Recently I’ve been extremely worried about the symptoms I’ve been having and I was just wondering if anyone could shed some light onto it.
I'm a 15 year old female with no health problems, relatively healthy eating and exercise usually, don't smoke or drink.
So a couple of months ago, I began to feel ill to the point where I had to sit down and later on that night I threw up around 3 times and had a little bit of diarrhoea. The next few days I still had this stomach ache and eventually went to the GP where I met with an advanced nurse practicioner, did a quick urine sample and was told I had a UTI then was sent home with some tablets (can't remember what they were called) which I had to take for 3 days. I took them for 3 days as stated and no signs of improvement. All while this was going on, I lessened what I was eating due to a loss of appetite so thats what I'm presuming was causing my constipation. Got booked another doctor's appointment, this time with an official GP (not knocking the nurse of course) and waited a good 17 days or so for my appointment. During the waiting time, I was having a whole range of symptoms which was pains just generally anywhere (put down to anxiety as I suffer extremely badly with health anxiety, which of course doesn't ever help!), stomach aches which were made better with food and just a fluxuation between constipation and looser stools, never properly diarrhea though. I found a small amount of blood, less than enough to cover a fingernail and it was bright red and obviously I panicked and told my dad who told me it was probably due to all the straining I was doing. I brushed this off as hemorrhoids and went to the doctor's appointment that finally arrived! So I told the doctor all the problems I'd been having and she put it down to an inflammation in my stomach due to my ongoing use of nurofen/ibuprofen for my terrible period pains and due to braces pain as well so basically gastritis. She gave me omeprazole and said I could have a blood test as well so I agreed just to be on the safer side. Right now, I've just finished the four week course of omeprazole and I am feeling a lot better however my bowels are still all over the place. For example, one day I had a large orange ish coloured stool (which I read can be caused by antacids so I accepted this) and then another day it was slightly darker brown constipation. More recently, yesterday I was constipated and went twice in the day but however today (which has caused me significant worry) I had looser stools which were easy to pass so I'm not quite sure if they were normal or loose as they did keep their form but one "part" had a smear of blood on it! I have been crying a lot because I am just so terrified as I've never been "unwell" for months and the blood has completely just knocked any resistance to the anxiety I was having. As well as this, I've been having quite a bit of wind, excessive stomach growling and I passed clear mucus from my bottom. Also, before having a bowel movement in the mornings I get a really nauseous feeling in my stomach that usually passes after I've gone. More recently for example, yesterday my stools were loose and quite urgent like I needed to go as soon as I got the urge whereas today I’ve been constipated completely, it changes every day. It’s been making me really distressed as I even had to ask my boyfriend to go home because I really needed the toilet and it was making me feel ill. I got my blood test results and everything was normal with no further action required and this blood was taken about a month after my initial problems and it was tests like CBC, kidney and liver function etc.
I've been trying to tell myself that I've probably gotten IBS due to the stomach inflammation and my stress triggering it. As well as this, my mum passed away from heart complications in late April which has just inflated my anxiety about my heart and just my general health as she was only 46, 47 in May. Any help or advice would be appreciated (other than my dad being typical and saying just ignore it). Does this sound like it could be IBS? I’m terrified that I’ve got bowel cancer and I know it’s unlikely but I’ve just been so scared and I need help.
Key symptoms :
Excessive/sometimes smelly wind
Excessive stomach rumbling
Nausea before BM and then it’s relieved after going
Alternating constipation and loose stools/diarrhoea
Occasionally pain after eating but it’s not been too bad recently
Passing mucus from bottom
Please someone help!
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2512slff
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I am not a doctor, but I very much doubt you have bowel cancer. Check with the doctor or a gastroenterologist if you continue to be worried. Also you should read the health unlocked guidelines.
You do have a lot going on at the moment, it is no wonder you feel anxious. Are you having any treatment for your anxiety? Sometimes you need to persistent with your GP, which can be hard to do, but IBS is usually diagnosed by eliminating anything else, so you might need to visit multiple times. It's OK to be persistent, your GP is there to help, and hopefully without being patronising.
Have you told your GP about passing a little blood and some mucous? If not, I suggest you do, and explain how scared you are about it. You could also ask for some help with your period pain. Ibuprofen is not good for your stomach, and can cause diarrhoea too. It is off limits for me, which I discovered by trial and error.
It is probably worth looking at what you are eating too. Perhaps try keeping a food diary to see if you can identify anything the triggers your gut issues. There is lots of support on this site, and people are happy to discuss the yuckiest details and share their experiences. Does your dad know how worried you are? Are you able to talk to him about this, or can you confide in a friend or relative who can give you some support. I would urge you to go back to your GP.
