Hi everyone,
I am new to the forum but unfortunately not to IBD. My dad has had Ulcerative Colitis for 30+ years so I have grown up with it (I am 29).
I am a 29 year old woman with a small son. For several years I have suffered with 'IBS'. Swinging between constipation and diarrhoea, bloating, cramping lower abdo pain which was relieved on opening my bowels, and episodes of mucous. I had a colonoscopy 5 years ago which was normal. I did find that a gluten free diet helped my symptoms (Coeliac Screen was negative though).
Fast forward to around 4 months ago. I started suffering quite badly again with what I thought was my IBS flaring up. Went back onto a gluten free diet which seemed to help to start with. Over the last 2 months I have been suffering with awful pain, bloody diarrhoea, mucous, bloating, fevers, weight loss, joint pain, mouth ulcers and fatigue. I went to my GP who did some bloods (white cell count was high but inflammatory markers and Haemoglobin was normal), put me on a dairy free diet to see if that helped, and suggested that I may have Crohns Disease. My symptoms coupled with my dad's UC obviously concerning her. She referred me to a Gastro specialist for further investigations. A week later things were worse and so she repeated the bloods (not much had changed). After another week I finally got an appointment through for 22nd December! Things have continued to deteriorate ending up with me having to go to A&E on Saturday with a query obstruction. So we decided to pay for a private consultation with my dad's Gastro.
Today I had the consultation and the summary of it was that he thinks it is Crohns disease. He did a quick Rigid Sigmoidoscopy as his initial concern was Distal Colitis (my dad has this) but that was normal. He is arranging for an MRI with Mannitol, and a flexible sigmoidoscopy. I am, to put it bluntly, shocked. I had convinced myself that he would say 'oh it's IBS' or 'It's food intolerance' as I had the clear colonoscopy 5 years ago. My mum was very much 'well your symptoms are nothing like your dad's so it can't be UC or Crohns. You just need to stop thinking about it and get on with it!'
I think I was, and still to a certain extent am, in denial about the whole thing. I am worried that the tests will show nothing (and equally as worried that they will!) I'm not even sure how to feel right now :eek2:
If you've read this far and made sense of it then well done! Any advice or words of support for a freaked out woman? My head is all over the place :ybatty:
I am new to the forum but unfortunately not to IBD. My dad has had Ulcerative Colitis for 30+ years so I have grown up with it (I am 29).
I am a 29 year old woman with a small son. For several years I have suffered with 'IBS'. Swinging between constipation and diarrhoea, bloating, cramping lower abdo pain which was relieved on opening my bowels, and episodes of mucous. I had a colonoscopy 5 years ago which was normal. I did find that a gluten free diet helped my symptoms (Coeliac Screen was negative though).
Fast forward to around 4 months ago. I started suffering quite badly again with what I thought was my IBS flaring up. Went back onto a gluten free diet which seemed to help to start with. Over the last 2 months I have been suffering with awful pain, bloody diarrhoea, mucous, bloating, fevers, weight loss, joint pain, mouth ulcers and fatigue. I went to my GP who did some bloods (white cell count was high but inflammatory markers and Haemoglobin was normal), put me on a dairy free diet to see if that helped, and suggested that I may have Crohns Disease. My symptoms coupled with my dad's UC obviously concerning her. She referred me to a Gastro specialist for further investigations. A week later things were worse and so she repeated the bloods (not much had changed). After another week I finally got an appointment through for 22nd December! Things have continued to deteriorate ending up with me having to go to A&E on Saturday with a query obstruction. So we decided to pay for a private consultation with my dad's Gastro.
Today I had the consultation and the summary of it was that he thinks it is Crohns disease. He did a quick Rigid Sigmoidoscopy as his initial concern was Distal Colitis (my dad has this) but that was normal. He is arranging for an MRI with Mannitol, and a flexible sigmoidoscopy. I am, to put it bluntly, shocked. I had convinced myself that he would say 'oh it's IBS' or 'It's food intolerance' as I had the clear colonoscopy 5 years ago. My mum was very much 'well your symptoms are nothing like your dad's so it can't be UC or Crohns. You just need to stop thinking about it and get on with it!'
I think I was, and still to a certain extent am, in denial about the whole thing. I am worried that the tests will show nothing (and equally as worried that they will!) I'm not even sure how to feel right now :eek2:
If you've read this far and made sense of it then well done! Any advice or words of support for a freaked out woman? My head is all over the place :ybatty:
I have been keeping a symptom diary as well as a food diary which I showed him today. They did an abdo X-ray on Saturday which showed loading of the upper bowel. I'm guessing the MRI will give a much clearer picture x
