Crohn's diagnosis

[Guest guest]

"My (27 yr. old) daughter was diagnosed last year with Crohn's through acolonoscopy. For about 3 years prior to that, after going to severaldifferent doctors, we had not been able to pinpoint the problem.According to the current doctor, the affected area is the terminalIleum. The diagnosing doctor was amazed at the amount of inflammationand thought that a blockage was eminent. Lucklily, we have avoidedthat.... so far. They started her on 6MP (50 mg. - 1 daily) and Asacol(400 mg. 2 /day) and that has worked well for her for the past 9 monthsor so. Recently, about 10 days ago, she suffered a flare-up and it stillhas not subsided. She is vomiting several times a day and has pain inher stomach area.... as well as cramping and boating down low where theinflammation was found. Not sure what the stomach pain is all

about,but this flare-up has lasted longer than any of her previous ones. Sheis afraid to eat anything because she is having a hard time keepinganything down. Basically, she feels rotten right now."Sorry to hear about your daughter's diagnosis.....but having been there and done that, are you absolutely sure it's really Crohn's? Meaning did the GI come up with Crohn's strictly on the results of the colonoscopy or did he/she run further tests to confirm it?The reason I ask is prior to me finally getting the correct diagnosis of Lyme disease, I saw a multitude of "specialists", none of which had a clue what was causing all of my symptoms, including a GI. He did a colonoscopy on me, snipped some tissue samples for biopsy, and tested my stool samples for all kinds of things. Everything came up negative except that my colon was swollen, irritated and inflamed, mostly from the enormous amounts of ibuprofen I was taking to deal with

all of the pain in my muscles and joints and constant diarrhea. He sent me on my way with instructions to stop taking ibuprofen and to avoid alcohol and caffeine. Wow, thanks for nothing, dude! Didn't help one bit.What I eventually discovered several years later, after much more suffering, was that my abdominal bloating, pain, lack of appetite, and diarrhea were caused primarily by two things: my psoas muscles were in a state of constant spasm (contraction), and were literally squeezing my stomach like a vise - see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psoas_major_muscleThe second culprit was my ileosecal valve, which is located at the junction of the end of the small intestine and the beginning of the large intestine (the colon). See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ileocecal_valve for a good illustration. Even after regular physical therapy and a good stretching routine, I was still have digestive problems and bloating, although the no-appetite

problem was resolved. By sheer luck, last year the chiropractor I had been seeing regularly since 1990 retired, and the new one she recommended turned out to be a magician - she was trained in several other types of therapies besides just chiropractic treatment. What she discovered was that I was suffering from a "sticky" ileosecal valve - it would typically get stuck open or partially open, very bad for your health. She manually adjusts it whenever it's "out", and the results are nothing short of spectacular - bloating, diarrhea, everything gets resolved!I'd also like to mention another series of treatments I've had done twice over the last three years, and something I highly recommend - colonic hydrotherapy (not the same thing as a colonic), which uses a constant flow of very low pressure warm water to flush out the colon and remove stuff you wouldn't believe is stuck inside you (recall that when Elvis died he had over 30 lbs of crud stuck to

the walls of his colon). I went for the first series of 3 treatments to resolve a systemic candida infection caused by mega-doses of broad spectrum antibiotics taken after several surgeries, which of course killed off all of the "good" bacteria in my gut too, and then the multiple series of different antibiotics to clear up my Lyme infection. Taking probiotics and some anti-yeast supplements wasn't getting the job done, but after the colon hydrotherapy flushed out the colonies of yeast embedded in the walls of my colon it finally healed with the help of liquid aloe vera and the candida was gone - I was thrilled to death, to say the least! And much healthier, of course. I went back last year for a second "cleaning" to see if we could cure my sticky ileosecal valve, we were suspicious that something in my colon was irritating the valve. Well, we were right......as opposed to the first sessions the prior year, which were totally painless, this time

I had to stop the flow of water within minutes of starting - my stomach swelled up and my abdominal muscles cramped, causing severe pain. After about 10 minutes of massage and a hot pack placed on my lower abdomen the cramping went away and we restarted, with a much lower water flow rate. I was able to make it thru the complete session, but the tech said that we'd only cleared the first 1/3 of the colon, not a good sign. The next week I went back for my second session, which went well at the start, but then we got stuck again, this time at the ascending colon - a total blockage. After about 1/2 hour the constant flow of warm water finally broke it up, and we were able to cleanse the entire colon, so I didn't need to return for the 3rd session. My ileosecal valve problems have greatly decreased since then, much to my relief.In summary, I'd suggest that you look into the following treatments/therapies for your daughter before trying those

outrageously expensive drugs (IMO most Western medicine is akin to throwing darts at a problem and hoping one sticks):1) Find a skilled PT and have him/her check your daughter's psoas muscles for problems2) Find someone who specializes in alternative types of physical therapy and have them check her ileosecal valve3) Try colonic hydrotherapy treatments, they can't do anything harmful, and may provide her with relief from some or all of her health problems4) Get some liquid aloe vera and have her drink some daily - it will coat the walls of her intestines, sooth them, and help reduce the swelling and inflammation.Good luck!P.S. If her GI has a "god complex" like mine did, I wouldn't mention the above therapies to him if/when you decline his drug treatment - just tell him you're going to seek a second opinion to hold him off, which in reality is what you're really going to do (I hope, for your daughter's

sake!)