Could it be Crohn's disease?

by Julia
(United kingdom)

My 12 year old son has been having stomach cramps and nausea, along with diarrhea and constipation and extreme fatigue for 10 weeks, following a bout of diarrhea and cramps that escalated into vomiting, extreme pain, high fever. He was rushed to hospital with suspected appendicitis. Since then we have been back and forth for numerous blood tests, xray, and an ultrasound scan. Apart from an initial result showing a raised imflammatory level, all the tests have proved normal. However my son is far from well. He is afraid to eat, afraid to go to school, and afraid to participate in normal 12 year old activities which he always loved, such as footie, rugby, laserquest, bowling and riding his bike. He has missed weeks of school and when he does attend he is sent home. We are being referred to a paediatric gastroenterologist at last!! As all his tests have been "normal", I wonder has this been the experience of anyone else who has actually been diagnosed with crohn's.

Comments for Could it be Crohn's disease?

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my son
by: Anonymous

My son is 13, he does not have chronic diarhia, and he is not losing weight at the moment. I am thinking it sounds very different from your children. I am new to this as well and looking for all kinds of answers. My son has always had bathroom issues but last August it wouldn't go away. He has flare ups 3 to 4 times a month where he is bellied over in pain, he sweats, cries, felles like he is going to pass out and sometimes pukes. But like I said Diarhia is not constant in between flare ups. DOes this sound like crohns. needing answers. we to are seeing a specialist at Children's HOspital in VAncouver.
response to could it be crohn's
by: Anonymous

Hi - My 11 year old son had the same symptoms a year ago and was diagnosed with Crohn's. He also had a lack of energy and weight loss. Have they done a colonoscopy and endoscopy? We have great doctors at Hopkins. He was similar to your son with the high level of inflammation, didn't want to eat breakfast or lunch so he didn't have to go to the bathroom at school. What tests have they done on your son? My son was on a lot of medication and is now getting Remicade infusions.
This is how it started for me
by: Keith

In 6th grade the same happend to me i started having diarrhea all the time, i was tired and depressed my stomach hurt and was sick alot. Thing was for a while i hid it from everyone. For almost 3 months I hid it and when I finally started to look sick enough to notice I was missing half of school because I was in the bathroom. They originally diagnosed me with a very bad C-dif infection and the doctors used heavy anti-biotics to nuke the infection. But even then I was still getting sick and stuff. By 7th grade I was at one of the worst lows because of the diarrhea and loss of appetite I only weighed 68 pounds more than 40 pounds less than most other kids my size and age. It got worse from their throughout middle school and high school the flares were uncontrollable and I missed so much school I took the GED test instead to get my diploma after misssing 90% of my senior year in high school. The only thing that might have helped is if more people directly around me knew how sick i was. they dont have to know the specifics but i think i could have gotten a lot more social support in school had i done so and it might have calmed my feelings of anxiety and separation.
Could it be Crohn's Disease
by: Anonymous

My son (13) was just diagnosed. All his test came back normal too, but a colonoscopy and endoscopy confirmed the crohn's. You might want to have these procedures done. Good luck.

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