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Hi everyone. I am finding myself now in the familiar diagnostic limbo. Please let me share my story with you.

I have always had a "spastic/nervous colon," or IBS, ever since I was young. Quite often as a child I would have bouts of diarrhea. I always assumed this was just normal. About three years ago, after I had returned home from having lived abroad for the summer, I had a strangely isolated incident of extreme arthritis in my wrist and fingers, which rendered my hand completely unusable for more than a month. I had high CRP levels, and was sent to a specialist who conducted an ANA panel. I tested positive for scleroderma, but since I had no symptoms of it, the doctor determined this was likely a lab error. After that, every once and a while, I would get bouts of diarrhea, but I was pretty regular for the most part. 

However, a few weeks ago, I began experiencing more and more frequent bouts of diarrhea. I would take over-the-counter medication to stop it, but after a few days it would start again. Then, about two and a half weeks ago, I got the most intense and painful diarrhea I have ever had. I was having 7-10 episodes of diarrhea a day, with intense, intermittent pain immediately to the right of my belly button, and on my left abdomen. After three days of this, I had a lot of blood in my stool, and finally went to the doctor. She thought it could be diverticulitis, which runs in my family. The gastroenterologist on staff did a brief examination and determined that although I have hemorrhoids (also runs in the family), the blood was definitely coming from higher up in my colon. He wanted me to do a colonoscopy the next day, but I was unable to do so, so I asked to postpone for the next week.

A couple of days later, however, I was back in the hospital. My blood tests showed elevated CRP, ESR, high monocyte count, and low levels total protein, albumin, globulins, and amylase. The doctor ended up doing the colonoscopy the following day. He found patchy erythema in my sigmoid, from where he suspected the bleeding had come, as well as small erosions in my terminal ileum. He took biopsies of both and sent me home. 

Over the next week, I began to feel a little better--the diarrhea was decreasing and not as frequent or urgent. At the same time, I continued to have no appetite and to lose weight. I met the doctor a week later, and he told me the results were inconclusive. The biopsy did reveal inflammation, some cryptal architectural distortion, neutrophils, and lymphoplasmacytosis in my sigmoid colon. However, there was no inflammation in the ileum. He asked me to do a fecal calprotein test and one more round of blood tests. The doctor rushed away quickly and left me with his presumptuous resident, who told me that I likely have IBS. Of course, through my research I know that IBS does NOT cause inflammation and damage to the colon. I provided a stool sample later that day, and my blood tests showed only increased monocytes (although they were going down from the previous week), and elevated ESR (which usually takes a while to decrease anyway). He did not test my renal and liver function this time.

Today--another week later-- I received the results of the fecal protein. Negative. Now, I am glad it is negative—because of course, of course, I don’t want to have Crohn’s disease. But I am equally frustrated. If I was having a flare-up, which caused the severe intermittent pain, urgent and frequent diarrhea, and blood in the stool, I was definitely at the tail end of it when I gave the sample for the cal protein test. 

I feel like IBS is a cheap cop-out that does not explain my symptoms, biopsies, and test results. And I continue to have little signs of Crohn’s symptoms. Mild arthritis in my wrist. This morning, my gums were bleeding. Pain to the right of

Reply posted for averybusybee.

I didn't realize that my message got cut off. Here is the rest:

Pain to the right of my bellybutton. And the diarrhea, while decreasing, continues still.

I am living in a country outside the US, that is quite small. The surgeon who I saw is supposedly one of the best here, so I’m at a loss for what to do. If I saw another doctor, I worry she/he would simply defer to the original surgeon. Not to mention, this is quite costly, especially after the hospitalization and all the tests. 

So my question is: could these symptoms just be a bizarre and really bad case of IBS? I know the forum isn’t made up of medical professionals, but rather people with experience with IBD. I’m frustrated, after three weeks of pain, tests, and no answers. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.