Only one or two crohn symptoms and confused

[sloshywalnut]

34 years old. Never had digestion or issues in bathroom. I can literally eat whatever I want.

5 months ago underwent extremely stressful time of life. Blood showing up in stool, was off and on then consistent. Mucus as well. No other symptoms. I find it odd that stress was the trigger for a disease like this...

Colonoscopy completed, MRI completed, blood test completed. They found inflammation. They 'think' crohns. Put me on antibiotics (flagyl and cipro). Antibiotics caused D like crazy. Finally off it and getting better. I feel like im not getting much information from my doctor about what is going on and its making me think of going a different route.

Questions:
1. If theres only blood and mucus in stool, how 'emergent' is treatment with steroids or surgery? I'm asking because I want to know if I have time to try different diets and lifestyle changes to see if I can get any progress before continuining with more doctor advice

2. For those with Crohns, once you have symptoms, do they progress over time? I think my symptoms are odd, but unsure if this is it or if this is just the beginning.

3. I saw someone say that drinking aloe vera specifically was good for their bleeding. Is there anything else thats good for bleeding/mucus specifically?

4. Why would the bleeding be off and on? It doesnt make sense to me why sometimes I see blood and sometimes I dont.

5. Regarding inflammation. I've already burned through a library of books on crohns and inflammation. I still havent found the answer to this though. If prednisone suppress the inflammation, what is the difference between doing this naturally through supplements versus medication? When I ask people about this they treat me like I'm a hippy that burns sage and makes my own deodorant.


Any help is appreciated. I'm glad I found this group. I was in a dark space mentally and just looking for hope

 

[ronroush7]

Hi if the doctor gets the right mixture of medicine then the symptoms may not progress. There is a section in here called Diet, Nutrition and Supplements. You may want to check it out.

 

[Scipio]

Questions:
1. If theres only blood and mucus in stool, how 'emergent' is treatment with steroids or surgery? I'm asking because I want to know if I have time to try different diets and lifestyle changes to see if I can get any progress before continuining with more doctor advice

2. For those with Crohns, once you have symptoms, do they progress over time? I think my symptoms are odd, but unsure if this is it or if this is just the beginning.

3. I saw someone say that drinking aloe vera specifically was good for their bleeding. Is there anything else thats good for bleeding/mucus specifically?

4. Why would the bleeding be off and on? It doesnt make sense to me why sometimes I see blood and sometimes I dont.

5. Regarding inflammation. I've already burned through a library of books on crohns and inflammation. I still havent found the answer to this though. If prednisone suppress the inflammation, what is the difference between doing this naturally through supplements versus medication? When I ask people about this they treat me like I'm a hippy that burns sage and makes my own deodorant.

1 & 2. There is such a thing as fairly stable disease that doesn't progress or progresses only very slowly, but unfortunately those are a small minority. Most cases if left untreated just get worse and worse. There are also cases that don't progress much for a long time - years perhaps, but then one day they take off and quickly progress to a raging flare.

3. I haven't tried aloe vera. Check the supplements and wellness forum in this site.

4. It probably bleeds off and on because your body is trying with intermittent success to heal the bleeding lesions. When your gut is all chewed up and oozing blood thanks to the Crohn's, your body goes into high gear trying to heal those wounds, just as it does for any other wound. And thus the bleeding is controlled. But then along comes another attack of inflammation and the process starts all over again. These continually-repeated rounds of wounding/healing are what cause the scar tissue build up, eventually resulting in narrowing of the gut creating a stricture and risk of blockage.

5. The difference is that predisone is a powerful drug that normally stops the inflammation it its tracks so to speak. It's the quickest way to induce a remission. Unfortunately long term use of these steroids is not good, so you need to transition from remission induction to a maintenance phase, which is where the biologic and immunosuppressant drugs come in.

By contrast the anti-inflammatory effects of most supplements and anti-inflammatory diets is very mild and poorly characterized. They may help some, but the odds of getting your disease under control solely with supplements and/or diet is pretty low.

 

[eleanor_rigby]

34 years old. Never had digestion or issues in bathroom. I can literally eat whatever I want.

5 months ago underwent extremely stressful time of life. Blood showing up in stool, was off and on then consistent. Mucus as well. No other symptoms. I find it odd that stress was the trigger for a disease like this...

Colonoscopy completed, MRI completed, blood test completed. They found inflammation. They 'think' crohns. Put me on antibiotics (flagyl and cipro). Antibiotics caused D like crazy. Finally off it and getting better. I feel like im not getting much information from my doctor about what is going on and its making me think of going a different route.

Questions:
1. If theres only blood and mucus in stool, how 'emergent' is treatment with steroids or surgery? I'm asking because I want to know if I have time to try different diets and lifestyle changes to see if I can get any progress before continuining with more doctor advice

2. For those with Crohns, once you have symptoms, do they progress over time? I think my symptoms are odd, but unsure if this is it or if this is just the beginning.

3. I saw someone say that drinking aloe vera specifically was good for their bleeding. Is there anything else thats good for bleeding/mucus specifically?

4. Why would the bleeding be off and on? It doesnt make sense to me why sometimes I see blood and sometimes I dont.

5. Regarding inflammation. I've already burned through a library of books on crohns and inflammation. I still havent found the answer to this though. If prednisone suppress the inflammation, what is the difference between doing this naturally through supplements versus medication? When I ask people about this they treat me like I'm a hippy that burns sage and makes my own deodorant.


Any help is appreciated. I'm glad I found this group. I was in a dark space mentally and just looking for hope

1. This disease is very individual. You can look at a list of symptoms for Crohn's and will find people who can probably tick nearly all of the symptoms. Conversely you can find people with maybe one symptom or even NO symptoms, who are only aware their disease is active through routine testing. How you treat Crohn's shouldn't be done just based on symptoms - it should be done based on disease activity, so what is seen on scopes and imaging.

2. Crohn's can stay the same, get worse, disappear (remission) for decades and then come back.... it is unpredictable.

3. Aloe Vera gel may help one person and not others - I guess read up on it in the diet and supplements section of the forum and decide if you would like to try it for yourself.

4. Just because you can't always see blood doesn't mean it's not there. Scorpio also explains this process very well.

5. Prednisolone can stop inflammation in like the space of a day! Very powerful drug. Diet and lifestyle - may not stop inflammation at all. If it does it could take months.

 

[sloshywalnut]

What or who is scorpio?

 

[Scipio]

What or who is scorpio?

I think eleanor_rigby was referring to my prior post but made a simple error and called me scorpio by mistake.

 

[honey051162]

Hi
I only have blood at times I have found this is down to diet if I eat anything with a skin on or dairy products, I lose mucus which burns my back passage to an extend I have trouble walking. There are things that can help like aloe Vera I found that not eating tomato fruit with seeds and make sure you peel everything else like apples and pears, wholemeal and seeded bread is a no go for me fizzy drinks upset me but different people have different reactions to food it is trial and error
Like yourself crohn,s is new to me I was diagnosed four years ago and under gone several treatments with negative effects.
Whatever treatment the doctors offer ask about all the side affects I had my last treatment 7 weeks ago of chemo and wished to god I had not.
You can have a wonderful life with crohn's we just need to adapt and not be to quick to take all the doctors advice on broad. There is no such thing as typical crohn's as I was lead to believe we are all different and different things will work for each of us.
Try keeping a diary of the foods you eat and the stress levels and see whether this shows a pattern.
I wish you all the very best keep your chin up and think happy thoughts it will get better even when you don't think so