Hi everyone 
Since this got pretty long I will put headings so you can skip part of it if you want
Bit of background
To start out, I have had mild symptoms of occasional bloating and occasional constipation for a few years (Probably 5 or 6 I guess..). About 2 years ago I had a few "episodes" of sudden urgency to have a bowel movement along with pain and then loose bm. At the time, I was under a lot of stress with university and when I went in with something else and mentioned those episodes to the doctor he felt they were stress related. Have not had that occur for well over a year or 2 now.
Where it all really started..
Anyway, now that the background info is out of the way, my "story" started a bit over a year ago when I went away for a week. The food was not good so I ate mostly all gluten/carb stuff like pasta and bread the entire week, whereas normally I eat mostly fruits, veggies, wraps, rice, etc (vegetarian). I became incredibly constipated, not having any amount of bm at all for about 5 days while I was away. I was not bloated though. When I returned home the constipation continued and i started getting very very distended/bloated. I went and purchased OTC products to try and fix the constipation, eventually that worked and I felt relieved and glad things would go back to normal. However, they never have. After that constipation episode was relieved I began bloating with mostly everything I ate, and having pain. I became constipated just as badly again. My frequent headaches that I normally got became even more frequent and often daily. I became very fatigued. Fainted once. I had constant epigastric tenderness and pain, that was sometimes quite bad, other times just very tender and sore. I also had random pains across my abdomen that would almost buckle me over. I thought maybe gas pains? [Someone I knew who had crohn's at the time said it sounded like when she got bowel spasms.]
Celiac?
I started to suspect celiac. This was eventually ruled out and I had an upper endoscopy and colonoscopy, which were both normal. I was not thinking crohn's at all at this time as the doctor said I did not have it. I completely cut out gluten following the scopes as my doctor stated it could be gluten intolerance rather than celiac.
At first I seemed to notice a big improvement from cutting out gluten, constipation was improved, and bloating was decreased. Headaches mostly gone and pain decreased. It seemed I was only bloating when eating dairy like greek yogurt that I was eating really frequently. I thought by cutting out dairy everything would go back to normal. However, things have just gotten worse. I was completely dairy and gluten free for awhile but the bloating just became more and more frequent. I tried cutting out different foods and it was a constant battle to try to find something that I could eat without symptoms. (and when I'm talking bloating, I am talking -looks like I'm 5-6 months pregnant and feels like I'm going to explode, can't sleep- bloating). I tried acupuncture and many treatments such as probiotics, digestive enzymes, apple cider vinegar before eating, simethicone pills, peppermint oil capsules, fennel capsules, etc etc etc. Nothing worked.
Recent symptoms
I don't remember exactly when but probably january I started getting very nauseous. This would happen following most meals. Eventually it sometimes was happening even before I ate, first thing in the morning, or randomly throughout the day. I never wanted to eat. Then I started vomiting. Now I don't know if I should be calling it more reflux or what, as it usually does not involve a lot of gagging and retching, but seems to almost come up on it's own with the nausea, or sometimes even without nausea.
I tried just living on liquids and that seemed to help quite a lot, but eventually I would always "cheat" and start eating again and it's a constant cycle. It feels like when I am "empty" and cleaned out from laxatives, at first I can eat some with minimal nausea/no vomiting. The bloating will start and not be too bad at first. Then the next meal, I will get increasingly nauseous, and the bloating will get must worse. Usually by the 3rd meal or sometimes the next day the bloating will be horrible, and I will start the vomiting or sometimes just have acid or something come up if not undigested food. I still have the constant epigastric pain/tenderness which can get bad at times, but not near what I would describe as excruciating as I have seen a lot of you here use to describe your pain. The bloating will decrease some overnight, but seems to not really go away unless I use a bunch of laxatives, instead it just keeps getting bigger and bigger if I keep eating.
When I returned to my GI with these recent symptoms after trying to fix it myself with diet changes etc for a few months, he feels I may have a narrowing of my small intestine, as this area has never been explored. He thinks with the symptoms food is getting backed up and that's why after a bit it is starting to come back up, and causing the constipation and bloating. He did not elaborate on what the cause for the narrowing may be so I did some reading and saw that strictures from crohn's is one of the more common reasons for narrowing of small intestines. I know these symptoms are not really typical. I do not get diarrhea unless taking laxatives. But I have read on this forum that some of you diagnosed with crohn's do not get diarrhea either. Also, when reading some of your posts on this forum I see many of you saying the pain is worse than labour and childbirth, which is not what I experience. I am confused and just want to be better, and be able to eat like I used to. I feel like an outcast as everyone else can eat and enjoy themselves and I have to basically starve myself to feel good.
I am booked for a CT in a little under 3 weeks. So just wondering if any of you think this could be crohn's? Sorry it's so long.
