I have been two weeks on liquids and soft foods because of feeling SBO. Today I had a CT enterography and the DR.'s office said it was negative for obstruction. I have been very nauseous all day and my belly feels obstructed just above the pouch. Could it be a stricture into the j-pouch? Any help would be great.
I have lost too much weight and time!

Hi Linda

Sorry you didn't get answers today and that you are still not feeling well. Are they scheduling any further tests? I was told that partial obstructions are harder to identify because you don't have the distict enlargement of the bowel above the obstructed area and collapsed bowel below like in a complete obstruction?? Could it just not have shown up on the CT scan?? Hopefully someone who has more experience will be along soon to give you some better advice/ info. I am thinking of you and hoping you will feel better soon. Stay on those doc's .....if they don't find a cause with one test ask what other tests can be done. Hang in there. Hopefully things will get better soon.

Yes, if you have a partial obstruction, this is less likely to show up, but a significant stricture at the top of the pouch should have been visible on CT. It is possible that you have something else going on, such as a functional bowel disorder (IPS), motility disorder, or structural defect that is not easily seen by traditional imaging. There have been a few here who have had issues that were very difficult to pin down, such as Janna with her internal pouch prolapse. Sometimes these things only show up with pressure from above, or below, or when you are standing, etc.

The thing is that just ruling out one problem, does not mean you do not have a problem. They just have to keep looking.

Jan

THANKS for the info. and the support. I feel very sick, so I will insist on further testing tomorrow.

Hi Linda,

What exactly are your symptoms? I would have intermittent pain as things tried to pass into the pouch. I would have really bad pain (at times had to do labor breathing to get thru it) and once it pushed through to the pouch, the pain would stop. This happened daily for me for many, many months. There were signs of narrowing above the pouch and in the mid pouch during routine pouch scopes. They finally did a CT Enterography and found the stricture just above the pouch and a perianal abcess/fistula to boot.

Also, have you been scoped lately? The day of my CT Enterography, I saw my G.I. in the afternoon and after reviewing my CT prelim report, he paged my surgeon. She scoped me that same afternoon and confirmed the narrowed area. She couldn't get the scope past that area and said it was almost completely shut and scheduled me for surgery. I had stricutureplasty surgery (in which no bowel is removed) in August. I have been pain free in the belly area ever since.

Hope this helps. You need to be your own advocate and insist something is not right. I actually have my Remicade nurse to thank for pursuing the CT Enterography which confirmed the pain I had been describing for months to the doc. Now that I'm pain free from the strictured area, I wish I would have pushed my G.I. harder about the pain I was having for so long.

Susan H

Susan-
Thanks for the info. I had a ct enterography also, and they said it was negative. My GI is also (when I see him) not very concerned. I am having an endoscopy on Friday. I am very nervous because I have been eating so little and afraid that I now have something wrong in my stomach. I feel dehydrated and have lost several pounds. I will let you know what happens. Thanks for your help.