Should get a second opinion on medical advice?

For the past years of my life, I have suffered from abdominal pain, loose bowel movements, fatigue, joint pain, fever blisters, and weight lose at times. I went to the doctor and getting testing done. They said I may have Colitis/Crohn's/Celiac. I had inflammation of the stomach and lower bowel from the one test they did. The symptoms trigger after I eat certain foods like bread or pasta. So they put me on IBS medicine for now and I have to get a colonscopy done. They still haven't done blood tests or anything like that.

Definitely get a second opinion for a condition which should last for the rest of your life. The treatment you select will determine the outcome you get.

Crohn's disease is a rheumatic disease which should be treated with antibiotics and antiinflammatory medications like Flagyl.

Celiac disease is quite different as patients are unable to absorb nutrients due to an intolerance to gluten.

Rheumatic diseases are the result of a defective gene and collagen inflammation, often from a chronic infection. Collagen is present throughout the body, from the eyes, skin and joints to the heart and intestines. Hence, the multiplicity of symptoms, depending on the location of the most affected internal organs or body parts.

I have had seronegative rheumatoid arthritis for 27 years. The telling signs of seronegative rheumatoid arthritis are the following:
- Joint pain in the feet (or cracking ankles) in the early 20's or late teens;
- Fatigue, especially after a moderate exercise like a 30 minute walk;
- Blood test showing a negative or low level of Rheumatoid factor;
- Joint deformities of the fingers, after a few years, a specific sign of rheumatoid arthritis;
- Consecutive X-Rays, over several years, showing bone erosion, a consequence of rheumatoid arthritis;
- Generalized arthritis, involving the whole body;
- Elevated levels of C-Reactive protein and Sedimentation rate, as evidenced in blood tests.

NSAIDs like Voltaren, COX-2 inhibitors like Celebrex, DMARDs such as enteric coated sulfasalazine like Azulfidine EN-tabs or Salazopyrin ENT, methotrexate, Flagyl, acetaminophen like Tylenol, and codeine can all be used to control inflammation and relieve the pain of Crohn's disease.

Regular exercise like walking, biking and swimming could also be helpful for most patients. Make sure that you are not overweight as carrying too much weight can only increase the pain of arthritis in the supporting joints of the hips, knees, ankles and feet.

You should consult a Gastroenterologist working in a university teaching hospital who will order blood tests, scans and X-Rays to confirm his diagnosis.

The American College of Gastroenterology ( http://www.acg.gi.org ) maintains a web search tool to help you find the address and phone number of its members. You can find Gastroenterologists by family name, City or State, inside the USA and Canada. The physician locator of the ACG is found at:

http://www.acg.gi.org/patients/phylocato...

A wealth of information is also available for patients at:

http://www.acg.gi.org/patients

Lyme disease could be a possibility. Ask your doctor to test you for the bacteria causing Lyme disease.

Are there any other cases of Crohn's disease, arthritis or rheumatic diseases among your relatives? Crohn's disease and chronic forms of arthritis are usually prevalent in families where a defective gene is passed on by parents to their children.

There are a few hundred types of arthritis and rheumatic diseases. The good news is that science is progressing rapidly in its understanding of rheumatic diseases.

Antibiotics are now used to achieve full remissions for at least 40%, if not 65% of patients with rheumatoid arthritis. The same could be done for patients with Crohn's disease, the objective being to substitute antibiotics and Flagyl for the immunosuppressive drugs prescribed to some patients. For more info, please join our group at:

http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/ant...

It does sound like Crohn's, but it never hurts to get a second opinion

it never hurts to get a second opinion ..celiac also happens when you have trouble with wheat products..I suffer from a crohns like disease and it could be that also and all the tests your dr is doing is what has to be done for these diseases in order for the correct treatment..good luck..

if it occurs after eating flour based products it could well be coeliac disease which is an intolerance to gluten found in wheat. Why dont you try taking all wheat products out of your diet for a week or two and see if there is an improvement. You will need to eat special bread, rice crackers, rice cerals and potato products, avoid other cereals and breads, pasta and biscuits and cakes unless they have come from the gluten free section of the supermarket.

see what the endoscopy says then decide what you want to do.

Ask for a barium enema.

Your symptoms could line up with any of those diseases although with the fever blisters, that sounds like celiac disease. You can get blood work done to screen for celiac disease and then the final test is an endoscopy that they look at the lining of the small intestine. Also, if your symptoms trigger after bread and pasta, that would indicate a gluten intolerance too.
If you can't get any resolution from your current doctor, contact the head of the support chapter in csaceliacs.org and see which doctor they use.
Good luck!!

sounds like celiac disease/sprue. besides medicating you, did your doctors tell you to avoid gluten/wheat, etc. look up celiac disease or sprue online and discover how to live healthy. you will feel 100% better if you avoid the foods you cannot have.