Figured I'd make an intro and see if I can get some much needed advice. I've been through hell and back over the past several months with NO answers, grrr. :ymad:
I'm in the process of being diagnosed with something. With what? Not too sure and as you all know, CD can mask a lot of different diseases out there. I'm actually wondering if there are any girls/women on this board who were told they had gynecological problems before being diagnosed with IBD. Let me start from the beginning, so you all can have a better understanding of what roller coaster I've been riding, lol.
Back in October 2008, I started to feel a dull ache slightly to the right of my belly button. A few people had mentioned an ulcer to me and it sounded probable. I decided to sit on it a few weeks and see what happened. On Nov. 1st, the pain started shooting from the right of my belly button to my appendix area. I could literally feel it pulsating through my skin and thought, "Ah crap, I'm about to rupture" and got to the ER as fast as possible. To my surprise, doctor said it wasn't appendix related, did some bloodwork (normal) and x-ray came back a-okay, showing no blockage. Okay, well then what it is? I asked him to do a pelvic and he said it sounded like Pelvic Inflammatory Disease and wrote me an Rx. I was skeptical to take that as a diagnosis considering PID is usually a side effect from having an STD (which I came back clean for and there was no other infection present). Because I was without insurance, this made getting to a doctor troublesome. I ended up following up with Planned Parenthood two weeks later (pain subsided, but remained a dull, constant ache in the lower quadrant). She said ovaries felt fine and didn't think it was PID, either.
The constant, dull ache never went away. Ended up back in the ER on Jan. 3rd, no imaging was done, but bloodwork came back showing that I had extremely low magnesium and potassium. Doctor gave me a big, nice fat shot in the rear and told me to eat more bananas and potatos. Errrr, that kind of made me raise an eyebrow considering those are on my weekly grocery list. Again, made me scratch my head, but whatever. Less than two weeks later, went to the county hospital this time and again, the doctor was convinced it gynecological (no imaging done, either). By now, I had three doctor's telling me I probably had some ovarian-related problem (although my pelvics were coming back normal).
FINALLY GOT MY INSURANCE, WOOHOO! Follow up with my reg. OBGYN who scheduled a transvaginal ultrasound on Feb. 23rd -- ha, came back perfectly normal! Imagine that. Which, don't get me wrong, I was absolutely thrilled considering ovarian cancer was in the back of my head and it's very quick spreading, so it was nice to rule that out. Now, here's the funny thing: I never even paid any attention to my bowel habits because all of the doctor's had convinced me it was "female" related. After we ruled that out, I started thinking, "Gee, when's the last time I've had a solid poop"? Well, I started documenting my bowels (lol), and wow, I couldn't tell you the last time I've had a normal bowel movement. TMI alert: on the Bristol stool chart, I'm pretty much always a #5. How in the heck did that go unnoticed? The scary thing is, I think I've gotten use to having these abnormal movements, that I've paid no mind to them.
Okay, so doctor scheduled me both an abdominal and pelvic MRI a few weeks ago and both came back perfect. He referred me to a GI that I have an appointment with on April 23rd -- they called me and asked me if I had ever had a colonoscopy. I told them no, but I've had the pleasure of seeing them done on youtube. :tongue: Unlike a lot of other's, I'm not even nervous about having the testing done because I'm just so desperate for answers!
As far as I can remember, I've always dealt with some sort of funky bowel issues. I was hospitalized as a child for constipation (and as a mom who has given birth 3 times, let me tell ya, the stuck poop was brutal), painful, crampy bowel movements, etc. I feel kind of dumb that I didn't consider IBD before, but when doctor's are telling you otherwise, I guess it's easy to follow their lead, but regardless, my gut was telling me something else (no pun intended, ha).
As of now, the pain appears to usually be on several weeks, off a week or so. It's only been severe on a few occassions, but it's usually always just there. All along my right side, but prominant around the appendix area.
Keeping my fingers crossed that I can get some sort of answers soon! Just knowing that I finally have an appointment with a specialist is enough to comfort me a bit.
