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DB's long awaited doctor's appointment results
Moderators: Rosie, Stanz, Jean, CAMary, moremuscle, JFR, Dee, xet, Peggy, Matthew, Gabes-Apg, grannyh, Gloria, Mars, starfire, Polly, Joefnh
DB's long awaited doctor's appointment results
He does NOT have MC. The doctor says he has one of the many forms of IBS (he has c). He prescribed Amitiza..........
DISCLAIMER: I am not a doctor and don't play one on TV.
LDN July 18, 2014
Joan
LDN July 18, 2014
Joan
I'm always highly skeptical of an IBS diagnosis. It usually means that the doctor doesn't know what it is, so they tag it IBS.
When I initially went to my GI, I told him he'd better not give me an IBS diagnosis because I knew it was a catch-all.
Gloria
When I initially went to my GI, I told him he'd better not give me an IBS diagnosis because I knew it was a catch-all.
Gloria
You never know what you can do until you have to do it.
Angy,
I think the "c" that Joan used, was an abbreviation for constipation.
Gloria,
I agree with you 100%. How can anyone have much faith in a diagnosis that is a "default" diagnosis. IOW, if they can't figure out what's wrong with you, then you have IBS, by default. I guess it makes the doctors feel better to say "You have IBS", than to have to admit, "I don't have the foggiest idea what's causing your symptoms.
I'm always suspicious that in cases such as Joan's brother's exam, where they don't find any histological evidence of an IBD, he probably only has scattered areas of inflammation, and they simply didn't take biopsy samples in the right spots. All of us have different inflammation patterns, and for some of us, the areas of inflammation can wax and wane, just as with Crohn's disease, or UC, for that matter, (though with UC, it's usually much easier to locate, since it always begins in the distal colon, and progresses upwards from there. In a perfect world, every sampling process would be 100% accurate, but in the real world, it doesn't always work that way. The samples have to be taken from inflamed areas, and inflammation is not present everywhere - it's usually present in scattered patches.
It would be interesting to see the actual endoscopy and pathology reports, to see how many biopsy samples were taken, exactly where they were taken, and what the pathologist observed at each sample site. Normally, with MC, inflamed areas should be most prominent in the ascending colon, with more scattering in the transverse colon, descending colon, sigmoid area, etc.
I'll bet your doctor was relieved when he found MC, because if he hadn't, he would have had to wrack his brain, trying to figure out what to call it.
Tex
I think the "c" that Joan used, was an abbreviation for constipation.
Gloria,
I agree with you 100%. How can anyone have much faith in a diagnosis that is a "default" diagnosis. IOW, if they can't figure out what's wrong with you, then you have IBS, by default. I guess it makes the doctors feel better to say "You have IBS", than to have to admit, "I don't have the foggiest idea what's causing your symptoms.
I'm always suspicious that in cases such as Joan's brother's exam, where they don't find any histological evidence of an IBD, he probably only has scattered areas of inflammation, and they simply didn't take biopsy samples in the right spots. All of us have different inflammation patterns, and for some of us, the areas of inflammation can wax and wane, just as with Crohn's disease, or UC, for that matter, (though with UC, it's usually much easier to locate, since it always begins in the distal colon, and progresses upwards from there. In a perfect world, every sampling process would be 100% accurate, but in the real world, it doesn't always work that way. The samples have to be taken from inflamed areas, and inflammation is not present everywhere - it's usually present in scattered patches.
It would be interesting to see the actual endoscopy and pathology reports, to see how many biopsy samples were taken, exactly where they were taken, and what the pathologist observed at each sample site. Normally, with MC, inflamed areas should be most prominent in the ascending colon, with more scattering in the transverse colon, descending colon, sigmoid area, etc.
I'll bet your doctor was relieved when he found MC, because if he hadn't, he would have had to wrack his brain, trying to figure out what to call it.
Tex
It is suspected that some of the hardest material known to science can be found in the skulls of GI specialists who insist that diet has nothing to do with the treatment of microscopic colitis.