a routine blood test.
So in March I guess I had been under some stress, nothing major just a very busy mum with a 2 year old. I had been having these weird dizzy spells for a few weeks when one day I had been working in the garden one day when I started to feel a bit unwell with chest pain. Went to pick my little boy up who had been babysat that day and as I was driving the car had a massive spasm in my chest with a taste of blood in my mouth. Scared the hell out of me, managed to get home somehow and ended up calling an ambulance. As it was chest related they ran blood tests and done an ecg which was all fine apart from slightly raised white blood cells and basically made out it may all be in my head (yeah, thanks!) Tried to put it to the back of my mind but these 'chest spasms' were becoming more and more frequent and knew it wasn't in my head. Returned to my GP several times who kept dismissing it as stress until I literally felt like I couldn't breathe, was getting the worst burning mouth, everywhere hurt! Looked up myself on line and came across acid reflux so back to the doctors I went and they threw some PPI's at it. These did help for a while.
This was all in the space of about 6 weeks. I then went away for the weekend with my family, thinking it might do me good even though I felt exhausted and not with it. First night away went for a meal and when we got back had the worst diarrheah ever, hot and cold sweats, you name it. Was on and off the toilet for an hour and was still having the chest spasms etc. Was so frightened at this point as was being fobbed off my doctors.
From there I was just having the oddest bowel motions, usually always loose, a variety of different colours, urgency to go, mucous covered, you name it. I did have stomach pains but really quite mild, they didn't debilitate me. But I was exhausted throughout this whole time. And the pains I did get were more of a burning, stingy pain but in no particular place.
During the worst points, I had a whole host of other symptoms too, pains in my arms and legs. The pains in my legs were the worst, had real bad stinging sensations, especially in my left leg, and my leg even swelled up, not noticeably but was very painful, mainly in my shins. I even went to get tested for a DVT due to it and the doctor confirmed my leg was swollen but no DVT, so sent me on my way with no further input.
I had really bad pains in my ears and one of my ears felt like it was constantly blocked, I still suffer with that now. Eventually I went back to my GP mentioning that my mum had ulcerative colitis and her aunt had crohn's. Only then did they take me seriously and was referred onto a colorectal surgeon (even then should have been referred to gastro) but the colorectal consultant has been fantastic.
I first saw his registrar who said he thought it was probably gastritis but they would do a stool sample, endo and colonoscopy just to see what was going on. While I was waiting for these appointments I fell pregnant so went back to see the consultant to see what he thought. He was going to happily put off any further tests until I asked about my stool sample. He didn't have it in front of him so the nurse went off to find the result. He took one look at it and said 'oh dear!' My calprocten level was over 300 (didn't give a specific amount) and he said this strongly indicated IBD. I went on to have the endoscopy and a flexible sigmoidoscopy but both came back fine.
My symptoms have calmed down sooo much now, all the swelling in my legs has gone down, the only thing left at this point in time is the acid reflux which although unpleasant is bearable. I am now happily 22 weeks pregnant with a little girl but obviously all this going on during pregnancy has worried me. I now have to wait until after I have delivered to have any further tests or treatment. I just hope if that was a flare up then I never have to go through it again.
So can anyone shed any light? If you think it could be crohn's any idea as to where in the bowel it could be? Anyone have any similar experiences/symptoms? Thanks so much in advance and thanks for reading my story.
