Pill Cam

[SunshineSmile]

Just wanted to inform you guys that I had a Pill Cam done today! It was a rough morning today though... The capsule endoscopy took a toll for the worst at first. Was really nauseous and kept throwing up the pill... So they had to rush me to the surgical center and put me under anesthesia and basically perform an upper endoscopy by pushing the pill down to my stomach... While he was in my stomach he also took some biopsies of the tissue because it was very irritated from my gastritis. Bright red they said. So the pill is finally down and taking pictures and videos of the tract. Hope it finds something through this mess I had to get through :'( the doctor said he's going to get the results back to me as soon as possible though, so that's good.

Also, I've noticed that I'm losing a lot of hair in the shower, like more than I normally do. When you look at me, you would never be able to tell that i've lost some hair though. Should I be concerned...?

Can't wait to hear back about the pill cam results... nervous! I hope I get some asnwers... *Crosses fingers*

 

[Mayflower537]

As far as hair loss is concerned, mention it to one of your doctors. If you have a dermatologist, that might be a good place to start, as I believe that is their area of expertise. There are a ton of possibilities: Thyroid issues, low ferritin, hormonal swings, etc, to name a few. When I told my dermatologist, she did a ton of bloodwork, and my ferritin turned out to be really low. After a year of iron supplements, it's still not up to where it should be (40 to stop loss, 70 for regrowth) so now I'm on Hemaplex, which has 85 mg of iron in addition to everything else it contains. For some people, taking a biotin supplement also helps. You should take at least 3000 mg of biotin daily and if you can find one with zinc in it, that's supposed to be better than biotin alone. Have you gotten off or on the pill lately? Or some other hormonal birth control?

Hope you get your results sooner than most of us with your pill cam. Best wishes.

 

[Cat-a-Tonic]

Sunshine, what May said is correct, Biotin can help in some cases. I've had good luck with it myself. I started noticing more hair loss after I started Entocort so that's when I first tried Biotin, and I've been taking it for nearly a year now. It's a B vitamin so there's no side effects or anything. I take 5,000 mcg daily and you can get it most anywhere, I usually buy mine at Target or Whole Foods. (To clarify what May said - you need at least 3,000 micrograms daily - not 3,000 milligrams. 3,000 mcg equals 3 mg. I made the same mistake myself - when I first started taking Biotin, I asked for 3,000 mg capsules and got laughed at by the dude who works in the vitamin aisle!)

 

[SunshineSmile]

Ok, I will check on that. Thank you!

 

[Mayflower537]

LOL yes I meant mcg. Cat, you probably did that b/c I gave you erroneous information!!

 

[Cat-a-Tonic]

May, no worries, it was totally my fault! I'm sure you told me the correct info about Biotin but I didn't write it down and just assumed it was mg. I remember after the guy laughed at me and corrected me, I thought, "What the hell is a microgram???" When I got home I googled it and learned that it's 1/1000th of a milligram. I never took chemistry (we had the choice of chemistry or biology in high school and I took biology, and in college I satisfied my science credits by taking astronomy courses) so apparently I never learned that unit of measure! So it was totally me being dumb, I thought all medications and supplements were measured in milligrams. I definitely learned an important lesson!