Continuing with my diagnosis, last Monday I had to go back
to the hospital for a small bowel MRI.
MRI is short for “Magnetic Resonance Imaging”.
It utilises strong magnetic fields and radio waves to generate images of the
body. It has the benefit over traditional x-rays and CT scans that it doesn’t
expose you to radiation. There are advantages and disadvantages of each
technique. I personally am not worried about getting x-rays. I’d much rather
have a little radiation than continue to suffer, though some people are
concerned about the effects of radiation, so MRI is a valid alternative. Pretty
sure I’m not going to get superpowers no matter how many x-rays I have, boo.
The purpose of MRI was to investigate my
small bowel for signs of inflammatory bowel disease – common types of IBD being
Crohn’s and Ulcerative Collitis. My current diagnosis is ‘active IBD’. My
abdomen is often quite swollen, noticeably bigger at some points and tender to
touch pretty. I more often than not have pain in my abdomen after eating manifesting
as horrible gut wrenching cramps that leave me with little more to do than curl
up in a position that’s remotely comfy and feel sorry for myself while waiting
for them to pass. It can vary in its onset. It can occur 5 minutes after eating
or it can appear half an hour after eating. This also varies with what and how
much I eat. Sometimes I’m okay, sometimes I think those chips will be the end
of me. With this often comes horrible diarrhoea (It’s hard treading fine line between
being informative and being gross, sometimes you just have to be honest).
From a previous colonoscopy – which I
thankfully had prior to starting writing the blog, as I’m pretty sure you
wouldn’t want a play by play of that! – it showed my large bowel to be normal,
with no obvious ulcers or areas of concern. Biopsies were taken but were
inconclusive. So the next step was to see if my small bowel was inflamed which unfortunately
can’t be reached by the camera.
