u/National_Double6261

I've got 2 - ORCH2 Row N, $150/each but negotiable for sure. Please let me know if interested.

Hi all. 28 M here. I want to be clear that I have not had a formal diagnosis yet but am looking for some guidance or input, even just shared experiences when you were going through a diagnosis whether it be Crohns or something else.

About a year and a half ago I started with very vague neurological symptoms - fatigue, weakness, numbness, burning, and tingling in my face, arms, and legs that would vary in severity. Seemed to come in waves every few weeks. Got a ton of testing done and it seems like my nerves are healthy, these symptoms still come and go a bit but have definitely settled a lot.

Around that same time I started getting general stomach discomfort and burning. I was still able to eat, but would just get periods of extreme loss of appetite and stomach burning. About 7 months ago it got really bad and started losing a lot of weight. Bounced around to a few different GI's to have someone take me seriously, and I was given an abdominal ultrasound and endoscopy. They found an ulcer and visual blunting in my small intestine. The biopsies for H Pylori and Celiacs came back negative. They prescribed a PPI which I have been on ever since. At first this was nearly a miracle drug and I was able to eat much more normally for months, with a few random hiccups in the road.

About a month ago, things completely took a turn. I started getting a lot of random gurgling and just a general unsettled feeling, random bouts of nausea. A lot of downward pressure on my pelvis and burning in my right abdomen that sometimes moves around a bit. Change in bowel habits, sometimes would feel super constipated, sometimes would poop 4x a day, sometimes diarrhea. Went to New GI, she was concerned about my symptoms and sent me to do a celiacs blood test to be sure, and stool test for caloprectin and elastase. Also have been on low FODMAP for the past week per her suggestion.

Elastase totally normal, calpo at 159 which I guess is elevated, but not as elevated as IBD typically presents. My symptoms have kind of been up and down over the last month, but it has been definitely and noticeably worse - and plainly symptoms I didn't experience before, I don't know what changed. So now fast forward to 2 days ago, I started getting much worse gurgling and nausea, and now bloody diarrhea/loose stool which I have never experienced before. The gurgling happens pretty much no matter what I put in my stomach, even from water. I went to the ER because I just feel so weak, they did a CT scan with contrast and some blood work - everything normal (though the report did say they had a "limited view" of my bowel.) they told me to try to just wait it out until my next appointment next week, but it's seriously difficult with everything going right through me.

Just looking for any ideas. It just seems so strange that this came on so suddenly and before my symptoms were much more "upper". Burning when I ate but no real change in my stools, which I guess a lot of the burning was from the acid and ulcer. I just don't know what could have caused this. Based on your experiences, can IBD present so suddenly? I'm also skeptical because my calpo is relatively low compared to what I have seen. Does this seem like an infection instead? I hate how slow this process is, wish they would just order all of the tests at once rather than waiting and seeing, it's miserable.