Colonoscopy Results

[Guest gillian502]

My results from the recent colonoscopy and second endoscopy I had are now in, and I was told that I have a second disease. It's chronic colitis and it's apparently everywhere in my colon, according to my dr. I'm very upset over this, of course, and was wondering if anyone else here has both celiac disease and Colitis, too. I was prescribed Asacol and will begin that drug tomorrow (anyone else here ever used that?) The dr. also said most of my Sprue appears to be gone, or at least improving, which is weird because the antobodies in my blood haven't dropped at all. Right now I just can't believe that I am only 30 and have two diseases neither of which runs in my family. Really depressing!

[Guest jhmom]

Sorry to hear of this, I do hope the meds begin to kick in and start working for you soon! I too have not improved as much as I thought I would have after being gluten-free for almost 8 months. I still have "some" abdominal pain and loose BM's everyday, hardly ever have a normal one. I know something else must be wrong but have not got the nerve up to go back to the GI doc.

I do hope you begin to feel better soon, take care & God Bless

[Nin]

I found out I was gluten/dairy/yeast/egg sensitive through stool tests done with>www.Enterolab.com

They give the prices on their site, and most insurance companies will cover at least part of the cost. I found out both my kids also have the same problem, so it makes it a lot easier to know what to avoid.

I had previously done the allergy/sensitivity testing and found other foods I was sensitive to, and I have read that it is difficult to heal unless you avoid all the things you are sensitive to. If you can't afford this,I have read you can avoid the food you think you might be sensitive to for 4-5 days, and then first thing in the morning eat just that thing. Check your pulse before eating it and again during the 2 hours following, if your pulse increase it supposedly means you are reacting to that food.

good luck, Nin

[SteveW]

Sorry to hear about that. I found out that I have Celiac D and Crohns about a month ago. I was very bummed when I was told and I'm still down about it. Not really sure how to react to news like that. All the bad side effects that can happen down the road run through my head and it depresses me. I'm 34 and having both of these diseases seems like a lot of baggage as far as carrying on a somewhat normal social life. But I'm doing my best to think positive and hopefully with a Gluten Free Diet, medication and more relaxed way of life, things will turn out fine.

Speaking of the positive -the meds I have taken have worked for me so far(knock on wood).

I was given 40 mg of prednisone for 2 week and have been cutting back slowly. I

[Guest gillian502]

Steve,

Thanks, I too am very depressed right now and feel shocked to be this age and have 2 diseases to deal with. I don't understand why I wasn't put on Prednisone for 2 weeks just to get this problem under control, then switched over to the Asacol later. Seems like that is the usual way to go, but my dr. has very negative feelings about steroids. I thought they are usually no problem at all in the short term? Have you noticed any major side effects from Prednisone? Asacol is a "sulfa" drug, used for inflammation, and considered safer than steroids, but is usually used in preventing inflammation...my inflammation is currently there, so I really probably should've gone with Prednisone, but I guess I'll try this first and see how it goes. One question: What is the difference between Colitis and Crohn's? They're both inflammation of the intestine, so how does the dr. know one from the other? I asked my dr. which type of colitis I have, and he doesn't know!

[gf4life]

Hi Gillian,

I'm sorry to hear about you having colitis. At least you know what is wrong and that you are doing well on the gluten-free diet with the Celiac Disease. When I had my colonoscopy my doctor took biopsies to test for microscopic colitis, she said there was a lot of inflammation in my colon, but since the biopsies were neg. for MC she didn't say anything else about it. And when I asked for them to mail me copies of the biopsy reports they only sent it for my endoscopy. I keep meanig to call them again, but never get around to it. I still wonder if that is part of the reason I still have some occasional rumbling in my intestines and fairly frequent loose stool...My children's Ped. GI thinks that both my son and I have some sort of inflammatory bowel disease.

It would be nice if they could pin point what is causing your colitis, so that you could do something to help it, other than meds. I hope the medication starts to work for you.

God bless,

Mariann

[SteveW]

Gillian

For the first 2 weeks I was taking 40 mg of Prednisone I slept only 3 hours a night-I also got a nasty cold/flu. I was very hungry and ate all the time( a good thing for me). The thing is I didn't realize how long it takes to get off Prednisone. When all is said and done It will take around 4 -5 months.

The side effects at the moment (10 mgs a day) are pretty much gone.

Sometimes I feel like I'm getting my GI symptoms back as I lower the dose but after a day or two things settle down. Keeping my fingers crossed.

I'm not sure what the difference is. I think Crohns can be in the small and large intestine while Colitis is in the large only.

Crohns also effects all layers of tissue while Colitis is just one.

Correct me if I'm wrong

They can tell the difference from a Biopsy, location of irritation, Blood tests (Crohns and Colitis have different anti bodies), and how you react to certain meds will also give clues. Thats as much as I know.

Good luck