Do my symptoms sound like Crohn's Disease?
Hi Everyone! I have yet to be diagnosed with anything specifically but am in the process of getting one. About 6 months ago I started experiencing my first (what I call) flare. Extreme stomach pain (right upper quadrant and abdominal--already got my gallbladder tested and it isn't that), nausea, diarrhea after eating anything (often beige / yellow in color with fine grounds or lots of mucus, black and tarry, or loose and watery with undigested food in it), upper right back pain, low grade fevers (99.4-100) usually at night, body aches and chills, severe exhaustion, and mouth sores that come and go.
I went to the hospital and they thought it was my gallbladder. When they found out it wasn't they gave me morphine and lots of IV fluid and sent me on my way home with the name of a gastro doctor. Made my first appointment with the gastro, did a stool sample (they found blood and lots of mucus). I had a colonoscopy that came back normal (with the exception of a few bumps on parts of my intestine). I am going in for an endoscopy on Tuesday.
This past Monday I was in the hospital due to the same severe pain that I had felt the first time around--again, they gave me a CAT scan and found nothing. I do not have these symptoms all the time--they, for the most part, come and go quite frequently (in 'flares'😉. I do, however, have constant diarrhea (and sometimes vomiting) after ingesting ANYTHING and severe exhaustion. My doctor believes that this sounds like Crohn's, but I just want to know if anyone else had similar symptoms and also did not have anything show up on the Colonoscopy. Thank you!
It sounds like it is related to Ulcerative Colitis more than Crohn's disease. They can sometimes have very familiar links but they aren't the same. The bleeding is very common for Ulcerative Colitis due to your body being inflamed with ulcers in your digestive tract. I had UC since I was 3 and now Crohns so I am very familiar with both sides of the sector. Hope this helped and good luck 😀
I have very similar symptoms and am stuck as well. Everything seems to keep coming back normal, but I’m thinking of trying the pill camera becuase that seems to be successful with many people who can’t track it down.
I am in the same boat as you, waiting for a diagnosis. I've been experiencing upper left quadrant pain in my abdomen, back pain, vomiting, diarrhea after anything I ate. All of my blood work is normal. Red cells and hemoglobin have been low, blood and protein in urine. I had a ultrasound (normal), HIDA scan for my gallbladder (ejection faction of 36% and 35% is normal, so I am borderline but normal), Lupus and Celia were negative as well.
It wasn't until I had a CT scan (had to get second opinion to get the test from a THIRD doctor) that showed abnormal thickening of my small bowel loop/duodenum and rectal bleeding. I had blood in my stool in September and LOTS of mucus but it took over two months and three doctors before a stool sample was ordered so no parasites or occult blood. My endoscopy and colonoscopy were also normal.
I recently did a gastric emptying study and will be doing a pill capsule endoscopy. CRP came back normal but waiting on more blood work and results of a second stool sample testing for giardia and calprotein. I have joint pain and constant fatigue all the time. I've lost over 15 pounds and am all bones. Hoping for answers soon!
I hope you find some relief and answers soon too. Have you tried the autoimmune protocol diet?
It can be very difficult to get a diagnosis because of the nature of the disease. With Crohn’s Disease, because of its nature, even with the camera capsule, it may not be possible to detect any signs of the disease. The reason is that Crohn’s can affect not only any part of/along the digestive tract but any part of the thickness of the bowel wall. Once when I was having constant hemorrhaging, the docs ran numerous tests, barium studies, MRIs, CTs, you name it, it was done. This went on for months. I required numerous blood transfusions due to extremely low hemaglobin counts. All totaled I had 32 units of blood over a 6-month period. No amount or nature of testing could detect the origin of the bleeding. Not until surgery was performed was it found that the Crohn’s had inflamed and ruptured the outside of the bowel wall and the bleeding was slowly emptying into the peritoneum. After removal of the section of bowel was the hemorrhaging stopped. This is one of several reasons why it can be so difficult for a doctor to get a definitive diagnosis. A person can have Crohn’s/UC for months or years before a confirmed diagnosis can be given. Even a biopsy taken from the inner mucosa of the intestine may not determine the level of activity of the disease. The testing is only as good as the part of the digestive tract being examined. So, don’t be discouraged or think that you are just making your symptoms up. Crohn’s is a very deceptive and elusive disease at times. I hope this helps in trying to understand why it is so hard to get a solid diagnosis. My personal experience has been very difficult at times. I hope that with the more recent advances in treatment that the course of your disease will be better and that a cure can soon be found.
