Possible Crohns after endoscopy for Celiac

[BoyMama2000]

Hi Everyone,

My 13 year old son has not gained weight in 2 years and fell off of his growth curve. He was worked up by an endocrinologist with many of the more common growth conditions ruled out. The final condition to rule out before we would just determine that he is a "late bloomer" was celiac disease.

He had an endoscopy on Thursday and the doctor called me today to say that the pathologist thinks he has Chron's disease. His stomach is swollen and had a granuloma as well as ulcers. His duodenum was also swollen. They do not feel it is celiac disease.

The strange thing is that he has normal bowels, no stomach pain, no acid indigestion, normal SED rate and iron levels on blood work. This was just an incidental finding on the endoscopy looking for Celiac.

They will call us on Tuesday to schedule a colonoscopy and do a blood panel for inflammatory bowel disease. They will also likely do a barium swallow and the endoscopy where he swallows a small camera to view the area of the colon that cannot be viewed by a normal scope.

So my questions is, have any of you been diagnosed with no symptoms of this disease. Could diminished growth and weight gain be the only sign?

Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

Regards,
Concerned mom in Colorado

 

[xJillx]

Hi and welcome! I am sorry to hear your son may possibly have Crohn's. To be honest, I was diagnosed when I had really no symptoms. The only symptom I had was that I was passing mucus. I am pretty proactive about my health, so I went to a GI who suggested doing a colonoscopy. She figured it was a polyp or internal hemorrhoid, but instead, inflammation and ulcerations were found in my terminal ileum and rectum. My GI diagnosed me with Crohn's, even though biopsies were inconclusive, blood work was normal, and all imaging tests were normal. Unfortunately, this disease can be difficult to diagnose, because everyone presents differently and testing isn't always telling.

I certainly hope your son doesn't have Crohn's, but if he does, as least you now know what you are dealing with. He can start appropriate treatment to address the inflammation, which in turn, will allow him to grow and be healthy.

Keep us posted!

 

[David]

Hi there and welcome to the site! Let's hope that they're wrong and he doesn't have CD, but at least he's getting the colonoscopy and on the right track to find out for sure.

Please keep us updated and we're here for you anytime.

Good luck!