Son suffering with intestine problems.

[sam235corner]

A bit of back story. My adult son was suffering dreadful stomach cramps and looked horrendously anaemic. Unfortunately, he collapsed on his way to work and an ambulance was called.
He was admitted, had 3 blood transfusions to help with his chronically low iron/vitamin levels.
The hospital did the following tests:
X ray (no blockages)
Ultrasound (all other organs are fine)
Endoscopy (ulcers found)
Colonoscopy. (all clear but waiting for biopsy results)
Several blood, stool tests. (All clear).
They found he has ulcers in his stomach/intestines and an `extensive small bowel oedema.'
He wasn't diagnosed with a condition (the doctors have no idea), no disease etc. Tested for all the obvious: IBD, Crohns, HIV. He's suffering a lot with stomach cramps, sickness, bloating, gas etc. All he wants to know is how long these symptoms will last and what treatment there is available (if any).
Has anyone experienced any of the above with no diagnosis and recovered? He will be seen as an outpatient at some point but he's find life very difficult at the moment.

Sounds like ulcerative colitis to me. When will his biopsy results come back?

His colonoscopy was done 8 days ago so hopefully the results should be posted any day. Would the biopsy show ulcerative colitis if he has it?

Just to add; he's never had any blood in his stools which makes it all the more puzzling. He's also suffering with constipation (he's on Movical). I'm guessing the thickened intestine wall is causing the pain and it's a case of waiting for the inflammation to go down.

I don’t think it’s ulcerative colitis because that is found in the large intestine and would have been detected with the colonoscopy and if the hospital has ruled out IBD already.

Have they tested for/ruled out coeliac?

Push for testing for coeliac if he hasn’t already.

You need to wait for the biopsy results really. Crohns is probably most likely as anaemic - you don't have to have seen the blood for it to have been there - and small bowel oedema.

No-one can tell you how long or what the treatment is until you have the biopsies back and a diagnosis.