Well, that sounds like it's about as good as it could possibly be,
considering the circumstances. I'm so glad to hear it's a very minor
case and probably won't impact much on your lifestyle. I'm also glad
that the med you're taking doesn't have any side effects. Best of luck
in controlling it and I hope you don't have anymore pain.
--
Britta
Purring is an automatic safety valve device for dealing with happiness
overflow.
Check out pictures of Vino at:
http://photos.yahoo.com/badwilson click on the Vino album


Monique Y. Mudama wrote:
DH and I had a post-colonoscopy appointment with my GI doctor. For
whatever reason, I found him much more approachable this visit, and
we were able to have a pretty decent Q & A session.

Here's the scoop.

I do have Crohn's. The biopsy showed granuloma, which is a definite
indicator. I'm lucky with this, because the biopsy doesn't always
show
the granuloma, which then makes the condition harder to diagnose.
There
was also another indicator that is more commonly found but also
slightly ambiguous -- structural changes in the lining of the cecum.
Between the
two, the diagnosis is definite.

My case of Crohn's is about as minor as it gets. There is only one
spot
that he found, which is in the cecum, and the damage level is very
low.

What this means to me:

I shouldn't take NSAIDs (advil, aleve, etc). I can take Tylenol,
though. It's okay for me to take NSAIDs very occasionally, but I
should avoid it.

I should take the medicine he has prescribed, Asacol, every day for
the rest of my life. He admitted that other GI doctors would only
prescribe it during flare-ups, but he feels that lowering the
inflammation is the best way to prevent further damage. The medicine
itself doesn't have any side effects I've noticed; it's a form of
aspirin that affects only the colon.

No more tests in the near term. Unfortunately, studies show that
there's an increased risk of colon cancer after living with Crohn's
for several years, so eight years from now, I will be looking at
yearly colonoscopies. As I recall from a website somewhere, about 10%
of Crohn's patients eventually have colon cancer. I'm hoping that the
extremely minor form mine took somehow implies a reduced risk, but I
don't think there's any data to support that.

No surgery. As mentioned, my case is extremely minor, and he says
that for Crohn's, surgery is the last thing you want to do. He says
surgery is only indicated for extremely, extremely severe cases.
There is no reason to expect that I would need it.

Um, what else ...

I can keep doing all the things I do (mountain biking, hiking, etc)
-- in fact, they really want to keep me as active as possible. Since
stress is such an obvious trigger for me, I should certainly find
ways to minimize it. He isn't aware of any cases, ever, in which
Crohn's just disappeared, although I happily volunteered to be the
case that launches him into GI stardom. But having Crohn's does not
necessarily mean having the symptoms all the time. My goal, then, is
to find ways to prevent the symptoms from recurring.

He recommended www.ccfa.org as a great source of information.

He said that while he would never argue with a low fat, low alcohol,
etc diet, it's not likely to matter much to this disease. He says
that all dietary studies so far have been inconclusive, or not
specific enough to be helpful.

That's about all I can think of right now.