# IDid my colonoscopy just cause me to be misdiagnosed?



## caledon (Jan 29, 2011)

7 months ago after a lifetime of perfect bowel movements I get what I think is food poisoning. I end up having to go to the bathroom 1-3 times a day. It cycles from periods of diarrhea to periods where I think I am in some sort of recovery, only to have it start all over again.After ignoring it for 5 months, I go to a doctor. He does all the usual tests (parasites ecoli) and finds nothing sends me to a gastroenterologist.The gastroenterologist schedules me for a colonoscopy in a month. During that time I read a book by an IBS sufferer and start following the diet. I go from having diarrhea all the time to being mildly constipated. This bring my quality of life up by 100x.For the colonoscopy I take a prep of ducalax, miralax and lemon/line gatorade. Then I have the colonoscopy and an endoscopy.I wake up and everyone seems pretty concerned. My entire bowel is inflamed with the exception of my rectum, otherwise everything else looked ok. Biopsies come back and the doctor says it seems consistent with crohn's colitis, but it could also be ulcerative colitis as well.After the colonoscopy I have the worst diarrhea of my life. 6 days later I am still having it. My doctor thinks my colitis is out of control and he is going to prescribe me a steroid.I wonder do I now have the symptoms of someone who's entire bowel is inflammed? If so it would seem to me that the colonoscopy preparation caused my inflammed bowel.1) Is it possible I don't have crohn's colitis, but just have a bad reaction to the colonoscopy prep?2) What could cause this bad reaction (if it really has to do with the colonoscopy)?3) How can I fix this? If steroids don't work what options do I have?Thanks for taking the time to read this.


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## peaches41 (Nov 26, 2008)

You see, this is the reason why I refused to have a colonoscopy. I realise that they like to rule out certain diseases, but I wonder if their intrusive tests cause trouble when there was none before.Hope you get over it soon, caledon.


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## em_t (Jun 8, 2010)

You say that you would have diarrhoea 1-3 times a day but was it ever bloody, and did you have any other symptoms such as fatigue or a general feeling of malaise? It might just be that you were one of those lucky people who had IBD diagnosed before you went on to develop any really bad symptoms. Gastroenterologists are very used to diagnosing inflammatory bowel disease, but if it would put your mind at rest you could always ask for a second opinion. Of course that would mean another colonoscopy, which at this stage you would probably be quite reluctant to go through again. Its possible that the colonoscopy prep has irritated an already ulcerated bowel, causing your terrible diarrhoea, or it could be a flare up of either the Ulcerative Colitis / Crohn's disease. If the steroids work and you feel better it is most likely IBD but if they don't, you may have to go on an immunosuppresant, which works by quieting down the immune system, reducing your symptoms.However, since you've so many questions, I would ring up your gastroenterologist's office and talk to them.I really do hope you're feeling better soon.Em


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## mania (Jul 29, 2010)

For me personally, I can easily imagine that laxative upsetting my bowel and causing me grief for days to come. Hopefully it's that simple and your system will calm down soon.


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## Grandmahurts (Jul 31, 2010)

peaches41 said:


> You see, this is the reason why I refused to have a colonoscopy. I realise that they like to rule out certain diseases, but I wonder if their intrusive tests cause trouble when there was none before.Hope you get over it soon, caledon.


I'm with you peaches! It is the only test I have not had since being diagnosed with IBS. It hasn't even been suggested by the doctors.


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## caledon (Jan 29, 2011)

Peaches I hope I did not scare you too much. I have been trying to find information on this, and I don't think a lot of people find themselves in my position. I'll be sure to update you on how this turns out. Perhaps I'll be fine by tomorrow







I never had any bleeding related to this.


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## caledon (Jan 29, 2011)

Just an update. I am no longer pooping pure liquid. However I am still much worse then I was pre-colonoscopy. I go at least 5-6 times a day. After finding out the potential risks of steroids I never bothered calling my doctor back.Currently I am taking Lialda.


