Hi,
Mine is a strange story. I was dx with scleroderma in 2009 or so. My colon just suddenly stopped working and I was diagnosed with severe colonic inertia. I was on every laxative known to man, amitiza, miraxlax, lactulose you name it. I was in misery, gas, bloating, pain no bm's and having to do a bowel prep pretty much every weekend.
I decided to try and find a new GI doc. I went through 3 more before I found my current doctor who decided that he didn't want to blame the scleroderma for the non-functioning colon. He went back to the age old diagnosis of IBS from when I was a kid and decided to try me a an SNRI called Pristiq.
Within 2 weeks I was having diarrhea 6-12 times a day. At first we were thrilled until it continued....
In the meantime my family and I decided that we needed to see the best sclero doc in the country so we flew out to Johns Hopkins to see if scleroderma was really my diagnosis. The doctor decided that I had UCTD (undifferentiated connective tissue disease or overlap syndrome) in other words I had several symptoms of scleroderma, lupus and sjogren's but not enough of any to make a definate diagnosis.
While my hubby and I were in MD we decided to stay a few days in D.C. and see the sites since we had never been. Of course this is when the $*it hit the fan (pun definately intended). I was trying desperately (while standing in front of the white house) to not soil myself. I had never gone through anything like this. I felt some sort of implosion, like everything trying to come out had suddenly gone back up and the urge to go was gone. I made it to the bathroom and we got back to our hotel and I slept from 6:30 pm until 11:30 the next morning.
On the plane on the way home my symptoms got worse. By the time we got home and to baggage claim I could hardly stand on my own and was passing what looked like blood. I was very pale and unable to stand up straight or walk without assistance. The worst pain was in my lower left abdomen and it felt as though I had just had abdominal surgery or pulled a muscle terribly. I also had terrible cramping. I just wanted to get home. There was no way that was going to happen.
In the car my pain and cramping worsened and my Mom drove us to the nearest hospital where they did a CT scan and found that my colon and stomach lining were thickened. The pain was unbearable. I had 2 children, this was much worse than child birth.
They gave me morphine which did nothing. Finally at 3:00 am Sunday morning they sent me home. I was admitted to my hospital where my GI doc was Monday afternoon and was there for 6 days. I was extremely dehydrated and still having diarrhea constantly. The pain on the lower left side was getting better but the doctor was concerned because I was anemic and my C-Reactive protein was a whopping 156.6!
They did a sigmoidoscopy and biopsies and found the microscopic colitis, (lymphocystic.) A few days later they did an upper endoscopy which turned out ok.
I am very torn on what to believe. I have many health issues from autoimmune issues to herniated discs, hypothyroid, chronic bladder inflammation, you name it. The thing is, I was extremely constipated to the point where I failed sitz marker studies on a full regimine of laxatives. I had every study done, anal manometry, defecography you name it. Severe colonic intertia due to scleroderma.
Now not only do I NOT have scleroderma but I have microscopic colitis which is causing severe diarrhea. HOW DOES THIS HAPPEN? It has to have something to do with either the SNRI or the synthroid that I'm taking or the combo of the two or maybe the use of Celebrex years ago.
Can anyone relate to this?
I am taking pepto bismol 4x's a day. The doc has UPPED my SNRI to 100 mg from 50 mg (Pritiq). I am back to work but having severe cramps if I eat or drink anything. I am very confused and I must admit a little scared.
Any comments are welcome. Thanks for reading this far!
-Kris
Mine is a strange story. I was dx with scleroderma in 2009 or so. My colon just suddenly stopped working and I was diagnosed with severe colonic inertia. I was on every laxative known to man, amitiza, miraxlax, lactulose you name it. I was in misery, gas, bloating, pain no bm's and having to do a bowel prep pretty much every weekend.
I decided to try and find a new GI doc. I went through 3 more before I found my current doctor who decided that he didn't want to blame the scleroderma for the non-functioning colon. He went back to the age old diagnosis of IBS from when I was a kid and decided to try me a an SNRI called Pristiq.
Within 2 weeks I was having diarrhea 6-12 times a day. At first we were thrilled until it continued....
In the meantime my family and I decided that we needed to see the best sclero doc in the country so we flew out to Johns Hopkins to see if scleroderma was really my diagnosis. The doctor decided that I had UCTD (undifferentiated connective tissue disease or overlap syndrome) in other words I had several symptoms of scleroderma, lupus and sjogren's but not enough of any to make a definate diagnosis.
While my hubby and I were in MD we decided to stay a few days in D.C. and see the sites since we had never been. Of course this is when the $*it hit the fan (pun definately intended). I was trying desperately (while standing in front of the white house) to not soil myself. I had never gone through anything like this. I felt some sort of implosion, like everything trying to come out had suddenly gone back up and the urge to go was gone. I made it to the bathroom and we got back to our hotel and I slept from 6:30 pm until 11:30 the next morning.
On the plane on the way home my symptoms got worse. By the time we got home and to baggage claim I could hardly stand on my own and was passing what looked like blood. I was very pale and unable to stand up straight or walk without assistance. The worst pain was in my lower left abdomen and it felt as though I had just had abdominal surgery or pulled a muscle terribly. I also had terrible cramping. I just wanted to get home. There was no way that was going to happen.
In the car my pain and cramping worsened and my Mom drove us to the nearest hospital where they did a CT scan and found that my colon and stomach lining were thickened. The pain was unbearable. I had 2 children, this was much worse than child birth.
They gave me morphine which did nothing. Finally at 3:00 am Sunday morning they sent me home. I was admitted to my hospital where my GI doc was Monday afternoon and was there for 6 days. I was extremely dehydrated and still having diarrhea constantly. The pain on the lower left side was getting better but the doctor was concerned because I was anemic and my C-Reactive protein was a whopping 156.6!
They did a sigmoidoscopy and biopsies and found the microscopic colitis, (lymphocystic.) A few days later they did an upper endoscopy which turned out ok.
I am very torn on what to believe. I have many health issues from autoimmune issues to herniated discs, hypothyroid, chronic bladder inflammation, you name it. The thing is, I was extremely constipated to the point where I failed sitz marker studies on a full regimine of laxatives. I had every study done, anal manometry, defecography you name it. Severe colonic intertia due to scleroderma.
Now not only do I NOT have scleroderma but I have microscopic colitis which is causing severe diarrhea. HOW DOES THIS HAPPEN? It has to have something to do with either the SNRI or the synthroid that I'm taking or the combo of the two or maybe the use of Celebrex years ago.
Can anyone relate to this?
I am taking pepto bismol 4x's a day. The doc has UPPED my SNRI to 100 mg from 50 mg (Pritiq). I am back to work but having severe cramps if I eat or drink anything. I am very confused and I must admit a little scared.
Any comments are welcome. Thanks for reading this far!
-Kris
