Should I have to wait 3 months for a sample retest?

[Lazym]

Hi, my 12 year old daughter has been complaining of on/off stomach pain for a while. After visits and phone chats with docs they suggested a blood and stool test. Blood test came back ok but stool is abnormal. Her level (I think it's calproctein) is 95 when it should be 60 or less. The doctor wants it retested in 3 months but I think it's too long to wait. I sent a message earlier asking for a quicker retest. Does anyone have any experience on this, is it normal to wait that long? Bearing in mind the doctor mentioned Crohn's? Just very concerned.

In a lot of places these tests are subject to a lot of gatekeeping by the gastroenterologists so the long interval may reflect guidelines from them. Children with established inflammatory disease would general have much higher numbers and you do get smaller rises non-specifically.

There will be a reason it's 3 months, it's not just because that's what the GP said.

calproctein can be temporarily raised, so the three months is to give it time to go down.

If it's still elevated in three months then it's likely to be something more serious.

They don't just make up the time scales

Not sure if this will reassure you but I had raised fecal calprotectin and it wasn’t bowel disease. I’d had a bug that caused some raised inflammation. It took a wee while to go down but has never gone back up and the sore stomach disappeared after a few months.

Thank you for your responses, just seemed such a long wait but if it's for a reason then it's ok. The doctor did say if the level has gone higher after retesting then she'll have to see gastroenterologist but praying it'll go down.

Thanks that has reassured me, thanks, hope you're ok now.

Raised calproctein shows inflammation in the gut. That could be from a simple infection or something more serious. Waiting 3 months will means for those who it was a simple infection the markers will have gone down and they won’t need unnecessary invasive tests.

My son is reffered to an gastronologist and will be having a endoscopy later this month. It's been over 2mths since his had stomach issues. Blood in his stools and feels sick during flare ups, it gets better by itself till the next trigger happens. Docs did say looks like a case of IBD but the endoscopy will show what's going on.... praying for him that it isn't a IBD case 🙏 Hopefully your daughter is ok too 🙏❤️

Yes, I can see that they would want to make absolutely sure. Obviously I don't want her to have anything done unless it was absolutely necessary. Thanks for your reply.

Oh no, poor chap, how old is he? Hope his procedure goes ok. The thing with my daughter is it's only stomach pain she complains of, as of now she's not had any problems with the "other end".

Thankyou 🙏 His 11yrs old
Maybe your daughter has a intolerance rather than Crohn's, where as my son's symptoms are more like Crohn's 🤷🏻‍♀️
What ever it is May God heal them both 🙏❤️
It's so hard as a mother to see your child suffer 😔

It really is, they're so young, they should be living their life to the full. I really hope you get the answers for your lad, best of luck.🤞

My calprotectin was 275 , stool sample normal and normal bloods. Done a follow up calprotectin test last Sunday and got results today. My level has gone down to 211 but of course still elevated so I am due an MRI to look at small intestines to check for hidden Crohns or something.
iv only ever had bleeding with piles, constipation normally after iron tablets or white bread and diarrhoea after spicy food otherwise bowels seem ok and normal.
I did have a real sharp stomach pain across abdomen the other day that lasted about 30 minutes . I had a similar pain back in Egypt two months ago ( think this was due to slight stomach bug maybe)
I also suffer a bit with reflux and recently some heartburn but not major . So I really at this point have no idea what I’m dealing with ( if there’s anything at all)
plus had 3 children in the last 5 years ( recent being only 8 months ago)