Digestive problems for years....this couldt take a bit to explain, but I would appreciate any help because I am really discouraged right now!

[Devhina]

Ever since I was very small I have had digestive issues.  severe cramping, pain, and diarrhea (forgive my spelling it is probably atrocious, I just got back from a colonoscopy and endoscopy)  When I was about 19, my digestive issues got really bad again, to the ponit that I could barely eat anything and I lived for about semester on what little chicken noodle soup, crackers, and very occasionally little bits of plain bagel that I could choke down.  My digestive issues again flared up in my early 20's (I remember at one point vomiting copiously when I'd barely eaten for several days and my boyfriend and I wondering where the heck it all came from.  Then they gave me propulsid (though I'm not sure how you spell it, and it helped with the larger issues so that I could eat again (although the pain and cramping on bathroom time were still happening all the time and have been since).

Fast forward to work about 6 weeks ago.  I was having such severe abdominal cramping that I had to leave work and go straight to my doctor (keep in mind, abdominal pain and cramping is a normal part of my life, so it has to be pretty bad to make me leave work).  The doctor listened to my digestive system and couldn't hear any sounds of it moving like it should, so she ordered x-rays, which she said, probably wouldn't be able to see anything, so she ordered a CT scan whch did reveal some diverticulosis, but no visible inflammation.  So she said that it was defnitely diverticulitis and put me on cipro and flagyl.  I had the first pain free bathroom trips in a long time.  Unfrtunately, the help did not last long.  I was okay for a couple of weeks, and then the pain started returning and they put me on more cipro and flagyl.  The same thing happened again a couple of weeks later and so she put me on the usual plus prednisone.  And then it just got even worse, so she had me get a colonoscopy and endoscopy.  About a week before the procedure, it was so bad that even when I hadn't eaten anything because I put myself on a liquid diet because of the pain, above and beyond the pain I felt like I'd eaten about three thanksgiving dinners.  A couple days before the procedure that alleviated and the pain mostly alleviated to its usual bathroom state if you know what I mean.

I guess my question is this. They told me that everything looked normal and that there was no inflammation.  Is it all in my head?  Why is it I can barely eat anything and doing so causes me so much pain but they haven't found anything?

Has anyone else had anything like this happen?

[Devhina]

I will ask about that at my next appointment.  I must say that the doctor who performed the test did say that if an answer wasn't forthcoming from the biopsies and my doctor agreed, that I could schedule an appointment with him or his partner so that we could get to the bottom of this.  I just wish I had an answer, a reason, and something that could be fixed.

[mechjagger]

If you haven't done so, I would have your general doctor give you a blood test for Celiac Sprue.  This is often referred to as gluten intolerance, the body's reaction to wheat, barley or rye entering the villi in the upper GI tract.  Now full blown Celiac Sprue can be detected in a colonoscopy, but you can be gluten intolerant yet not Celiac Sprue.  A blood test can determine.  I dealt with this (and testing) for years, often doctors called it IBS.  My pain was random but always felt like glass cutting me right to left in my intestince, followed by diarea.  Sometime the pain would be so bad I would become sick, or feverish.  Going off wheat however wont be a quick fix, it can take weeks for wheat gluten to exit the body.  But you could feel better.  Also if you decide to try removing wheat from you diet before taking a blood test, you will be negative. Also, wheat is in nearly all store bought food, one has to carefully read packages to determine contents.

[Devhina]

I can't see a way to edit my post, but I did want to say that they took biopsies and so the jury is still out on them, but wouldn't they have seen something?