Ibs and anxiety go hand in hand I’ve only just been put on anxiety meds (beta blockers) to try and stop my body freaking out all the time, I have trouble leaving the house. But carry on going to the docs and prod them x
If you haven't done already, I would suggest mentioning the blood to your GP. The other symptoms do sound like IBS but it would be worth asking your GP for tests to rule out other gut issues such as inflammation etc. If they come back clear and you are diagnosed with IBS, try asking if you can be referred to a dietician. They can help you look at how your diet affects the symptoms and suggest modifications that may help. Anxiety and stess can make things worse, but if you can get tested further and get more support with the symptoms, it may alliviate some of the anxiety and the symtoms may improve.
I just want to give you a big hug. I have two daughters, 18 and 16 and I’m so, so sorry to read about your mum. If you need a “Mum” to talk to, please message me.
It is no wonder that you are so utterly anxious and not well. I also have health anxiety and I can very much sympathise with you - every twinge, every gurgle, every weird poop....freaks me out too.
Did you mention the blood to your doctor? The blood tests are comprehensive, so I doubt very much that you have bowel cancer. It honestly sounds to me like you are either passing blood from your tummy - so gastritis, or you have piles somewhere that you can’t feel (please don’t go poking around in there 😬). Ibuprofen over a prolonged period can cause damage to your stomach - I can’t take it at all. And anxiety, all they anxiety will make your stomach SO acidic.
Are you getting any help for your anxiety and your grief? Are you in the UK? If not, please ask your doctor to refer you to mental health. You might need to wait a while, but I think you really need it.
As for your periods, you don’t have to suffer this way. There are other things the GP can recommend to help with horrible periods. My eldest had a terrible time with her periods - fainting, throwing up and in so much pain...also very heavy bleeding. She now takes the contraceptive pill and the difference is amazing. I know that you may not want to take that - maybe your dad won’t want that just now. But it’s an option. There are also other types of painkillers you can ask the GP for, that won’t hurt your tummy so much. There’s always a risk with painkillers of constipation....so always drink plenty. Of you end up taking stronger painkillers, ask the GP to give you something gentle to help you to “go”.
As for the mucous....I get that a lot. I’ve had IBS all my life, so I’ve had all versions of it! Everyone produces an amount of mucous from their bowel...IBS sufferers more so. It’s only something to be concerned about (and I don’t mean cancer) if ALL you produce is mucous. The first time it happened to me, about 20 years ago, I thought I was dying. But I’ve learned that it’s just what my bowel does. Also, when we are constipated, we can have something called “overflow diarrhoea”. Think of your intestine like a big, long caterpillar - when a caterpillar moves along, it wrinkles and spasms, in order to propel itself along the ground. Your intestine is the same - it constantly spasms and works like a massive muscle to push along its contents. If we’re really backed-up, the muscle action will just mash all that up and eventually, it will come out like diarrhoea (or an interesting mixture of poop styles!). I am now IBS-C predominant, so I take a laxative everyday, and I don’t have diarrhoea (unless I forget to take it or am very stressed). What I take is called Laxido and another form of it is Movicol.
The difference in colour in your poop can be down to a number of things: meds, too much fat in your diet, or your guts are moving too fast (something called “malabsorption”). So that can make your poop all sorts of colours - even yellow!
I know it takes a lot of bravery, but please go back and talk to your GP - you need some proper advice and definitely need help to manage your anxiety and grief.
Hi, I want to support you. What a mess you're in and your head is not helping: you are way too smart for that simple mammalian body you're walking around in. You are giving it all sorts of signals with your worries and your thoughts, just as you suspect.
First things first: bright red blood comes from the exit part of your bowels. Most likely the inner lining of your anus (and right before that) got a little torn with matter sitting too long there (constipation) and/or straining. With each tear and healing the lining gets a little thinner, especially when it folds, and can easily tear again.
I repeat: bright red blood is from near the exit. Like a finger deep.
When you see dark, black blood you should see a doctor asap. That's old blood, from higher up in the tubes.
Second thing: examining your feces is extremely helpful in giving you an idea of what's going on. Keep doing it. Just don't try to interpret it day by day. You need to have a week or longer of the same weird colour/substance to suspect something's wrong.
For example: I had grey/whitish poo which floated. This means there is fat in the stool. Which means the bile from the liver did not work properly. This can happen. One day. Two days. A week. Not a problem. When I had this for two weeks my GP and I took it as a signal and did something about it. (We acidified my stomach contents as this is signal for the liver to release bile).
So only if you have one week or two weeks of continuous weird poo you and your doctor should think about the cause of it. And it will not be cancer even when dr.Google suggests it. More likely it is a systemic thing that you can easily tweak.
