Newly Diagnosed with Crohn's

[carolhew]

Hello All,

I have been lurking for a little over a month now and thought it was about time I introduce myself. My name is Carol. I am 46 and I was just diagnosed with mild Crohn's. I have had IBS for over 20 years. My symptoms started changing sometime in January but I just thought it was the old IBS acting up due to stress. In March I had new abdominal pain where my gallbladder use to be (it was removed in 1990), so my Internist sent me for a CT scan. The scan showed inflammation of the terminal ileum and sacroiliitis. So it was off to see my GI and of course he wanted to perform a colonoscopy (this was my 3rd). Post colonoscopy he told my husband that it was most likely Crohn's and he ordered bloodwork an IBD serology 7. On June 8th I had my follow up exam. All biopsies were positive for Crohn's but the blood work was not. He still made the diagnosis of mild to moderate Crohn's. I am now taking 3mg of Entocort 3 time a day for the next 3months and then I will taper off.

I have read others state what a relief it is to have a diagnosis, my GI even said something to this effect. And it is true. Reading the post here, I realize it is not my fault or in my head.

I want to thank everyone on the forum. your posts have eased my mind, made me cry, laugh, but most important have given me hope.

Carol

 

[crazycanuck]

Hi there, sorry for your upgrade in status however as you said atleast its a relief to know what's gonig on and now get some relief here.

This is a great forum and resource as I guess you know and welcome to them!

 

[Allison]

Hi Carol, I'm new here too. Wow, reading your story is very much like my husband's.

Sam had IBS (or at least that's what they called it when they'd ruled out other things) for about 20 years. He went through another round of it a couple of years ago. At first we didn't think much about it, but after it continued for several months and people started commenting on his weight loss (he ended up losing 30 pounds and wasn't overweight to begin with), he found a GI and went through all the tests until finally a capsule endoscopy was able to diagnose Crohn's. (We elected not to have the IBD serology since we'd read it sometime gave false results, and since the cost was sky-high.)

He's been on Entocort ever since.

I'm sorry you have to go through this, but at least you had a relatively quick diagnosis (although it probably didn't seem so quick to you) and got treatment so that hopefully it stays mild.

 

[carolhew]

Thank you Crazy Canuck and Allison.

Allison, I was fortunate that my health insurance covered the blood work. I could not find that much info on the test prior to having my blood taken. It wasn't until I had the negative results that the GI told me it was not reliable test.

Carol

 

[David]

Hi Carol and welcome. I'm glad you decided to join us and I'm also glad they were able to figure out what's going on. I hope to see you around the forum and wish you nothing but the best

*hugs*

 

[carolhew]

Thank you David!