hukleberrie

Please listen, you need to be on a diet. Did you doctor give you a diet to follow? If this is IBD, you will notice a change when you start this diet. Look up low residue, low fiber diet. No raw fruits & veggies, no nuts, no seeds. I call it the mush diet. But it does work. It has lessened my frequent BMs. I now have between 2-4. ; ) (May also be the prednisone & the fact that I am on more pain meds than before....) The diet sucks, but the difference is there. If you have CD, you will notice this diet helps at least a little.

The small bowel series (follow through) sucks. But it showed a lot in my case. FINALLY backed up what the GI said that I for sure had IBD. Finally. What they do is make you drink this NASTY stuff & then they take an xray, then another, then when the contrast gets to your large intestine, they take this paddle & do flouroscopy on your small bowel. I had an area where the small intestine meets the large intestine (the cecum & ileum) & the contrast puddled there & stopped. It moved REALLY fast & got all the way down to that area in 10-15 minutes, but then just sat there for an hour. I was already having BMs during the x-ray. I knew right then by the look on the radiologist's face that I had a problem. He couldn't tell me for sure though it if is CD or UC, because he couldn't tell if the problem was in the cecum (large=UC) or ileum (small=CD). Let me warn you, you are going to feel crampy & sick.

I get lots of pains, and to tell you the truth, I don't know if there is more than one thing going on or what. I get pelvic pain in my groin area. I get hip/SI/low back pain. I get this feeling of pressure in my lower abd. I get cramps from time to time. No upper right pain. I have had a problem with my left rib in my back, but that is due to what seems to be a rib out of joint partway. The left rib pain is stabbing & burning & there all the time. The hip/SI/Low back pain is a ridiculous ache that is just hard to handle. It's the worst for me. It comes on after long times of sitting & seems to get better when I stretch & move. Other times I just get random abd pains that are mostly discomfort. A lot of bloating & cramps from time to time, depending on what I eat. (Another hint, keep a food diary of what irritates you, what makes your pains worse or makes your D worse...)

Here's the thing when it comes to doctors... your doctor may be a very good doctor, but crohn's disease is not something regular doctors are used to dealing with. You NEED to see a GI. Period. If you even think you have CD, find a GI.

My other advice? Get ALL your medical records. Everything. All your tests. Sometimes doctors don't think low electrolytes or something is that big of a deal, but it could really mean something for you. YOU are going to have to be your own advocate & research your reports. Here's the thing, the surgeon who did my colonoscopy told me that I would be better in a month of taking the azulfidine. What he really thought was he HOPED I would be better (that's what he told my PCP). I think he thought if he told me that, that I wouldn't feel better at all & I had a better chance if I thought I would be better. The only problem was my brother was dying of cancer at the time, so things in my life were really crazy & I was really really sick for a while & didn't push it because the surgeon told me I would be better when the pills were done. So I suffered wondering. When if I had gotten a copy of his report, I would have seen that I did not have a curable colitis at all, he didn't say IBD, but he did mention lymphocytic colitis, which is another rarer form of IBD (but I am pretty sure it's CD). He didn't think I needed a small bowel series because I had had a CT scan like 4 months earlier that didn't say anything about my bowels. But as soon as I went to the GI she ordered the small bowel series that confirmed what she thought I had, IBD.

I would take your mom up on the Mayo clinic if you don't get anywhere with the small bowel series.

BTW, my mom just had her gallbladder out. She was beginning to have a lot of D with it. So, it could be your problem. Upper right pain, cramping, diarrhea.... Have you had a hida scan? I would think you would need that more than an ultrasound. My mom only had thickening of her gallbladder, no stones. But it was for sure causing problems! She feels so much better now that it is out!

I don't have diarrhea much. It's much softer or I go sometimes a zillion times a day it seems (but not lately, lately, I am going much less). I only had actual diarrhea for a week or so in January when I was getting dehydrated. I go much more frequently since I have been sick than I used to, I used to be constipated all the time & only go two times a WEEK. That's why my docs weren't too rushed to dx IBD... But the GI said that's still a big change in my BMs.

I wish you relief, too! And at least a DX!