Colitis

I called the GI doctor today to see if they had the results yet. The answer, "no". I then received a phone call from my primary doctor who already had the results! Interesting, eh?

Anyways, I spoke to the nurse. She advised me to stop taking any birth control. I told her I haven't been on any for a few years and that I had a hyst last year. She said the notes written by the doctor indicated to "call patient, ask if using any BCP's and if so to stop using them until we can find out the cause of the colitis."

I asked her if the biopsy reports were back. She said yes but wouldn't elaborate on them. She said to follow up with the GI doctor on Monday and discuss the plan of action with him. I asked if I could come in and have a copy of the reports. She seemed to dance around that topic rather quickly and told me that other doctors get angry sometimes when patients come in with the reports. She said again to ask the Doctor at my appt. for a copy.

So, at this time, according to my PCP nurse, I do have colitis. There was question on whether it is ischemic, ulcerative, and/or infectious. They took biopsies including one from the ulcer that was seen. So now, I guess I just wait until the hospital calls with my reports or my appointment with the GI doctor on Monday.

No word on Crohn's Disease, which gives me some hope. I do want to discuss having some testing done though as I continue to have this burning sensation in the middle of my chest and the pit of my stomach. We shall see what they can find.

Taken from this website. There is more information there.

What is colitis?

Colitis means inflammation of the colon. The colon, also known as the large intestine or large bowel, constitutes the last part of the digestive tract. The colon is a long, muscular tube that receives undigested food from the small intestine. It removes water from the undigested food, stores it and then eliminates it from the body through bowel movements. The rectum is the last part of the colon adjacent to the anus. The common symptoms of colitis include: abdominal pain,
diarrhea, and sometimes, rectal bleeding.

There are many different types of colitis with different causes. Some examples of colitis include:
infectious colitis caused by bacteria (such as shigella, Campylobacter, E. coli, and C. difficile)
infectious colitis caused by virus (such as CMV)
radiation colitis (such as following treatment with radiation for treating prostate cancer)
ischemic colitis (such as blockage of an artery in the colon by a blood clot. If the blood clot interrupts the flow of blood to a segment of the colon, the result is inflammation of that segment and, sometimes, even death—gangrene—of the segment)
Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis (two related conditions that are caused by abnormalities of the body's immune system in which the body is inappropriately making antibodies and chemicals that attack the colon)

Infectious, radiation, ischemic, ulcerative, and Crohn's colitis all have visible abnormalities in the inner lining of the colon. These abnormalities include edema (swelling of the lining), redness, bleeding of the lining with gentle rubbing (friability), and ulcers. These abnormalities can be seen during either colonoscopy (examination of the entire colon using a long flexible viewing tube) or flexible sigmoidoscopy (examination of the rectum and the sigmoid colon; the segment of the colon closest to the rectum).

Edema and inflammation of the colon's lining interferes with the absorption of water from the undigested food, and the unabsorbed water exits the rectum as diarrhea. Pus and fluid also are secreted into the colon and add to the diarrhea. The redness, bleeding of the lining with gentle rubbing (friability), and ulcerations in the lining of the colon contribute to rectal bleeding.

And more on Ulcerative Colitis.

For now, that's all I can share.
Becky