Hi, I have had severe Crohn's for almost 10 years now. And I posted my question below on the Crohn's forum and was just hoping that someone with IBS may have some imput too.
My question is actually about my twin sister (we think we are fraternal, test results were lost when we were born).
For the past 7 years, she has had bouts of stomach pains, some diarreha, constipation, mucus, joint pain, low grade fevers and an overall feeling of yucky. She had a sigmoidoscopy 7 years ago and her HMO primay doctor told her she had Proctitis and when she has had flare-ups he treated her with enemas. He sent her for a colonoscopy with a G.I., and his findings were no Crohn's, Colitis or Proctitis.
Her primary doctor (who I don't have a lot of confidence in) still tells her she has Proctitis, so every time she doesn't feel well, she believes that this is what it is. I understand that he has come to this conclusion because of me, and we have a brother, neice, and nephew with IBD.
She went for another colonoscopy yesterday with the same G.I. who performed the first one, and again, she had remarkable results with no evidence of any past or current imflamation. The G.I. assured me that he would have seen some type of scare tissue or evidence if her symptoms were caused by IBD even if she is currently not in a flare-up. He believes that she has Irritable Bowel Syndrome and that the symptoms are so similar that it can be hard to tell the difference. When I shared with him what her primary doctor has told me, he just shook his head...kind of in disbelief.
My sister is still confidenced that the reason the G.I. is insistent that she does not have IBD, is because he has never scoped her during one of her flare-ups.
I would appreciate any feedback that anyone has. Thank you so much!!
P.S. I didn't think that you could have mucus or joint pain with Irritable Bowel Syndrome?? Does anyone know?