Collagenous Colitis...but no D :???:

[angy]

As you guys all know i was diagnosed with cc in july this year Up until then I had severe D...

However as i work in the mental health field...i work in some pretty dirty homes...I discovered that every time i was in this gentlemans house i felt unwell 2 days later and experienced bad D..I had been experiencing this bad D for over 9 months with pinworm. I was totally confused as not one of my family members or friends had this...or their kids.

Now i have to say I was sure i picking up pinworm from this guy cos i always saw this in my stools..several days later. I always treated myself with piperazine (usually fortnightly) and that worked good...back into this guys house and bingo they were back...I would help him clean his house every 2 wks..

....Now what im puzzled about is. this ..since i stopped working in this dirty enviroment my d had stopped completely...And this is well before i started medication...Asacole....so the asacole has not stopped the D

Now what im wondering about my diagnosis is i have not had D in over 3months before starting medication....so is the diagnosis correct...cos m sure it was that nasty pinworm causing me to have D...

Im wondering if i will ever see D again not that i want it back lol!!!

Appreciate your opinions guys.

[JLH]

Were you diagnosed with a biopsy?

[angy]

Yes jlh doc said definately cc

[JLH]

Are you GF now? That could do it, I think. I had that problem getting the sample for EL. I had to do prunes and prune juice.........

I'll try to find the appropriate quote from Tex and post it.

[JLH]

P S Actually, there are almost surely some cases with C only, but GI docs almost never do biopsies on patients with C, so those cases never get diagnosed.

Previous to that in the same post, he said you could have D and C with MC.

[tex]

Hi Angy,

If your pathology report from the analysis of your biopsy samples described chronic mucosal inflammation, and a thickened subepithelial collagen band, you definitely have CC. If the pathology report describes inflammation due to lymphocytic infiltration in the epithelia, but no collagen thickening, you have LC. If both conditions are present, then you have what is referred to by the umbrella term MC, (though, of course, it is common practice to describe either CC or LC as MC, when both markers are present, the correct term is MC).

Joan, to expand on that even more, not only is it is possible to have MC with C, but it is possible to have MC without any D. Likewise, it is possible to have either form of MC without any symptoms at all, just as it is possible to have asymptomatic celiac sprue. It is rare to encounter someone who has asymptomatic MC, however, since no one is likely to go to a GI doc for a colonoscopy exam and a biopsy, unless they have chronic D. If you were to do random biopsies of the general population, however, you would find that a relatively high percentage of them show the markers for either CC, LC, or MC, even though they have no symptoms, and may not recall ever having an episode of typical MC symptoms. IOW, apparently we Potty People are just an unfortunate minority who have chronic symptoms. Angy, it's possible that you may be one of the lucky ones who have no symptoms.

However, be aware that untreated MC may carry the same risk as untreated celiac disease - namely, a heightened risk of lymphoma, (this risk applies to asymptomatic celiac patients, so it almost surely would apply to asymptomatic MC patients). The big question is, "are you actually gluten sensitive?". If you are not, then you don't have anything to worry about. If you are gluten sensitive, however, then you need to avoid gluten, in order to minimize the risk of lymphoma, and possibly other carcinomas that are attributed to untreated gluten sensitivity.

Tex

[angy]

thank you jlh ,tex.... pretty good analysis...yes gluten does affect me but not with all foods.. Bread mainly and pizza etc..And yes doc said definate collagen in the biopsy...I am continuing to eat gf foods but ocassionally do a little test...with low g food...i get a swollen tum and feel a gnawing pain..