MathGeek's Case History

[MathGeek]

OK, so for a recap: (and there may be TMI , so I apologize ahead of time)

My history:

I was diagnosed with erythema nodosum at age 16 -- unknown cause. Been dealing with it for 15 years off and on.

At age 20 I went through a "phase" (as the doctor put it) of constipation and what they thought at the time was IBS, but after about a 7 month run and a round of antibiotics for h.pylori, i was better, so they retracted the IBS diagnosis. I also had a colonoscopy that I believe was "normal" (i need to hunt down my medical records)

OK. so now age 30, start noticing small amounts of mucous and blood in stool, blow it off as hemorrhoids (had those from age 17 or so). In January I got a pretty bad sinus infection and was put on antibiotics which I only took for 2 days (Yes, bad me.) After that the "D" started and blood increased a lot, was having a lot of urgency and most times it was nothing but mucous. By the end of January I was going to the bathroom at least 10 times a day and 3-4 at night. I started to get freaked out so made an appointment with my general doc.

He ran a "stool analysis" which came back normal (NO, he didn't check for c-diff). And while that was going, he sent me for a colonoscopy. It was a general surgeon who did the scope, said I had "active" colitis -- unknown cause -- no evidence of chronicity. Told me to pop some imodium and head home. Nice guy.

Well I did what I was told and the imdodium didn't do anything. So I called general doc again and asked for a referral to the GI. So into the GI I go. He looked at colon pics and made diagnosis from that and my history. AGAIN NO REDO OF LABS, NO RESCOPE. So this is early March. I start Asacol 12xday, rowasa 2xday. The GI wants to see the erythema nodusm go away on my legs, so I call back in 2 weeks to let him know nothing has changed. He pulls me from asacol and rowasa and puts me on 40 mg of prednisone.

So about March 20th I start 40 mg of pred. Symptoms get a little better, and then after a week take a turn for the worse. Back up to 8 times a day, more pain and mucous, but no blood. Joint pain which has started to plauge me has eased up. So there's that bonus. Had an abdominal CT scan though, and it showed thickening of the left side of my colon (which they expected to see). On April 2, 3 and 4 they bump my pred to 60 mg. Again, no change. Just 13 pounds of weight put on, a nice round face and moods to match my daughter's.

So GI doc calls for another round of lab tests. Specifically to look for c-diff. Hmmm, i say, what's this "c-diff" you speak of? Well, guess what. I'm positive for c-diff. And prednisone makes c-diff WORSE. So that's awesome. So now I'm on day 6 of Flagyl and finally slowly starting to feel better. I'm down to 10 mg of pred, and the joint pain is returning. THe shooting pains in my gut have never gone away and now on top of that I have odd "tingling" sensations there also.

The dilema you may ask? Do i really have UC? OR has it been c-diff all along?

The GI can't say for sure since I didn't have a neg c-diff test before. She's pretty sure I have underlying UC complicated by c-diff. Her reasons? The erythema nodosum I have and my joint pain.

So I had a choice.

#1) Assume I have UC and resume Asacol.

#2) Finish off Flagyl and pred and wait and see.



I chose door #2. I want to know for sure what this is. Any opinions or suggestions? I would greatly appreciate them!!