Pain and diarrhea without any visual signs of active Crohn's Disease

[lhall4110]

I am new and am writing with a question about a family member. He is 23 years old and was diagnosed with Crohn's 10 years ago. He has always had a mild case, but does get flare ups that cause diarrhea w/some bleeding, abdominal pain and fatigue. He had been in remission for the last 4 or 5 years until 3 weeks ago.

The pain got very bad, fatigue, low appetite, diarrhea. He went to emergency with the pain because he hadn't ever had it this bad and wasn't sure if it was Crohn's since he'd been in remission. He was admitted and had to stay 10 days due to needing pain shots because pills didn't work well enough.

While there, his GI doctor, who is very well known around here for his Crohn's knowledge, did colonoscopy, blood tests, CAT scan, small bowel barium xrays and endoscopy. All of these tests came back normal - no ulcerations, no absess, no elevated SED rate, nothing. We know he has Crohn's due to granulomas in the large intestine biopsies (confirmed several times) and the specialized blood tests sent to Prometheus Labs (ELISA/RAT I think they are called?). Anyway, he tested positive for those 2 things, and he has had a couple ulcerations show up in the past and several fissures, etc.

But his doctor is baffled that his intestines look so perfectly pink and healthy = he said he wished his looked as good! So we are wondering if any of you have had the same experience - symptoms such as pain and diarrhea without any visual signs of active Crohn's? They have put him on Entocort and Asacol HD since they can find no other cause for his pain.

Thank you in advance for any experiences you can share that are similar. It's frustrating when you feel horrible, and yet they can't see anything that is causing it!

Lori

 

[Rebecca85]

Could it be something else like his gallbladder? They thought that was what was wrong with me when I first got ill with severe pain and vomiting.

 

[Nica]

Gallbladder, pancreantits, appendix ? only things I can think of I would think they would have checked for those right away in the ER though.

 

[Rebecca85]

Not necessarily, it took 3 days for them to check my gallbladder with ultrasound even though they admitted me specifically for diagnostic tests on my gallbladder.

 

[Jennifer]

Rebecca's right. Sometimes they don't look for that right away especially if you come in saying, "I have Crohn's." Then all they do is assume its that. He could be passing a stone. My boyfriend was in the hospital and they checked for Crohn's and all that first before they found out it was his gallbladder but by then he had passed the stone. Some stones can't be passed though and need to be broken up or removed.

Appendicitis would be bad and hopefully they've checked for it already.
http://www.webmd.com/digestive-disorders/digestive-diseases-appendicitis


As far as experiencing symptoms but not showing anything, even inflammation, I don't think that's possible. Some people don't have certain symptoms but bleeding doesn't come from nowhere and neither does pain. Diarrhea? Sure, you can have that without showing signs of active Crohn's but not the type of pain that sends you to the ER.

 

[Nica]

I guess I got a good doc when my gallbladder went. He went right for it and didn't mess with the crohns too much, I was admitted for surgery the next morning.