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## Gabriel (Aug 23, 2009)

I would take your doctors concerns seriously. Inflammatory Bowel Diseases(IBD) can go into remission and then come right back. It is very possible your altered diet did improve your symptoms, but that does not mean you do not have IBD. It is unlikely that the prep would have caused enough inflammation to cause a misdiagnoses of IBD. Crohn's Disease usually involves deep tissue inflammation of the intestinal wall, something that probably would not be possible from a colonoscopy prep dosage. If he has reviewed the biopsies and this is what they're telling him then you should probably listen because usually the signs are pretty obvious. You may op to get another colonoscopy or have the results sent to another gastroenterologist for review. Steroids and diet can be pretty effective against Crohn's. You may have a very mild case of it.If steroids fail there is a very funky, but possibly worthwhile venture for IBD, - not to freak you out, but it has worked for a considerable number of people. Human Bacteriotherapy/Human Probiotic Infusion/AKA Fecal Transplantation.http://www.healingwell.com/community/default.aspx?f=38&p=1&m=1612467http://www.digestionblog.com/fecal-transplantation-helps-for-chrons-ibs-clostridium-difficile-infection/http://www.digestionblog.com/slate-coms-fecal-transplantation-story/Also I'd like to note that this is not a good reason to avoid a colonoscopy. If anything, this is exactly why you want to get a colonoscopy, to find out if you have something possibly more serious than IBS. IBD can be very serious if not detected and treated properly.


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## caledon (Jan 29, 2011)

Thanks for answering my question.You have a very good point that this is very serious and needs to be dealt with. The doctor mentioned that if left untreated for 8 years your chances of getting colon cancer shoot through the roof.If the doctor mentioned that the biopsy pointed to crohn's colitis then the inflammation must be deep, which would mean the prep probably could not have caused it.If I don't continue to see an improvement in my condition I'm going to have to make some hard choices.I read somewhere that the colon prep can throw off your bacteria in your gut. Between that and the fecal transplant working I wonder if there is not something bad that my immune system is actually fighting off. If I use steroids I wonder if I wont be letting that agent get out of control.I told my girlfriend that I may need to inject her poop into me. She told me no.







I may have to work on her a little.







I guess only time will tell as to what will happen here. I do have to admit that I'm afraid to have another colonoscopy now because they seem to be harmful to my body.


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## Gabriel (Aug 23, 2009)

caledon said:


> I read somewhere that the colon prep can throw off your bacteria in your gut. Between that and the fecal transplant working I wonder if there is not something bad that my immune system is actually fighting off. If I use steroids I wonder if I wont be letting that agent get out of control.


Well the idea behind IBD is that it's the body attacking itself for unknown reasons. People are not sure why the HPI works exactly, but maybe it restores gut flora that the body gets distracted attacking, instead of itself. Another experimental therapy is just as funky, it's basically infecting yourself with a small number of hookworms. The idea is that the hookworms either have evolved to emit calming signals to the immune system or that the body gets distracted fighting the hookworms instead of itself.Steroids will fight the inflammatory response your body is attacking itself with, that's probably a good thing. Though steroids do have their side effects. You probably don't need to take them long term, just so long as the disease goes into remission & then you need to monitor yourself for symptoms and also get a colonoscopy 1 - 2 times yearly (kinda sucky).


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## caledon (Jan 29, 2011)

Update on my condition:Lialda did not seem to be working all that well and after weeks of minimal improvement that I felt I might have seen even if I was off it I tried a bunch of alternative things that I read on the forum.I tried to eat white refined carbs. I read this in a book on IBS and this helped me before. I survived on a diet of mostly sourdough bread (which I read somewhere was supposed to help and spagetti).For 5 days in a row I took 5 drops of grapefruit seed extract in the morning.I started taking two probiotics (Sustenex which I found at super stop and shop) and UDO's super 8 (which is much harder to find and I read about on the forums).Right away I started to notice a huge improvement. By the end of the week I felt like I was at my pre colonoscopy level.Then I ate some ground beef (because I was sick of white carb) and brie cheese (this was a strange theory I had that it would help my issue).I thought I was having a setback because I had horrible diarrhea, however the person who I ate this with, who is fine, also had the same issue. I think I was food poisoned.On day two they were fine but I was still having major issue.That night before bread I ate a wedge of brie cheese (because I was hungry) and two pieces of wheat bread (not on my diet).The next day I had my first normal poop in 8-9 months. No smell, just one normal bowel movement.It has been like that for the past 5-7 days.I'm not sure what fixed it, but just wanted to update everyone. I'll continue to post updates as time goes on to see how long this lasts.Thanks again for all the good information.


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