my mom told me she was diagnosed with this via colonoscopy, only after her biopsy was reviewed. This was a couple years ago and she is still struggling with constant D. When she was first diagnosed, she was prescriped asacol and told to try the pepto treatment. Neither of which worked for her so right now she is just "living with it."
Is anyone else familiar wth this type of colitis? Anyone know anything about successful treatment? I have tried to search more about this type on the internet but haven't really found any valuable info. I feel bad for her and want to help her.
ischemic colitis
Moderators: Rosie, Stanz, Jean, CAMary, moremuscle, JFR, Dee, xet, Peggy, Matthew, Gabes-Apg, grannyh, Gloria, Mars, starfire, Polly, Joefnh
Hi,
Except for severe cases, ischemic colitis is usually treated with IV fluids, (to resolve dehydration), and the digestive system is stopped, to allow healing to take place, (which means no food or oral liquids), until the ischemia symptoms disappear. Usually, the symptoms will resolve. If not, or if the symptoms become worse, and signs of infection appear, (such as a high white blood cell count, fever, worsened abdominal pain, or increased bleeding), then surgical intervention may be required, (IOW, a resection of the colon). According to statistics, roughly 20% of patients with acute ischemic colitis may develop chronic ischemic colitis, which is often treated with a partial colectomy, (surgical removal of the chronically diseased portion of the bowel).
I don't understand why her doctors didn't follow through with the proper treatment, and/or continued monitoring. Has her condition been monitored all this time, or did the doctors simply discharge her and pretend that everything was fine? Ischemic colitis can be extremely serious, if allowed to get out of hand.
On the other hand, if the ischemic section healed properly, (IOW, if proper blood flow was restored), and she still has D, then there is a good chance that she might have MC, rather than, (or in addition to), the IC. If that should be the case, then dietary changes, such as most of us use for controlling our MC, would probably be beneficial.
Do you happen to have a copy of the pathology report for the biopsies taken during that colonoscopy? Some GI docs apparently don't know how to properly diagnose MC from pathology reports, and/or they ignore the opinion of the pathologist, and fail to report the markers of MC to the patient. A copy of that report might shed some light on her true situation. Some of us here are able to interpret pathology reports that don't clearly spell out a diagnosis, and in cases where the GI doc misrepresents the findings, that's usually pretty easy to spot.
Tex
Except for severe cases, ischemic colitis is usually treated with IV fluids, (to resolve dehydration), and the digestive system is stopped, to allow healing to take place, (which means no food or oral liquids), until the ischemia symptoms disappear. Usually, the symptoms will resolve. If not, or if the symptoms become worse, and signs of infection appear, (such as a high white blood cell count, fever, worsened abdominal pain, or increased bleeding), then surgical intervention may be required, (IOW, a resection of the colon). According to statistics, roughly 20% of patients with acute ischemic colitis may develop chronic ischemic colitis, which is often treated with a partial colectomy, (surgical removal of the chronically diseased portion of the bowel).
I don't understand why her doctors didn't follow through with the proper treatment, and/or continued monitoring. Has her condition been monitored all this time, or did the doctors simply discharge her and pretend that everything was fine? Ischemic colitis can be extremely serious, if allowed to get out of hand.
On the other hand, if the ischemic section healed properly, (IOW, if proper blood flow was restored), and she still has D, then there is a good chance that she might have MC, rather than, (or in addition to), the IC. If that should be the case, then dietary changes, such as most of us use for controlling our MC, would probably be beneficial.
Do you happen to have a copy of the pathology report for the biopsies taken during that colonoscopy? Some GI docs apparently don't know how to properly diagnose MC from pathology reports, and/or they ignore the opinion of the pathologist, and fail to report the markers of MC to the patient. A copy of that report might shed some light on her true situation. Some of us here are able to interpret pathology reports that don't clearly spell out a diagnosis, and in cases where the GI doc misrepresents the findings, that's usually pretty easy to spot.
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.