Saw the gastroenterologist today to discuss the test results and plan our
next step. He said he was concerned that I had not been on NSAIDs for nearly
two months before I swallowed the camera. All the ulcers should have been
healed by then, but there were a couple dozen of them, several actively
bleeding as the camera passed by. Another thing was that the ulcers were
clustered in the second half of the small intestine. So he has ordered a
very specific blood test called a Prometheus IBD Serology 7 (I overheard the
lab folks saying it cost about $500 for this one). It is used by
gastroenterologists to differentiate between ulcerative colitis (most often
found in the large intestine) and Crohn's Disease (usually found in the
lower portion of the small intestine - called the ileum) and which has a 92%
accuracy rating. If those tests (it's a set of seven) are positive, then I
will most likely be put on a medication that requires me to take four large
pills four times each day. (He joked I would need a wheelbarrow to carry
them from the pharmacy and said that he hopes he doesn't have to put me
through that.) So I went and had some blood drawn and am now waiting the
minimum of three weeks for the results to be returned. His office will call
me when the results come in and I, of course, will let everyone know what
the next step is on this.

If anyone is a blood lab person, these are the seven tests that make up this
special test:

ASCA IgA, ASCA IgG, AntiOmPC IgA, Anti CBir1, NSNA ELISA, NSNA IFA
perinuclear pattern, NSNA DNase sensitivity.  I have found that ASCA =
anti-Saccharomyces cerevisiae antibodies and that ELISA = enzyme linked
immunosorbeat assay. "The anti-CBir1 marker helps identify patients with
Crohn's disease," says one press release from Prometheus. That's all I have
found so far.

DeeTee