A few questions regarding Chrohns typical symptoms

[Spartan114]

So about 10 months ago I started a recurring pattern of the runs, about once a month I’ll have significant cramping followed by a blowout and then oddly my bowel habit will go right back to normal out of nowhere. Once I had a complete blowout followed by a normal bowel movement the same day. Often times there will be mucus in the normal movements afterwards too, not a lot like with the diahhrea but just more than normal.

My Dr has done several in depth blood tests on my liver and kidney functions (once the stool looked pale) everything was normal, several CBC’s and everything looked good. The only oddity was my B12 was ever so slightly low once, I think the low cut off was 300 and I tested like 298 or 297 which corrected itself a month later, still lower end normal but normal.

The Dr is thinking IBS as I have been under a ton of stress starting 10 months ago, we moved, I started new work, other health concerns popped up and I’ve been an anxiety riddled wreck for all of it. I can see the direct impact as once after seeing a specialist for other concerns I had a blowout and I’d image that did directly correlate to my anxiety with that appointment.

I would say I’m more gassy and bloated overall but I can’t say that for sure, it’s the kind of thing you don’t notice until you think about it and then you tend to be hyper aware.

So ultimately, I have had a blowout about once a month for 10 months now, the entirety of which I’ve been under immense stressors. I know there isn’t a definitive test for Chron’s disease or Ulcerative Colitis but I was wondering if I should push for more tests or just work on my stress and trust it’s IBS?

The Dr said he wasn’t terribly worried about IBD as my inflammation markers are all very normal.

[Schultz08]

Trust your gut (no pun intended). My first doctor told me I'm fine and sent me on my way with famoditine. So i went to another doctor who did more tests. Come to find out that I have a stricture in my small bowel. If you feel like something is wrong, push for more tests or another doctor.

[Nazareth434]

Hmmm- this does sound like a bowel issue of some kind- early stages of things like Crohn's, colitis etc usually crop up once amonth or so- maybe a few times- when in the early stages- you'll find yourself all of a sudden running for a bathroom- or taking a trip and needing to stop which is unusual=- and yes, usually you'll see mucus in the stool- even when not having the D-
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Usually though there will be some markers indicating a disease/inflammation- but not always- especially in early stages- but at this point, since you aren't getting any indications medically- you might wanna try diets specifically geared towards bowel issues- because early stage bowel issues can sometimes be totally corrected with diet- but I have my doubts about that- bowel issues are usually due to the body attacking itself because something goes wonky- and diet in my opinion would only have a minimal effect on correcting that malfunction, but i guess some folks do pretty well sometimes on diets- Fiber i nearly stages is important- later stages fiber will aggravate the issue supposedly-
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IF you begin to have more frequent bouts of D- get yourself some metamucil to have on hand- it will at least bulk up the D- though it won't slow down how much you have to go- but it will help especially if you have to travel somewhere with the D- I have an iliostomy, so i take it three times a day to help with the constant D-  
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Do you find yourself sweating unusually? like you have a low grade fever? This is common with bowel problems- Also- have you noticed any loss of strength/endurance? This can result from loss of nutrition due to D- but these things usually happen when the disease begins to progress-
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IF you find the D begins getting worse- or more frequent- you will have to likely get a colonoscopy at some point-
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Stress is a definite aggravation of bowel issues- for sure- IF possible, try to limit it as much as possible- Even small unrecognizable stressors can negatively impact our health- especially when we have bowel issues or other autoimmune diseases- so in early stages, limiting stress and changing diets can be really helpful in calming down the problems sometimes-
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Speaking of diets- there may be something you are eating that is causing the D- maybe something new you added to your diet once in awhile? Try to figure out what it is- when you get a bout of D- try to remember what you had the day before- Maybe something you're drinking too- - something that just doesn't agree with your system? I know I can't eat out for fried food- that really gives me the D badly- I can eat bland foods like say at subway- but spicy stuff just wrecks me-
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There actually are pretty good tests for Crohn's and i think colitis too- simple test- collect a sample of poo- and take ot hospital lab- it's pretty accurate and will show any indications of inflammation or activity of Crohn's-  You can read about it here: https://www.ibdrelief.com/learn/what-is-faecal-calprotectin-test-for-ibd
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Do try to catch it early if you do have something- trust the test results- but keep an eye on the symptoms you are having- if it gets worse- push for answers- but if you catch it early enough, you stand a better chance of getting it into remission with only milder medications- if it's advanced, it is gonna take heavy duty meds that you really don't want to have to take- they are basically chemo drugs- some of them- not pleasant at all- and you could eventually get so bad if you don't get treatment, that you'd need to get an ostomy of some kind- uggh-  so be assertive if you find your symptoms getting worse- but right now your symptoms don't seem to be too bad- Those are just worst case scenarios- don't be alarmed by that- it could be something as easy as figuring out what kind of food might be aggravating or disagreeing with your system- as we get older- we can't tolerate some foods we used to be able to-

[Spartan114]

I should also mention my diet since moving has been terrible, even my fiancée has had a few blowouts. I was tested for the Celiac gene which came back negative. So either way I’ll keep an eye on it but the Dr seems confident in his assessment.

[Spartan114]

No I haven’t had any sweating except once when I was literally in the act of a blowout in the bathroom. Otherwise no fever or sweating out of the norm. Every time I’ve felt weak was due to not eating that morning or poor sleep so nothing remarkable there either.