Focal active colitis and chronic pain

First, thank you for taking the time to read and review this.  I'm at my wit's end and tired of feeling so terrible.

I am 30, female, slightly overweight.

I have been suffering from chronic diarrhea for over 9 years.  Crampy abdominal pain, nausea, diarrhea, or excessive bathroom trips with formed stools.  A 'good' day means less than 6 bowel movements for me.  A 'bad' day can easily be 15+.

I have had 3 colonoscopies.  The first one turned up focal active colitis and a few polyps, which were removed.  My doctor disregarded the colitis and told me I had IBS.  Fine, no problem.

Fast forward about 4 years.  Still having lots of diarrhea and pain, and have progressed to passing some blood and lots of mucus.  I'll go and pass nothing BUT blood-streaked mucus.  Repeated colonoscopy was negative except for a bleeding internal hemorrhoid.  Ok, fine.

Go forward a few more years.  Things have gotten even worse.  I have had 3 trips to the ER from terrible 'flares' which consisted of pure water diarrhea (over 25 trips in 6 hours), fever, nausea, and occasional vomiting.  Lots of pain, mostly on upper right side.  They have scanned my gallbladder multiple times.  Nothing.  I was actually admitted to the hospital one time for 3 days due to the severity of the attack and was released with no real answers.

After the third ER trip, I was referred to the specialty hospital in the area.  They repeated the colonoscopy and again turned up focal active colitis.  The doctor there has been treating me with Lialda and Entocort.  The number of bathroom trips has decreased to about 5-6 a day, and things are much more 'solid'.  However, the pain is steadily getting worse.  It's mostly left side, from under my ribcage down to above my hip.  I get it on the upper right side as well, but generally not as severe.

I would appreciate any insight you might have on this.  Is this 'just' IBS or is something else going on?

[Ratnakar Kini, MD]

Hi,
Can I have complete reports of colonoscopy and the biopsy?

[leysamie]

Hi there,

The colonoscopy report was this :

Terminal ileum - ileocolonic mucosa with no significant pathologic alteration
Random colon, biopsy - Colonic muscosa with nonspecific focal active colitis - negative for granulomata, dysplasia, or features of chronicity
Duodenum - duodenal mucosa with no significant pathologic alteration

Thanks!