Hey everyone, so for a little background on what ive been going through, I saw a gastroenterologist december of 2018, i was complaining about constipation that had been going on for a while, (going much less than norma), abdominal pain, gas & a bit of blood on the tp when i wiped. he sent me for an abdominal CT.. Everything came back clear, no blockages everything seemed good. He ran bloodwork, all normal & gave me some linzess to try. I started to feel pretty good for a while so I never went back to him. recently in the past 5 months ive been having strange symptoms again, but this time i can only describe it as alternating constipation and diarrhea, if i have a BM at 9 am it might be very loose and thin and ragged edges (like a 6 on bristol) and a few hours later ill feel urgency to go but itll be like pebbles. i often feel much better after a BM. sometimes i have what i would call a “flare”. lots of gas pain in my abdomen, loss of appetitie & feeling full very quickly. pretty much the feeling of being “full of shit”. another thing is that there is so much mucus in my poops& recently i had some pink blood when i wipe. sometimes my underwear is wet by my thong area with what seems to be mucusy anal discharge. i havent really noticed myself eating bad foods. i stay away from dairy & cheese because i know it doesnt sit well with me. does this sound like IBS-alternating constipation & diarrhea? i have an appointment with my gastro on friday but i also have crippling health anxiety which makes things like this hard for me to handle. im 21 years old with now fears of late staged anal or bowel cancer. i also have undiagnosed endometriosis but doctors assume thats what causes my painful periods & pelvic pain.
to sum it up
SYMPTOMS
-alternating constipation & diarrhea (sometimes both on the same day)
-ragged mushy thinner stool or yellowish diarrhea or pebbles
- excessive flatulence
-mucusy poop & discharge
-abdominal cramping (not localized everywhere)
-gas pains
- occasional blood on tp but not in stool.
-bloating
Written by
hallc1999
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It sounds like IBS (Alternating) or (Mixed). Or it could be overflow diarrhoea. I'm sure it's not cancer at your age. Just tell your gastro about all this when you see him on Friday. Good luck. Let us know how you get on.
Thank you for your reply! yes. when i wake up in the morning for example, my first BM is pebbles (1 on stool chart) the next BM only a few hours later will be soft mushy (like a 6). then maybe the next one is normal. its so weird. or sometimes no BM for two days
If you are not going for a couple of days, it will harden inside you and then when you eat something else, if it's softer it seems to be able to push past the solid. I think that is what happens to me anyway. Sometimes I really wish I could see inside me to see what's going on. I find the hardest thing about IBS is that you cannot see it. If you have a broken bone, or a swelling, or a rash, you know what you are up against but with IBS you can't work out what is going on however much you try to.
You could be experiencing constipation with overflow diarrhea - i.e. liquid stool pushing past impacted stool since it has nowhere to go.
Have you tried any dietary measures to improve your BMs?
To improve constipation in the short term you can try ground flaxseed on your breakfast, starting at 1 teaspoon and increasing at 1 teaspoon every 2-3 days - you'll need to consume extra water with it.
Any increases in fibre need to be built up gradually.
I have IBS-C and this is what I have for breakfast: 75g oat bran, 50g of all (wheat) bran soaked overnight in water plus 10 almonds & 1 tablespoon flaxseed ground together, 2 tablespoon chia seeds and 9 prunes plus homemade oat milk - all soaked for a further 15 mins (so the chia seeds form a gel).
There is also Shredded wheat (or GF version: Nutribrex) .
Before lunch I have 1 orange (which contains a natural laxative).
Before dinner I have one of these high fibre fruits:
2 small hard pears
5 dried apricots
90g Raspberries
2 kiwi
I bulk buy fruit and freeze where necessary to allow me to have this variety.
At other meals I have:
Quinoa
Wholewheat bread
Whole grain pastas (Spelt or GF: Buckwheat)
I also take 30 drops of ginger extract before bedtime to aid motility. You may need to work up the dose to say 7 drop increments each night.
I have been giving Optifibre a go, which has been helping but I need to be careful with the amount since it gives me gas.
Exercise can help with BMs. The government recommends 150 mins of moderate exercise (e.g. walking as if you are late for an appointment) or 75 of intense exercise (e.g. jogging) per week. I also have a bit of a walk around straight after breakfast to get things moving.
You need to ensure that you are drinking enough fluids (2 litres of fluid per day).
There is some good advice about constipation here:
Well, it is good to have this all checked out but the blood sounds like an internal hemorrhoid, which will bleed if you pass a hard stool or even sometimes diarrhea. The alternating between the two-constipation and diarrhea, does sound like IBS. Bloating and flatulence also. But you could also have a lot of other simple things like a parasite, or particular bacteria etc. Please don't jump to cancer because there are a ton of other things it could be. Also, I had abdominal endometriosis and it was horrible each time I had my period. Excruciating pain. So that is possibly a separate thing to look in to. Just relax and take one step at a time. GI people will first try to identify what you don't have, which will rule out cancer and other scary things. You will probably end up having a bunch of tests and a colonoscopy. Consider this a journey to figure out what is going on. Hang in there and breathe.
thank you for your comment. yes my gynecologist is 99% sure i have endo. im going to request a laporotomy to confirm. i don’t want to have a misdiagnosis of ibs if its my endo
Have you considered BAM (Bile Acid Malabsorption)? This can cause symptoms of BM (d) and BM(c), it would also cause yellowish poop (floating with fat or mucus).
I can relate to a lot of the things you have said in this post. I also have 'IBS' and awful health anxiety. Like you, I am 21 and have a lot the symptoms you've mentioned. Please let me know how your appointments go and what the doctors say, I really want to get tested for abdominal endometriosis (I've had an pelvic exam and they only found fibroids) and need to bring that up with my gynaecologist.
I have the alternation as well. I wake up and use the restroom and its a 5 on the bristol chart and then I go again an hour later and its thin pieces and by the night I feel constipated and believe I have pieces stuck in my rectum.
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