Since this got pretty long I will put headings so you can skip part of it if you want Bit of background
To start out, I have had mild symptoms of occasional bloating and occasional constipation for a few years (Probably 5 or 6 I guess..). About 2 years ago I had a few "episodes" of sudden urgency to have a bowel movement along with pain and then loose bm. At the time, I was under a lot of stress with university and when I went in with something else and mentioned those episodes to the doctor he felt they were stress related. Have not had that occur for well over a year or 2 now.
Where it all really started..
Anyway, now that the background info is out of the way, my "story" started a bit over a year ago when I went away for a week. The food was not good so I ate mostly all gluten/carb stuff like pasta and bread the entire week, whereas normally I eat mostly fruits, veggies, wraps, rice, etc (vegetarian). I became incredibly constipated, not having any amount of bm at all for about 5 days while I was away. I was not bloated though. When I returned home the constipation continued and i started getting very very distended/bloated. I went and purchased OTC products to try and fix the constipation, eventually that worked and I felt relieved and glad things would go back to normal. However, they never have. After that constipation episode was relieved I began bloating with mostly everything I ate, and having pain. I became constipated just as badly again. My frequent headaches that I normally got became even more frequent and often daily. I became very fatigued. Fainted once. I had constant epigastric tenderness and pain, that was sometimes quite bad, other times just very tender and sore. I also had random pains across my abdomen that would almost buckle me over. I thought maybe gas pains? [Someone I knew who had crohn's at the time said it sounded like when she got bowel spasms.]
Celiac?
I started to suspect celiac. This was eventually ruled out and I had an upper endoscopy and colonoscopy, which were both normal. I was not thinking crohn's at all at this time as the doctor said I did not have it. I completely cut out gluten following the scopes as my doctor stated it could be gluten intolerance rather than celiac.
At first I seemed to notice a big improvement from cutting out gluten, constipation was improved, and bloating was decreased. Headaches mostly gone and pain decreased. It seemed I was only bloating when eating dairy like greek yogurt that I was eating really frequently. I thought by cutting out dairy everything would go back to normal. However, things have just gotten worse. I was completely dairy and gluten free for awhile but the bloating just became more and more frequent. I tried cutting out different foods and it was a constant battle to try to find something that I could eat without symptoms. (and when I'm talking bloating, I am talking -looks like I'm 5-6 months pregnant and feels like I'm going to explode, can't sleep- bloating). I tried acupuncture and many treatments such as probiotics, digestive enzymes, apple cider vinegar before eating, simethicone pills, peppermint oil capsules, fennel capsules, etc etc etc. Nothing worked.
Recent symptoms
I don't remember exactly when but probably january I started getting very nauseous. This would happen following most meals. Eventually it sometimes was happening even before I ate, first thing in the morning, or randomly throughout the day. I never wanted to eat. Then I started vomiting. Now I don't know if I should be calling it more reflux or what, as it usually does not involve a lot of gagging and retching, but seems to almost come up on it's own with the nausea, or sometimes even without nausea.
I tried just living on liquids and that seemed to help quite a lot, but eventually I would always "cheat" and start eating again and it's a constant cycle. It feels like when I am "empty" and cleaned out from laxatives, at first I can eat some with minimal nausea/no vomiting. The bloating will start and not be too bad at first. Then the next meal, I will get increasingly nauseous, and the bloating will get must worse. Usually by the 3rd meal or sometimes the next day the bloating will be horrible, and I will start the vomiting or sometimes just have acid or something come up if not undigested food. I still have the constant epigastric pain/tenderness which can get bad at times, but not near what I would describe as excruciating as I have seen a lot of you here use to describe your pain. The bloating will decrease some overnight, but seems to not really go away unless I use a bunch of laxatives, instead it just keeps getting bigger and bigger if I keep eating.
When I returned to my GI with these recent symptoms after trying to fix it myself with diet changes etc for a few months, he feels I may have a narrowing of my small intestine, as this area has never been explored. He thinks with the symptoms food is getting backed up and that's why after a bit it is starting to come back up, and causing the constipation and bloating. He did not elaborate on what the cause for the narrowing may be so I did some reading and saw that strictures from crohn's is one of the more common reasons for narrowing of small intestines. I know these symptoms are not really typical. I do not get diarrhea unless taking laxatives. But I have read on this forum that some of you diagnosed with crohn's do not get diarrhea either. Also, when reading some of your posts on this forum I see many of you saying the pain is worse than labour and childbirth, which is not what I experience. I am confused and just want to be better, and be able to eat like I used to. I feel like an outcast as everyone else can eat and enjoy themselves and I have to basically starve myself to feel good.
I am booked for a CT in a little under 3 weeks. So just wondering if any of you think this could be crohn's? Sorry it's so long.
