You are not alone if you have less common IBD symptoms or locations of inflammation

Hi! I am Emma and I want to share the story of my IBD diagnosis because I think it could help others who have less common IBD symptoms and locations of inflammation. It all began when I was a senior in high school. I had this pain in my chest and upper abdomen whenever I ate or drank so I decided to go to the doctor.

I originally went to my pediatrician, and he shrugged it off as stress from school and other extracurricular activities I was involved in. He put me on an antacid because my symptoms aligned with acid reflux/GERD. These helped for a while but were not a good long-term solution as I started to become resistant to them.

I continued to go back to my primary care doctor two more times and, after increasing the dose with no improvement, he decided to refer me to a gastroenterologist. At this point I had been dealing with pain during eating and drinking just about everything (except water) for over a year. I had graduated high school, moved into my freshman dorm, and it was during winter break of my freshman year in college that I was finally able to get an appointment with the GI.

At my GI appointment they made me feel like I wasn’t crazy and that they were determined to figure out what was wrong. They first ran bloodwork to test for many different food allergies (gluten, etc.). Those came back normal and they decided to do scopes when I was back home for summer break. Because there was so much time between these two appointments, they gave me new medications to manage the symptoms I was experiencing.

Flash forward to summer...during my scopes they found inflammation in my esophagus and stomach. These are unusual spots for IBD, but it still is classified as such, specifically Crohn’s disease. My GI decided to get me on an injection medication that has been extremely effective for me. Now it is two years later, and I have little to no symptoms and have been classified as in remission.

I don’t have the common symptoms of those with IBD based on the location of my inflammation, but it is still something that I have to deal with every day. I hope my story helps those with less common IBD symptoms and locations of inflammation know that they are not alone!

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