• Welcome to Crohn's Forum, a support group for people with all forms of IBD. While this community is not a substitute for doctor's advice and we cannot treat or diagnose, we find being able to communicate with others who have IBD is invaluable as we navigate our struggles and celebrate our successes. We invite you to join us.

Trying to figure out what's wrong!

Hi everyone,
I'm Kimberly. I am so glad I found this forum. I'm hoping for answers. I'm so tired of being sick. I'm frustrated and starting together real discouraged.

In a nut shell...
I'm 48. My dad padded away from colon cancer at age 69. As a result ive had a few colonoscopies. The first one detected 2 polyps and the others have been clean. But before that, 19 years ago I got really sick and ended up in the hospital for a week. I was pregnant at the time so not a whole lot was done. I had diarrhea, abdominal pain and threw up a few times. Stool samples never showed anything either. I've continued to have bouts of diarrhea and figured I just had a sensitive tummy. 6 years ago I had really bad diarrhea and was not feeling well over all. Then pain in my gut started. Went to my doctor and he sent me to the hospital thinking I had appendicitis. Nope. But I was admitted for the pain and to run further tests. Spent a week there and had another colonoscopy. Colonoscopy results were not definitive, stool samples never showed anything, but the doctor mentioned Crohn's disease. I've done okay over the years. My tummy will act up and ill have my bouts of diarrhea but it goes away. I've always thought it was something I ate, until now. About 3 weeks ago I started having that pain in my lower right side accompanied with diarrhea. I went to the med clinic, in a different city now, after a few days because I knew I was dehydrated. They have me fluids and took blood. Blood work came back normal. However, the diarrhea has continued. Found a GI doc and he gave me antibiotics and a pain killer. Was instructed to get a stool sample and take it to the lab. i was having a difficult time getting a sample with no urine it. Hah, ive now mastered the collecting of the stool! well, six days later with no improvement I went to the ER because my lower back was killing me! I couldn't get any relief and I have an extremely high tolerance for pain. They drew blood and I gave them my stool samples as I was finally able to get them that morning. They gave me some pain killers and sent me home saying the blood counts were normal and would send the stool off for cultures. It's been another week since then. I've haven't had any food other than crackers, soup and a few bites of my fiancées dinner everyone in a while since this all started. I've had no appetite and am still having diarrhea! I've called the doctor and he called me in an anti diarrhea medicine that has not made one bit of difference. Colonoscopy is scheduled for April 12th I believe. Well, I decided to bite the bullet and eat last night. Could have made a better choice but the chicken pot pie looked and smelled so good and I actually wanted it! I also had a glass of wine. HUGE mistake! I'm back in bed. Woke up to green diarrhea and nausea. The back pain is still there but not as bad. Either that or I've just gotten used to it. The pain in my lower right side is still there but I am used to that and just tolerate it. Im exhausted! my gut makes all sorts of noise too. It gurgles, swishes and grumbles all the time! Ive finished my antibiotics, the anti diarrhea meds and am waiting on the stool culture results.I'm sick of being sick!

Question...could this really be Crohn's?

Any and all suggestions, advice, prayers welcome.

Kimberly
 
You have our prayers for sure ... my advice is get your Colonoscopy done ASAP and make sure they take biopsy samples of any suspect areas ... you have many of the classic crohn's symptoms but that doesn't mean its Crohn's. I pray its not and that you find a curable cause of your symptoms. Did the blood work include inflammatory markers too?
 
I'm not exactly what they tested my blood for, but so far it's all been 'normal'. I did have a CT scan on Friday, but won't get the results till Monday. I'm hoping next week will bring answers. My GI doc said he wanted to wait to do the colonoscopy due to possible inflammation in my gut. Hence, the April date. Depending upon what happens next week, there is a possibility that it will get moved up. I'm just exhausted. I don't know if I can handle this much longer.
 

Jim (POPS)

Jim (Pops)
Location
Antioch, Ca
Hi and welcome to the forum.I'm sorry to hear that you are going through all of this pain and everything else you are going through. I also went through what you are going through for a few years before they found out I had crohns when they tok out my apendix.
Please keep coming back. There are alot of people in this forum that really want to support you. I am one of them. I'm now 62 years old, retired and spend alot of time here trying to help people. But in return it helps me. I find that the chatroom helps me alot and the people in there are really supportive.
Keep your head up, it WILL get better.
Jim.
 
Top