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Crohn's or not? Anyone have a similar experience? Appreciate any insight...

Posted , 4 users are following.

mbdavis1976
mbdavis1976

Hello,

I'm a healthy 42 yo male who's lived with IBS for >10 years  But recently my situation changed.  My new symptoms started about a month ago with what I presumed was an intestinal infection (fever, diarrhea for a day).  Stool cultures were negative.  Since then I've had pretty much constant abdominal pains that are mild, occasional cramps and are located mostly left lower, lower and right lower.  Lots of churning and gurgling too.  My stools are frequent, mushy but have never been bloody and the diarrhea has very much improved.  My appetite is poor and I have trouble sleeping due to churning / gurgling and cramps.  Occasionally I've woken up in the middle of the night to have a BM.  Had a colonoscopy recently that showed a couple areas in my colon and terminal ileum of "focal, mildly active inflammation and cyptitis".  Pathologist said "not characteristic of Crohn's but cannot rule it out".  GI doc is not convinced it's Crohn's, thinks it's more likely a post infectious inflammation that will eventually calm down.  Plan is to wait a few months and see what happens.  Anyone else have a similar experience?  Did your symptoms get better with time or did you end up on treatment / diagnosed with Crohn's? 

Thanks for any insight!

?Max

0 likes, 4 replies

4 Replies

  • rob2000
    rob2000 mbdavis1976

    Posted

    I have post infectious ibs which is basically ibs from a viral gut infection, which I think made some minor ibs ive always had much worse. I had to follow the fodmap diet and avoid certain foods which I never had to do before. It settled down a lot but still avoid certain foods two years later. I get cramps, gurgling and gas etc if I eat some foods.

    Have you changed your diet? 

    • mbdavis1976
      mbdavis1976 rob2000

      Posted

      Rob

      Thanks for your reply. Do you have symptoms that sometimes keep you up at night?   My cramps and gurgling wake me almost nightly.  Did you have a colonoscopy? My concern is that my colonoscopy showed inflammation  on the biopsy ( granted, it was acute inflammation and they said that it didn’t exactly look like Crohn’s).  

      And I’m in the process of starting to log my diet and try to figure out which foods are triggers.

      Thanks again for the reply.  Glad to hear that your symptoms are getting better.

      Max

    • rob2000
      rob2000 mbdavis1976

      Posted

      When it was bad I used to not sleep at all and also suffer from terrible nausea. I used to rush to the loo and also urintate more at night as this was related so my dr told me. I did suspect crohns as my tongue was cracked up and I suffered from mouth ulcers but diet and time eventually calmed it down. I’d def avoid all high fodmap foods and foods with tough skins too like tomatoes, cucumber etc. I guess it’s hard to tell what it is or what might help as the gut is quite complex. I spoke to some else with post infectious ibs who suffered similar symptoms and he said he had a course of anti inflammatories for something unrelated and it all cleared up. He couldnt carry on taking them as they can cause damage but it seems ibs can be caused by some sort of mild inflammation without someone being diagnosed with crohns. Hopefully a diet will help as I should have followed it sooner instead of trying to get back to normal eating. 
    • mbdavis1976
      mbdavis1976 rob2000

      Posted

      Thanks for the insight.  Much appreciated.  Best wishes on your continued journey to a healthy gut!
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