Brief Answer:
Your Daughter may have Crohns

Detailed Answer:
Hello

I am Dr.Omer and I am here to help you with your query.

I am really sorry and sad to hear about your daughter as she is young and have a whole life in-front of her to spend.

As you have said she is usually pale with dark circles around her eyes meaning she has weight loss and lethargic all the time.

If her menstrual cycle is normal and there is no excessive bleeding or abnormal bleeding through out the month then a healthy girl will never require iron supplements or infusions.

Then her low ferritin indicates that her intestine is not absorbing iron from the food and the iron tablets she may be taking.So the problem is in INTESTINE. Most probably it is an inflammation of intestine like colitis, etc.

Different kind of food is absorbed from intestine from different places from intestine. When ever she will take proteins, fatty or dairy food she will have pain and bloating and she will have to vomit or go to washroom for urgent defecation.

In Crohns disease patient usually have sugar craving as only carbohydrates are easily , fastly absorbed from intestine and that part where carbohydrate absorbs is usually spared in this disease. Recurrent infections of mononucleosis also points to Crohns disease as in crohns patients have low immunity and attraction for this virus.

Psycological and psychiatric problems like depression , anxiety and aggressivnes or passiveness may be there with this disease. Patient can have diarrhoea or urgency of defecation , can have bleeding in stools or have normal stools. Crohns disease usually starts in teenage life that is in 15s.

Crohns also causes lactose intolerance and the differential diagnosis of your daughter symptoms is Celiac disease, tests for celiac when comes negative and their is sensitivity to lactose or gluten then its CROHNS.

The plan of action now would be URGENT consultation with Gastroenterologist, explain to him what i told you in this message. She will be requiring CECT abdomen, colonoscopy + endoscopy with liver function test and CRP/Complete blood picture.

Crohns disease nowadays is completely treatable if treated early other wise sisterns diseases of crohns come into action like Primary sclerosing cholangitis , lymphoma and hairy cell leukemia then treatment of this disease is difficult.

Follow what i said and you will have your daughter healthy as ever.

Feel free to ask any further queries ill be happy to answer them.

Take care.

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Brief Answer:
MALABSORPTION SYNDROME

Detailed Answer:
Hello again

Thank-you for understanding.

First of all I would say Candida Overgrowth is not common in a girl of 17 years old.Candida infections are common but superficial only like vaginal candidiasis.Candida only comes inside the body when the immunity is very low in the individuals with diabetes ,age >75 years , malignancy , steroids use , during chemotherapy and so on.Besides candida overgrowth patients are seen in hospitals intensive care unit only. ( its a dreadful disease ).

So now a days her complexion is normal , its a happy news.

The information you have given indicates that your daughter has Intestine problem , so now the Topic of those diseases is MALABSORPTION SYNDROME.

In malabsorption syndrome people lose weight , have bloating with or without flatulance , decreased level of ferritin and different fat soluble vitamins.Besides ferritin is not a good indicator of iron storage in the body , the best indicators are Total IRON in Blood and TIBC ( total iron binding capacity). If her heamoglobin dropped with normal menstrual cycles then it means mal-absorption of the iron and vitamins required to build new blood on her own.

Under malabsorption syndrome comes CROHNs , CELIAC , LACTOSE ALLERGY , FOOD ALLERGIES ,ThYROID PROBLEMS , DIABETES , CYSTIC FIBROSIS and so on.

In crohns disease most of the patients have normal bowel habits with bloating , non-specific abdominal pain , no fever ,low ferritin , low mood.

Now-a-days no-one diagnosis celiac on anti-transglutaminase and IgA level because more than 70 % of celiac patients dont have it but do have the disease and not all are healthy even when they started gluten free diet.Celiac disease is diagnosed by endoscopy.

In the end i would say you need a Good Gastroenterologist review and he is the one expert in diagnosing and treating Mal-absorptive diseases. He will rule out the diseases i told you by doing the test and the endoscopy with biopsy.

What-ever the cause may be of mal-absorption they are reversible after getting the treatment.

I hope i explained in detail about your query , if satisfied with answers , kindly write a review , Obliged.

Take care.

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