I'm in the process of being diagnosed with something. With what? Not too sure and as you all know, CD can mask a lot of different diseases out there. I'm actually wondering if there are any girls/women on this board who were told they had gynecological problems before being diagnosed with IBD. Let me start from the beginning, so you all can have a better understanding of what roller coaster I've been riding, lol.
Back in October 2008, I started to feel a dull ache slightly to the right of my belly button. A few people had mentioned an ulcer to me and it sounded probable. I decided to sit on it a few weeks and see what happened. On Nov. 1st, the pain started shooting from the right of my belly button to my appendix area. I could literally feel it pulsating through my skin and thought, "Ah crap, I'm about to rupture" and got to the ER as fast as possible. To my surprise, doctor said it wasn't appendix related, did some bloodwork (normal) and x-ray came back a-okay, showing no blockage. Okay, well then what it is? I asked him to do a pelvic and he said it sounded like Pelvic Inflammatory Disease and wrote me an Rx. I was skeptical to take that as a diagnosis considering PID is usually a side effect from having an STD (which I came back clean for and there was no other infection present). Because I was without insurance, this made getting to a doctor troublesome. I ended up following up with Planned Parenthood two weeks later (pain subsided, but remained a dull, constant ache in the lower quadrant). She said ovaries felt fine and didn't think it was PID, either.
The constant, dull ache never went away. Ended up back in the ER on Jan. 3rd, no imaging was done, but bloodwork came back showing that I had extremely low magnesium and potassium. Doctor gave me a big, nice fat shot in the rear and told me to eat more bananas and potatos. Errrr, that kind of made me raise an eyebrow considering those are on my weekly grocery list. Again, made me scratch my head, but whatever. Less than two weeks later, went to the county hospital this time and again, the doctor was convinced it gynecological (no imaging done, either). By now, I had three doctor's telling me I probably had some ovarian-related problem (although my pelvics were coming back normal).
FINALLY GOT MY INSURANCE, WOOHOO! Follow up with my reg. OBGYN who scheduled a transvaginal ultrasound on Feb. 23rd -- ha, came back perfectly normal! Imagine that. Which, don't get me wrong, I was absolutely thrilled considering ovarian cancer was in the back of my head and it's very quick spreading, so it was nice to rule that out. Now, here's the funny thing: I never even paid any attention to my bowel habits because all of the doctor's had convinced me it was "female" related. After we ruled that out, I started thinking, "Gee, when's the last time I've had a solid poop"? Well, I started documenting my bowels (lol), and wow, I couldn't tell you the last time I've had a normal bowel movement. TMI alert: on the Bristol stool chart, I'm pretty much always a #5. How in the heck did that go unnoticed? The scary thing is, I think I've gotten use to having these abnormal movements, that I've paid no mind to them.
Okay, so doctor scheduled me both an abdominal and pelvic MRI a few weeks ago and both came back perfect. He referred me to a GI that I have an appointment with on April 23rd -- they called me and asked me if I had ever had a colonoscopy. I told them no, but I've had the pleasure of seeing them done on youtube. :tongue: Unlike a lot of other's, I'm not even nervous about having the testing done because I'm just so desperate for answers!
As far as I can remember, I've always dealt with some sort of funky bowel issues. I was hospitalized as a child for constipation (and as a mom who has given birth 3 times, let me tell ya, the stuck poop was brutal), painful, crampy bowel movements, etc. I feel kind of dumb that I didn't consider IBD before, but when doctor's are telling you otherwise, I guess it's easy to follow their lead, but regardless, my gut was telling me something else (no pun intended, ha).
As of now, the pain appears to usually be on several weeks, off a week or so. It's only been severe on a few occassions, but it's usually always just there. All along my right side, but prominant around the appendix area.
Keeping my fingers crossed that I can get some sort of answers soon! Just knowing that I finally have an appointment with a specialist is enough to comfort me a bit.
