IBD?

My daughter who is eleven years old, has been passing bloody mucous.  The first time, she had it just once.  That was about two and a half weeks ago.  This time, she had it for four days in a row, at at every bowel movement.  The movements were loose at the beginning, but improved.  Now they are normal except for the blood and mucous, which is getting less, also.  This is accompanied by a host of other symptoms, including stomach pain, headache, and a lot of joint pain, mostly in her knees, wrists and fingers and sore throat.  Her stool samples were positive for blood and negative for infection. (A throat culture was neg. for strep, and a CBC showed nothing unusual).  She's been refered to the city's Childrens hospital for evaluation, but we have to wait three more weeks to be seen.  Does this sound like Inflamatory Bowel Disease?  My mother had acute ulcerative colitis and my brother has proctitis.  Another note, she has heart disease and asthma.
Bev

[debra]

Bev,
My daughter is 14 and has IBD. If your daughter has pain or discomfort prior to bowel movements and frequent bowel movements she should see a GI doc. Instead of waiting if you are very concerned, make a trip to your Children's Hosp ER.

[Sandrae from England,Worried mum]

My daughter is almost 15 and has had runny stools since she was a
baby, after many tests at age 2 she was diagnosed as having IBS
As she is now a lot older and still has dioreah and sometimes
has lower right abdominal pain, and often feel sick in her stomach before passing stools ,sometimes nocturnal stools as well. For about the last year she has had chronic fatigue and was
diagnosed with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, without any real test to
rule out any other illnesses apart from a full blood test at our
local doctors.
We have since changed her to an adult specialist who is very concerned that she has had runny stools all this time,also she has had Gardia Lamblia twice 1 year apart, no one else in the family had it as we were all tested.
She suffers from chills and sweats and has quite a low body temp
35.0 - 35.8  
Can anyone shed any light on this subject ? Can you have IDB
and nothing show up in your blood tests?
Also a sigmoidoscopy of large bowel seemed fine plus lactose tolerence test is fine but thankfully now after all this time we have a Gastro doc who is interested as Pead doc missed chronic reflux for fourteen years as she had chronic ccough and now on
med for reflux all is well with asthma.

Please if any one can help i would be extremley grateful as
she has suffered long enough with all of the above and excema

[SORRY HAD TO POST HERE AS REALLY CONCERN]

I am really desperate for some help in relation to my
daughter ,previous question Worried mum England,
Someone please help as you all seem to be more experienced
and are fellow sufferers..

My daughter has pain on passing any type of stool also
more often than not she has terrible pain on passing water
what can we do in the mean time whilst she awaits more
tests she does not make a fuss but it is getting her down.

[petra]

To Sandrae

i dont no if u are still searching for answers - because now its late May when i read this.

i have crohn's disease - a form of IBS and have had since 1988.

my symptoms:

blood and mucous in stool, extreme fatigue (assumed to be laziness), extreme weight loss, chronic diarrhea, problems swallowing food because it hurt when food went down, i also lost my appetite as a result and then became extremely dehydrated. i dont always get all the symptoms when i have a flareup - sometimes its just the blood and diarrhea.
the good news is there are medications that may help - if this is your daughter's problem as well.

it took some time before a doctor suggested it might be crohn's.

i was sent to a gastroenterologist in london.
i was put through ultrasounds, x-rays of the bottom end, i had an upper GI done, a colonoscopy,and yes i did have blood tests done which showed an abnormal white and red blood cell count and low iron, etc.

i dont no what your daughter's blood was tested for but specifically my history has been that i get checked for iron levels, folic acid, b12 vitamin, they check my white and red blood cell count.

my mother is an amazing woman in my life and continues to be there for me with new ideas and support. i am reading a book for a second time in years - its called food and the gut reaction - intestinal health through diet for 6 different types of bowel diseases- crohn's, ulcerative colitis, diverticulitis, celiac, cystic fibrosis and chronic diarrhea. anyway it's written by elaine gottschall, ba,msc. u can guess it focuses mainly on diet
i am stubborn at this age and again trying to find a way to fight this thing but have a hard time sticking to a particular diet - so its harder for me

but your daughter is young and its worth a  try. u might want to read it.

i dont no if ive helped or not - i hope so. feel free to email me back and let me no what has happened with your daughter since april. and/or if diet does help. pn

[Karol Henderson]

I have Fibrimyalgia. I believe that if you are having IBS and cronic (chronic) fatuge you should be checked for Fibro. These are just some of the signs of the deases. People should always remember that this is a diffacult desese to live with but it will not end your life.


            This may only be another option.

[Amy]

I am 25 years old.  I was diagnosed with IBS when I was in highschool.  I had all the symptoms of chills, cold sweats, pain in the rt. upper abdomen, and my pain attacks would come in waves, something like contractions.  I would have diarrhea, constipation.  I had all the tests from barium enemas, to sigmoidoscopy. Diverticulitis was ruled out.  This past March I had gallbladder surgery and removed, I haven't had any pains from my IBS since then.  I wonder still today, was I incorrectly diagnosed for IBS instead of gallbladder disease or did I have both?..  Levsin S/L (sublingual) was a great medicine for me to take for my IBS. I didn't have any side affects, and it would stop the pain w/in 15 minutes.

[Amy]

I am 25 years old.  I was diagnosed with IBS when I was in highschool.  I had all the symptoms of chills, cold sweats, pain in the rt. upper abdomen, and my pain attacks would come in waves, something like contractions.  I would have diarrhea, constipation.  I had all the tests from barium enemas, to sigmoidoscopy. Diverticulitis was ruled out.  This past March I had gallbladder surgery and removed, I haven't had any pains from my IBS since then.  I wonder still today, was I incorrectly diagnosed for IBS instead of gallbladder disease or did I have both?..  Levsin S/L (sublingual) was a great medicine for me to take for my IBS. I didn't have any side affects, and it would stop the pain w/in 15 minutes.

[Darlene]

I have celiac sprue disease and was misdiagnosed for about 5 years with IBS.  Diagnosis: There are non-invasive antibody tests (to serve as indicators) but must have small intestinal biopsy (to test for atrophy of small intestine) for confirmation. I recommend that anyone diagnosed with IBS be tested for celiac disease before settling with the IBS diagnosis.  The symptoms vary from person to person so it's hard to diagnose via "classic" symptoms.  This disease is thought to have increased to 1:300 people according to www.celiac.com website (much more than previously thought). It is treated by a simple gluten-free life-long diet.  However, you must be tested before trying gluten-free diet or the results may come back negative.  Also, use a laboratory that has extensive experience interpreting the results (i.e., SmithKline).  If the disease goes untreated, there is a 15% chance of intestinal lymphoma.  Please rule celiac disease out before settling with a lifetime of pain.