Your digestion system is a remarkable thing! Full of nifty tricks and fall back plans. Pretty much the same like a heart. Hearts and digestive systems do not fail easily. Even though your mum died from heart complications (I am so sorry for that. Here is an anonymous internet hug!) it was very unlikely to happen and about 7 things had to happen/exist simultaneously for the heart to physical fail.
The same with your bowels. There need to be several things wrong simultaneously before they cannot handle their job and they fail and you fall ill. And even then, when you fall ill, you will figure out what's the matter and you are on time to fix it.
A few of the nifty things from the digestive system:
1. it alternates acid and base environment to get certain things done. Your stomach is acid (to break down proteins and to signal liver for bile production). When it's not acid enough your small intestines will not accept the food. It's a fail safe. Enzymes from liver and pancreas de-acidify the food and you take up the nutrients. Food travels on and meets the big intestine/colon. In this environment live bacteria and they love a slight acidic environment.
2. Your intestines protect themselves from all the outside-matter that you chafe along their walls. Vegetables, meat morsels, pieces of corn. They protect their walls with mucus. That's what's leaking out of you. It smells sickly sweetly, doesn't it? It's good that you have this mucus. Apparently you have an abundance since you're overflowing a bit. Sick people have not enough and their intestine walls get chafed and perhaps damaged (hello cancer).
3. the motility of your intestines is governed by two neurotransmitters that react very much to stress. There's Serotonin, the happy hormone, that makes it move. That is why a side effect of Anti Depressants and also ADHD medicine is loose stools: it keeps the levels of Serotonin high. In the brain. And in the rest of the body. All neurotransmitters are called hormones when they are in the body, not the brain.
The hormone that quiets down the motility is Dopamine. That's the concentration-hormone.
You, with your thinking, your analyzing, your worries and your grief, you're cycling fast through bouts of Serotonin and of Dopamine, every day. Your intestines react to that. And vice versa. The hormones your intestines produce flow to your brain, making you anxious.
The rumbling is intestines moving. There is always gas production in the tubes, even when we feed the bacteria that live there next to nothing. This gas must pass otherwise it will get stuck in bends and cause pain and bloating.
Your bacterial colonies and the kind of gass they produce depends on the inner milieu. Which is again dependent on how you feel and which neurotransmitters are cruising through your brain and body.
And God knows what other hormones float around. I know a lot about Cortisone, the chronic stress-hormone. It is made from Progesteron, in the adrenals. You, as a female, might need that Progesteron to counter some of your menstrual symptoms. Perhaps your ovaries do not make enough Progesteron of themselves. I don't know whether you're on birth control? But that's a very bad sort of progesteron (it's not progesteron at all, it's a different molecular structure from the Progesteron your own body would produce. The European brand of the body-identical Progesteron is called Utrogestan. But it cannot be used for birth-control. Anyway, this is supposed to be about Cortison.
Cortison determines how acid your stomach is. Too much stress = too much cortison = not enough acid. It also thins the skin, cortison. This includes the skin of your intestines, or, as we should call it, the walls. The lining, the lining near your anus that will easily tear and give bright red blood.
You see, all things you mention interact. There is not one symptom there that screams out and that warrants Real Worries. If you have two weeks of constant identical weird poo (in colour or consistency) we had something to ponder.
If there was black blood in your stool your doctor would investigate.
I do know that the stress intertwines with everything and that if you prolong too long (say 1 year from now) with constant stress you can break the system.
But! It takes a lot for the system to break down to a point where you are beyond repair. You have time. You can counter the stresses. I AM NOT SAYING THIS IS MENTAL or THAT YOU ARE TO BLAME OR RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS
(sorry, can't fix font at the moment)(please try to read through the typos)
Your system is in Fight or Filght at the moment. This messes up the whole bodily system. The only way out is the Relaxaton Response. bringing the system into Rest & Digest over and over again until it stays there and settles down.
My bodily system broke down. I did not have Progesteron from my ovaries and lived on stress for 35 years. Then a decline and I broke proper at 39. Now I am 47 and I am well again for 2 years now, with the help of outside Cortisol and Progesteron.
My first clues about what was going on came from monitoring my stools. Good luck!!
I’m still having my symptoms but I’m too nervous to ask my dad to go to the doctors as he’ll say I’m making a fuss over nothing. My symptoms have definitely gotten slightly better but some are still there. Thank you all for your comments which helped ease my anxiety lots. These are my symptoms currently:
Pretty regular bowel movements like before (once a day after dinner) but occasionally skips a day and isn’t constipation as such but hard ish to pass
Occasionally pain after eating but it’s not been too bad recently
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Help please - terrified and alone
Can this be ibs?
Anxious with a 117 calprotectin measured
