Hello all,
I have a somewhat long-winded (sorry) question about pill cam endoscopies that I was hoping somebody could answer. But first: I am a twenty year old female. Almost one year ago I began to have ambiguous upper/lower GI issues -- intense bouts of nausea, significant weight loss, chronic morning diarrhea, loss of appetite, generalized abdominal pain, an inability to exercise because it made me feel sick. I saw a gastroenterologist a couple of months later when the symptoms did not subside. He ordered blood tests which returned relatively normal -- CRP levels were mildly elevated at 11.5, sedimentation was fine; he ordered an MRI which returned unremarkable; and he ordered an upper endoscopy/colonoscopy which revealed reactive gastropathy in my stomach (he isn't concerned about this) and mild ileitis (inflammation in my ileum) respectively. Biopsies taken from the ileum did not indicate Crohn's (or anything else, for that matter).
After a follow up appointment today, my gastroenterologist admitted that he doesn't know what is wrong or if anything is wrong at all. He suggested we try a pill cam endoscopy to check out my small bowel, since my ileum inflammation, though mild, should not have been present at all. He says there is a very, very small chance that I might have mucosal Crohn's. Very small. Although a few of my original symptoms have improved some these past couple of months -- weight loss and diarrhea -- others have either stayed the same or worsened -- nausea, abdominal pain, loss of appetite, inability to exercise. Often, my abdominal pain is either sharp and below my left rib or dull/tearing in my right mid/lower side.
I am becoming so frustrated with GI procedures, in part because they continually reveal nothing significant. My colonoscopy prep was awful, and I will have to do another similar Miralax/Gatorade prep for the pill cam. Also, I am really really bad at swallowing even small pills. So my question is this: given the normalcy of previous test results (minus the ileitis), is this pill cam endoscopy even worth the trouble? Have any of you had experiences with the pill cam, positive or negative?
Again, I apologize that this is so long winded. And I hope that it is ok for me to post to this forum, even though I am undiagnosed. I do appreciate your responses! Thank you so much.
I have a somewhat long-winded (sorry) question about pill cam endoscopies that I was hoping somebody could answer. But first: I am a twenty year old female. Almost one year ago I began to have ambiguous upper/lower GI issues -- intense bouts of nausea, significant weight loss, chronic morning diarrhea, loss of appetite, generalized abdominal pain, an inability to exercise because it made me feel sick. I saw a gastroenterologist a couple of months later when the symptoms did not subside. He ordered blood tests which returned relatively normal -- CRP levels were mildly elevated at 11.5, sedimentation was fine; he ordered an MRI which returned unremarkable; and he ordered an upper endoscopy/colonoscopy which revealed reactive gastropathy in my stomach (he isn't concerned about this) and mild ileitis (inflammation in my ileum) respectively. Biopsies taken from the ileum did not indicate Crohn's (or anything else, for that matter).
After a follow up appointment today, my gastroenterologist admitted that he doesn't know what is wrong or if anything is wrong at all. He suggested we try a pill cam endoscopy to check out my small bowel, since my ileum inflammation, though mild, should not have been present at all. He says there is a very, very small chance that I might have mucosal Crohn's. Very small. Although a few of my original symptoms have improved some these past couple of months -- weight loss and diarrhea -- others have either stayed the same or worsened -- nausea, abdominal pain, loss of appetite, inability to exercise. Often, my abdominal pain is either sharp and below my left rib or dull/tearing in my right mid/lower side.
I am becoming so frustrated with GI procedures, in part because they continually reveal nothing significant. My colonoscopy prep was awful, and I will have to do another similar Miralax/Gatorade prep for the pill cam. Also, I am really really bad at swallowing even small pills. So my question is this: given the normalcy of previous test results (minus the ileitis), is this pill cam endoscopy even worth the trouble? Have any of you had experiences with the pill cam, positive or negative?
Again, I apologize that this is so long winded. And I hope that it is ok for me to post to this forum, even though I am undiagnosed. I do appreciate your responses! Thank you so much.
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