Confused!

Hi I am new today, my 15 yr old son is in the process of being diagnosed, he has been suffering with bowel problems and bleeding since he was 5 and for years he was treated for constipation only january this year he has been sent for tests due to rapid weight loss, bleeding and pains getting worse. His first blood test came back showing a raised esr of 26 he then had a colonoscopy which showed he had patchy severe erythema, patchy mild granularity in his caecum he had a solitary ulcer in his rectum with moderate erythema, granularity and mucopurulent exudate they could not gain entry to the terminal ileum as the caecum and entrance of ti was inflamed I was told by the doctor that it looked like it was crohns but to wait for biopsy results for confirmation, I recieved a letter from my sons consultant confirming crohns from the biopsies the next day I recieved a phone call from a bowel specialist who is taking over as his consultant and she informed me the biopsy was inconclusive and she wasnt convinced it is crohns he has now had further blood tests that came back normal and stool sample is normal and always has been he is still getting pains and bleeding he now has to have an mri next week, I just want a diagnosis one way or the other it is very confusing I have told my son he has crohns then told him the next day he didnt then and now that he actually may have it!!! Does it sound like its crohns or if not what else could it be??

Hello and welcome to the forum. I am sorry to hear that you are having difficulties getting a definitive answer for your son, the symptoms he has can happen with crohns.

Out of interest have any meds been prescribed for him at all? One thing I would say is if after further tests the GI doc tries to say it is IBS I would say get another opinion. If nothing else as far as I am aware bleeding does not happen with IBS.

We also have a forum here for parents so please do have wander over so you can have a chat with the mums and dads here: http://www.crohnsforum.com/forumdisplay.php?f=49.

Will be keeping fingers crossed you can get some answers soon.

AB
xx

Hi, perhaps its UC that your son has, it certainly sounds like he has IBD it just might not be conclusive as to which one, this is quite a common situation.

Hi Angrybird, no meds presribed yet his doctor told me today that he may go onto steroids after the mri scan even if they cannot get a definate diagnosis.

Hi Claire and welcome to the community I'm so sorry to hear about your son, that's terrible My heart goes out to your entire family.

First off, I echo Angrybird's suggestion of checking out our Parents of Kids with IBD section. The parents there are an amazing group.

If you're able, I would get a copy of what the biopsy results said and post them on this forum. I'm quite curious why one doctor said Crohn's and another said inconclusive.

One thing I'd definitely look into with them talking steroids is enteral nutrition. It has the same remission induction rates as prednisone AND has the added benefit of pretty much no side effects and helps your child get the nutrition they need to stem that weight loss and hopefully even reverse it.

We're here for you!