Diagnosis - Primary Care Encounter
When you see Jennifer as a new patient, she reports intermittent crampy abdominal pain associated with non-bloody loose stool. She attributes these symptoms to stress and what she perceives to be lactose intolerance—or, based on a recent Google search, gluten intolerance. She also tells you that she gets occasional mouth ulcers that resolve on their own and that seem to be related to stress. Her previous doctor told her that these are aphthous ulcers.
Jennifer has a BMI of 26 and says she has been heavier than she would like since her pregnancy. She mentions that she was diagnosed with mild anemia postpartum, and that her obstetrician prescribed FeSO4 (325mg daily). She is also taking levothyroxine (112mcg daily) for hypothyroidism diagnosed when she was in high school. She is afebrile, and her physical exam is unremarkable except for a slight abdominal tenderness that does not localize to any quadrant and has no associated rebound or guarding.
Clinical Conversations: IBD Podcast
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