Probably not for the squeamish.

Brutha

i like this place. People here are honest and helpful. there are many different experiences shared, I hope to high heaven someone can offer me some advice or understanding on what has been a shocking five days.

Because of long standing gut ache I went to the doctor. Doctor reviewed me and said, mother lost to bowel cancer, need to use a camera to see inside. (That is the only cancer here, so that's not what ruined me)

Drank the nasty stuff, it was terrible. Went in for an 8:30 pm procedure, I mean who wants to even do that sort of thing that time of night?

It was agony. Pure unfiltered agony, the only time it didn't hurt was when I blacked out. They woke me up to make sure I was ok to let them continue and I let them finish, even though I was making a hell of a noise, simply because mum and the thought of having to redo it later. I am never doing it again.

After god knows how long of the agony and the recovery (left alone while everyone went home on the verge of tears cos of the pain), I leave there. I was told bowel inflammation and diverticula disease (both the definition of unpalatable in their own way) on a a4 report and I go home. Eat normally they said. Great, grilled chicken salad for me tonight. Nothing silly. Then off to bed.

5 am pain worse then before colonoscopy. Struggle through day.

10 pm, stand up, fall over, agony. Worse then what the camera man inflicted. Ambulance. Hospital. Hours. Pain lessening through that time. Unpredictable cramp pains still of the knocking over level of nastiness.

Leave with antibiotics, promises of no stones or perforations, crp test of "extremely high". And told the camera process had paralysed my gut and the pain was it trying to restart.

Basically I had to get on with it. So I have. Well. Have tried.

Some point Sunday belly moves like jelly and back to life. Still regular terrible pain, but it is debilitating but definitely easing. Now to where any of this is actually relevant to this board.

Today the rheum nurse phoned. They were alerted cos of the crp apparently. Lovely lady took info went to consultant and they decided I have to stop all 3 dmards, If I agree, I definitely don't mind cos I know my arthritis now and I would prefer that to be honest.

She also said that bowel inflammation is certainly not unusual in arthritis. She also gave the impression it will settle down after a while. I was hoping to be back at work Thursday. Bit fed up may still be bed bound past then. Has anyone any advice or experience they can offer me on this please? Any help at all is desperately wanted. Any potential timescales for the pain? Any advice on best diet? Anything at all please?

Thank you for reading this disgusting post.

Mark

LisaJ86

Hi Mark

Sorry to hear you are so poorly. I have osteoarthritis so unfortunately can't offer much help but my dad also had bowel cancer and I have friends with Chrohns, When they have inflammation they are advised to have a low residue diet so no all bran fruit etc but white bread, white pasta etc. Something gentle and plain!

Hope you feel better soon!
Lisa

Brutha

Thank you both Lisa and Grace.

Have been on soups and suchlike (trifle!) since Saturday. Will move on to pasta tomorrow. Any idea what with or just veg? Grilled chicken breast? Low fibre seems the way to go. A kind of anti diet!

Rheum nurse phoning back next week. They want me to get a blood test Monday, doctors gave me appt on condition I bring a letter from rheum clinic, which they are going to send anyway to me and the GP. So that won't be a problem. Nurse says she will call me next week to check on me. Prob to discuss back on dmards and naproxen (which I realised might be a problem and stopped last week) I have rheum consultant appt mid Nov, so will ask him about potential link then. I would expect to hear from surgical consultant before then so will ask him as well. I hope/think I have just got to the stage where I am OK if I just don't move. Which is not feasible for too long, but at least I have some respite, which I have definitely needed.

I have my 9 year old boy next to me now wanting to watch the football. So I shall watch that with him now. Thanks for your time,

Mark

scattered

Hi Mark,

Sorry this reply is late, but I'm not around often. I hope you are feeling a bit better now. Bowel inflammation and inflammatory arthritis are quite closely linked due to the systemic nature of inflammatory arthropathies. Basically, anywhere inflammation can go, it will.

I have bowel inflammation linked to my RA. When my RA is being problematic, my tummy issues get a lot worse. When my RA is controlled, things are a bit easier but sometimes the inflammation settles in my gut rather than my joints. I have found that diet can help me a lot and checked out all the changes with my gastroenterologist before undertaking them.

Scattered

Brutha

Just an update,

This is still going on. Had a bad time mid December with my gut and went to the GP. Had a test done and it's revealed High calprotectin levels. Which is indicative of gut inflammation apparently. Now I am waiting to speak with the GP about what happens next. I suspect some form of inflammatory bowel disease. The rheum nurse did mention she suspected this when I saw her earlier in December. when I relayed that to the GP and combined with the abdomen pain he got these tests done.

Will be nice to get this diagnosed and treated, be it inflammatory bowel disease or a side effect of the arthritis. I thought everything was finally on a level in the summer, then this. It seems things are never allowed to be settled with my health anymore.

Mark

stickywicket

I hope, after all the horrors of the last month or so, you will get a diagnosis of something that can be dealt with. Good luck, Mark, and please let us know how it goes.

Brutha

Lactose intolerant! That's all it was causing such terrible problems.

Annoying changes to the diet and things are much, much better. Bit of a relief to be honest. Nothing bad this time. I used to have porridge for breakfast and cheese and pickle sandwiches for lunch. And many cups of tea during the day! For some unknown reason my body decided (at the age of 40) that all that stuff is no good anymore.

Cup of black tea (no sugar) to celebrate!

dreamdaisy

I had this trouble as a child so I became very used to dry cereal, no butter, little cheese etc. The doctors recommended sheep or goats milk but this was back in the early sixties when such things were very hard to find! Over the years things have improved though I think the meds for my PsA may have something to do with that. DD

daffy2

That's good to have something to work with. I think it's often the way with things like food intolerances(as opposed to allergies) that our bodies cope for a long time but if something else goes out of kilter it can be a last straw situation. My daughter was diagnosed some years ago following a series of other health issues. She had been cows milk intolerant when she was a baby/toddler so it wasn't a complete surprise. Over the years it has largely settled down and so long as she doesn't go mad she doesn't have to worry too much, but needs to be more careful if she gets a bad cold or her other health issues are playing up. Ironically an early problem was that of pills containing lactose - the pharmacy didn't always observe the warning on her notes about needing alternative formulations, and she still needs to double check if she gets a prescription made up, and over the counter pills(eg painkillers) are often a no-no. She found that the enzymes to take before eating(largely intended for when she was eating out which she had to do for work) were not the solution for her, it was better to be careful about what she chose and how it was cooked.
Things have moved on since I was trying to deal with my children's dairy problems(my son was very bad - couldn't take goat or sheep either) 30 plus years ago, and supermarkets and better labelling make things much easier, so with luck you will find what you need without too much trouble.

stickywicket

Brutha wrote:

I used to have porridge for breakfast and cheese and pickle sandwiches for lunch. And many cups of tea during the day!

Well, I'm glad that's sorted! Quite simply in the end (with the emphasis on 'in the end' :roll: )

However, no need to abandon porridge if you like it. I don't have it much but, when I do, it's just plain porridge oats and water with raisins or other flavourings. No milk at all.

I also discovered some time back that I actually like drinking water - cold in summer and hot in winter.

I hope you find life easier now.