Gastroenterologist appointment
I saw my gastroenterologist today. I always remind myself to try to remember everything she says so I can write it down here, but I’m not very good at it.
She said my colonoscopy back in July looked very good. I think she said she took a bunch of biopsies, which surprised me, because I didn’t think they had. In previous colonoscopies, there were times where it hurt, and I figured that was because they were taking a biopsy, but during my last colonoscopy, it didn’t hurt at all. She said something about the left side, I think maybe there was inflammation there. But I think she basically said it looks like there wasn’t any active Crohn’s.
I’ve been keeping track of my bloodwork results online, and the lymphocyte counts have still been low. She says this is probably normal for me, because I haven’t been on any drugs for quite a while, so there’s nothing that should be causing it. She says if another doctor gets concerned about this, I can tell them we know about it, because she said something like people have gone to the hospital for having counts like mine. She also said if my Crohn’s does become active again, we can’t put me on imuran; we’d have to use biologics, which don’t affect lymphocytes. She asked if I get sick a lot, but I said I don’t.
She also received my bone density test results. She says my bone density is less than most people my age. She asked what vitamins I’m taking. I said just a multivitamin and vitamin D. She said I should start taking calcium, only about 500 mg – 1 g, because you need the calcium so that the vitamin D gets absorbed properly. I wasn’t too excited about this, because the chewable calcium I used to take was very chalky tasting, but I picked up some gummy calcium tonight, and it doesn’t taste bad at all.
My previous appointment was six months ago, but my doctor said I could book my next appointment for nine months from now, since I’ve been doing so well. I also previously was doing bloodwork every three months, but she said I could do my next one in July, so seven months from now.