Just diagnosed with IBD, had a total colectomy. And now they say it may be crohn's?
i am carianne, 13 years old. About 6 or 7 months ago, i started having bloody stools, severe cramps, joint pain, back pain, and much more. it went away for a couple of months, so i ignored it. Then, it came back, worse. i went to visit a gastroentorologist, he did an endoscopy, and a colonoscopy. It showed i had ulceration my colon, except for the beginning and the rectum. Well, he sent me home on 60 mg of prednisone, 3 days later i was only worse. So i was admitted into the hospital for a month, were i had an Upper GI series, and a sigmoidoscopy, showing that the two parts of my colon that weren't inflamed, now were. i ended up getting two doses of Remicade, didn;t work. I had to get a total Colectomy. i was told after this i would feel better, but i didn't feel much better. I ended up having a very deep ulcer in my rectum, which caused pain and bleeding.
So, i had anouther dose of Remicade, it seems to be working.
But i have been having Diahrrea from my Ileostomy, stomach pain, head aches, slight fever, joint pain and weakness.
Could it be Crohn's instead of Coltis?
there is a very strong history of Crohn's, and my aunt has UC.
Carianne,
You are so young to be having to go through so many problems and I'm sorry for that. I don't have any first-hand experience with colectomy so the only advice I can give you is to give your doctor a call to discuss your new and continuing symptoms with him or her.
I'm sure some of our Crohn's community might have some advice for you. So hang in there.
Cheers,
Elizabeth
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It sounds like you've gone through a lot. IBD or inflammatory bowel disease includes both ulcerative colitis and Crohn's. The main difference between the two are location and the degree that the intestine is inflamed. Crohn's can affect anywhere through the entire gastrointestinal tract, from the esophagus through the rectum, while ulcerative colitis in confined to the colon. Colectomy usually cures UC, so if symptoms are recurring Crohn's may be the diagnosis. This should be easily known by having you doctor look over the pathology report from the surgery to know how much of the intestine was inflamed.
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If the rectum was not involved, it is *likely* not UC, and it seems there were skip lesions which is indicative of Crohns. UC tends to start at the rectum and work its way up the colon.
And as the Doc said, a total colectomy is curative for UC.
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