Hi everyone, I'm fairly new to this forum and decided to introduce myself.
Since grade 9 I've suffered of diarrhea, abdominal pain, cramping, reduced appetite and weight loss, extreme fatigue, nausea, vomiting and delayed growth (shortest out of most my family). At first it just started as diarrhea, I had been skinny my whole life and by now I was used to it, I thought the frequent diarrhea was just my "fast metabolism" but as I grew older into my senior year of high school I had began to acquire IBD and IBS like symptoms and became tired of being skinny.
I decided to go see my family doctor and see if he could try and stop this diarrhea and help slow down this fast metabolism so that I could start to gain weight. He said there wasn't much he could do for me so he referred me over to a pediatrician. There they gave me numerous blood tests, stool tests, urine tests. Monitored my weight and height for almost a year. Many different diets where I would eliminate certain foods and food groups. However nothing worked and I still continued to feel sick. As my weight drastically decreased my pediatrician and I agreed we were not making any progress.
As I was 17 years old, instead of admitting me into the childrens hospital and start all over again with a new doctor we decided that I be referred over to a gastroenterologist that treats adults. One of my ex-girlfriends (and close friend) has Crohn's disease and I remembered her telling me she just got a new doctor after things didn't work out with her last GI. So I asked my Pediatrician to refer me over to her. After about a month of waiting I got to see my new GI and after telling her my story and how I have a family history of IBD as well as my symptoms she said it sounded like Crohn's Disease and would like to go ahead and book me for a colonoscopy soon.
At first I was devastated, to have Crohn's at my age seemed unfair, ever since i was a young child one of my dreams was to become a Bodybuilder. But overtime I expected that I may have IBD and came to terms with the disease. Now flash forward to today. I am sitting at home with the results of my colonoscopy and it says my Colon and small intestine is normal, no Crohn's and no Colitis, she noted that there was internal hemorrhoids which was the source of bleeding and that they had taken random biopsies. She said she would see me next week to review all of the results and that the diagnosis is likely IBS.
To be honest I'm not to sure how to feel about the results. Im glad its not Crohns or Colitis but I can't help but feel something was missed. Im no doctor but it seems I have some symptoms that are IBD and not IBS at all. Im not lactose to dairy even though apparently most people with IBS are. Im just getting tired of all these tests and just feeling worse and worse. I looked online and unlike all the treatment options for IBD, for IBS there seem to be few treatments that I haven't already tried with my pediatrician and have seen no results with. Hopefully my GI will have a new plan for me next week as I grow tired of feeling like crap all day and not having any energy.
Sorry for the long story, feeling kind of down today and needed somewhere to vent :/
Since grade 9 I've suffered of diarrhea, abdominal pain, cramping, reduced appetite and weight loss, extreme fatigue, nausea, vomiting and delayed growth (shortest out of most my family). At first it just started as diarrhea, I had been skinny my whole life and by now I was used to it, I thought the frequent diarrhea was just my "fast metabolism" but as I grew older into my senior year of high school I had began to acquire IBD and IBS like symptoms and became tired of being skinny.
I decided to go see my family doctor and see if he could try and stop this diarrhea and help slow down this fast metabolism so that I could start to gain weight. He said there wasn't much he could do for me so he referred me over to a pediatrician. There they gave me numerous blood tests, stool tests, urine tests. Monitored my weight and height for almost a year. Many different diets where I would eliminate certain foods and food groups. However nothing worked and I still continued to feel sick. As my weight drastically decreased my pediatrician and I agreed we were not making any progress.
As I was 17 years old, instead of admitting me into the childrens hospital and start all over again with a new doctor we decided that I be referred over to a gastroenterologist that treats adults. One of my ex-girlfriends (and close friend) has Crohn's disease and I remembered her telling me she just got a new doctor after things didn't work out with her last GI. So I asked my Pediatrician to refer me over to her. After about a month of waiting I got to see my new GI and after telling her my story and how I have a family history of IBD as well as my symptoms she said it sounded like Crohn's Disease and would like to go ahead and book me for a colonoscopy soon.
At first I was devastated, to have Crohn's at my age seemed unfair, ever since i was a young child one of my dreams was to become a Bodybuilder. But overtime I expected that I may have IBD and came to terms with the disease. Now flash forward to today. I am sitting at home with the results of my colonoscopy and it says my Colon and small intestine is normal, no Crohn's and no Colitis, she noted that there was internal hemorrhoids which was the source of bleeding and that they had taken random biopsies. She said she would see me next week to review all of the results and that the diagnosis is likely IBS.
To be honest I'm not to sure how to feel about the results. Im glad its not Crohns or Colitis but I can't help but feel something was missed. Im no doctor but it seems I have some symptoms that are IBD and not IBS at all. Im not lactose to dairy even though apparently most people with IBS are. Im just getting tired of all these tests and just feeling worse and worse. I looked online and unlike all the treatment options for IBD, for IBS there seem to be few treatments that I haven't already tried with my pediatrician and have seen no results with. Hopefully my GI will have a new plan for me next week as I grow tired of feeling like crap all day and not having any energy.
Sorry for the long story, feeling kind of down today and needed somewhere to vent :/
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. Im 34 now and i have had it all. full 100% with fistures crohns and i have though out the years had every symtom u can get with it. i have coushioning, addisons, pirianal, ostoporosis,artris bad joints, ulcers in my mouth, pyodem a and ecthyma gangrenosum(very rare and much more. going on 20years with only one short 6 month remission when pregnet with the 1 child i was lucky too have. i have been on every drug known as well as study drug testing to date. i have started to write a book on it all. there are pics of some of my symtoms in text books ! this past year has been hell spending much time in hospital. i use alot of humor too help deal with it all. I hope to be helpful to others and to ask others about their story. thats it for now. MY TIP OF THE MONTH, We all got to go so enjoy the go with charmin bathroom tissue, and the wipes is a must thanks to all I hope to meet you all
