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Crohn's disease is one of the toughest gastrointestinal (GI)diseases for healthcare providers to diagnose. The reason for this is because it is like a Trojan horse, hiding away while mimicking so many other GI conditions. So of course it is often tough to tell exactly what you are dealing with... mimics others and yet can still manage to make your life miserable! Crohn's disease symptoms run the gamut from mild to quite debilitating and these symptoms can vary wildly from individual to individual. This is just another challenge to getting an accurate and timely diagnosis. Another bee in the "tough to diagnose" bonnet is the fact that there are no definitive and firm guidelines that absolutely identify Crohn's disease. Not a fair break! While there is no one test that your doctor can perform that will conclusively identify Crohn's, it does not mean that your concerns should be blown of. Rather it means that your physician may simply have to look a little harder and differentiate a little more selectively when trying to get to the true source of your pain. So you think you have Crohn's disease? First thing is to get yourself to the doctor! One of the very first tests that your doctor will probably elect to perform is a simple test of your stool sample. It is a cheap and and easy to perform test. Your physician can take a look at your stool sample and determine whether the bowel issues you are experiencing are because you have a raging gut infection or if instead you are experiencing an inflammatory response in your bowel. Either way, this simple test can tell your health care provider a lot about your GI tract. In the case of Crohn's disease, inflammation of the G.I. tract presents itself as if there is an infection but there is no infection present. So you can see by obtaining a simple stool sample several possibilities can easily be ruled out. Your health care provider may also select to do a group of standardized blood tests such as a complete blood count to check for signs of infection and anemia related to blood loss, a colonoscopy, a barium enema, a flexible sigmoidoscopy, a small bowel x-ray study, a capsule endoscopy, or even a CT scan of the abdomen. Once your test results come back, your health care provider will review them thoroughly before discussing them with you. One of the key things to remember is that if your additional blood work indicates that an infection is present then it is less likely that you have Crohn's disease. However, if your blood work shows that anemia is present, then Crohn's disease is more of a possibility. Well, it is pretty clear by now that getting an accurate diagnosis of Crohn's disease is a bit like hunting for bear with a BB gun! It is a tough diagnosis to put all the pieces together. So no worries if it takes a bit of time for your health care provider to get to the bottom of your symptoms. Just don't give up, your health is worth getting an accurate diagnosis. Crohn's disease symptoms can be a bit tricky and yet one of the commonly seen symptoms is bloody diarrhea or rectal bleeding. This bleeding is what can lead to abnormal lab work that beings to paint a picture of anemia because of the blood loss. These two pieces of information are important in getting the diagnosis right. So don't be embarrassed if you are experiencing rectal bleeding. For goodness sakes, tell the truth! While a colonoscopy is no one's idea of a good time, this procedure, typically performed by a gastroenterologist, can give your physician a more definitive reason to believe that you have Crohn's disease. During this exam, your doctor will insert a flexible lighted tube with an attached camera through your rectum and into your colon to check for any evidence of Crohn's disease. Here's the deal, there are always risks with any health care procedure and the same is true with a colonoscopy. So make sure that you discuss all the risks well with your physician prior to consenting to any procedure. A colonoscopy can leave you with a bowel perforation or even gastrointestinal bleeding. There are a few downfalls with a colonoscopy, though. It is not a perfect test. Remember that Crohn's disease may only be found in the small intestine and so if that is your story then a colonoscopy simply won't do you any good. So a colonoscopy may or may be the sure fire hit to tell you if you have Crohn's and so your doc may decide to instead order a flexible sigmoidoscopy. While it is pretty similar to the colonoscopy, the one major change is that this little tube does not contain a camera. With this exam your physician would use the lighted tube to look at the inside of the last 2 feet of the colon to see if there are any signs of Crohn's disease. If your physician sees evidence of Crohn's in those last two feet of the colon, then a definitive diagnosis could be made. As with all tests, even the flexible sigmoidoscopy has some downfalls. The bad news is that Crohn's disease can hide higher up in the colon and so if that is the case, the the flexible sigmoidoscopy would be totally useless. Well, it should be pretty clear by now that trying to definitely figure out if Crohn's disease is the culprit or not, is a bit like trying to discover the eye of the needle in a big ole haystack. So don't get irritated and rush your physician! Give 'em a chance to thoroughly figure it out before rushing to judgment. Because it mimics so many other diseases diagnosing Crohn's disease can be a challenge. However, it is a challenge that is certainly worth undertaking so that you can get back to being a healthy you.
Article Source: http://www.philvault.com
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