Some say its chrones?

[helpuslive]

I'm a thirteen year old female, with chronic abdominal pain that has been coming on and off since i was born. Doctors could never determine what was wrong, so they just labeled it irritable bowl syndrome, but recently i was in the hospital for about a week.

   Before, I spiraled into trouble for about a month, of feeling continuously nauseous, tired, and on and off extreme abdominal pain. Soon it came to the point where I could not stand up for more than 3 seconds without falling to the ground in complete exhaustion and nausea. Then i would have to lay there for about ten minutes to not pass out, where i would hear an intense sizzly sound in my ears, like listening to bacon sizzle. My skin become paper white pale, and I lost 5-10 pounds. I went to the hospital, where they tested my hemoglobin to be about 5.4 and dropping. They gave me two blood transfusions to get it up to about a 10 or 11. I have iron deficiency anemia. Though, originally when we went in, they told us it was from a dramatic loss of 3-4, if not more, cups of blood in about a month or less. They told us the only logical explanation was I had internal bleeding. Though i had every standard test, and more, they did not find anything. Some say its chrones, but i don't have diarrhea.

  Soon not getting much more information, they seemed to have given up. So now i have to live the rest of my life on iron pills and an abnormally healthy diet, which even then, doesn't seem to make much of a difference.

I've been out of the hospital for months now, but I'm spiraling into the same troubles. My hemoglobin is going down, at about a 9 or 10 right now.

I'm thirteen, female, roughly 4'11, and 100-105 pounds.

Symptoms:
nausea
tiredness
weight gain-loss
extreme abdominal pain every now and then
low hemoglobin
sizzling in ears

[jandjhill2000]

Hey I had the same symptoms when I was 13 and we never found out what it was. It just went away and 5 years later I found out I had Ulcerative Colitis. You need to ask your parents to have you checked for it. By the time my doctors found mine it was as bad as Crohn's Disease. I had to have my entire large intestine taken out at the age of 18. It is hereditary and skips generations. I now have 3 kids and none of them have it. Thank God. I had a total colectomy and a J-pouch in 1998. I was feeling weak, vomiting, and diarrhea, and nausea. I was also fainting. I was tried on many different med's and many tests run. Tell your parents to demand they figure out what is wrong with you before it is too late. I almost died waiting for my doctor whom I no longer have to figure it out. They just kept putting me in the hospital and giving nausea meds and pain meds. It's IMPORTANT to do research and be your own best advocate. I read everything I could get my hands on about the subject during the times I spent in the hospital. Good Luck and Best Wishes. If you do have it there is surgery and its not the end of the world. Just be glad you are alive and can help educate people about the condition.

[lizziecee]

Hi - your symptoms do indicate some kind of intestinal problem. Have your doctors done a colonoscopy and/or endoscopy?  Biopsying any suspicious tissue in the colon or small lintestine, is usually the preferred procedure to rule in/out either of the two inflammatory bowel diseases, Ulcerative Colitis (affects only the colon)  or Crohn's (which can affect any part of the GI tract, from mouth to anus).  Crohn's disease does not always present with diarrhea. Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) does not cause bleeding and is not classified as an IBD, as far as I know. It is often a "lazy" diagnosis, when no other cause can be found for symptoms such as yours.

Perhaps you could see a gastroenterologist who has significant experience with either of the 2 IBD diseases, and get a proper diagnosis for your problems.

A C-reactive protein blood test can be useful since if it is higher than the norm of 5, this indicates an inflammatory condition somewhere in the body.  Additionally, a calprotectin stool assay test is also often used here in England, to identify inflammation in the intestines. Both these tests are non-invasive (as opposed to the colonoscopy and upper endoscopy) and relatively cheap to do.

I hope you get some answers soon, which lead to proper medication.

Liz.