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Does this sound like ibd?

Hi! I think I might have crohns/UC but I'm not sure.

Since my mid teens I've struggled with bathroom issues. I would get in trouble for spending too much time in the bathroom and always felt like I am wrong for having issues. I am very embarrassed. I never told my family about all the mucous in my stool or the occasional bleeding. They just thought I was reading or something.

When I was 19, I decided to go to the doctor. I didn't have family doctor so I went to the walk in. I told the doctor my symptoms and he sighed and said "do you realize how much work this is going to be for me?" So I never did the tests he ordered.

Then I went to another doctor who told me I had ibs and never ran any tests. I didn't do anything different.

Then at 22, I got pregnant and for the next four years and another pregnancy, I spent considerably less time in the bathroom. More than the average person, but my quality of life wasn't affected.

Now at age 27, I have a 4 year old and an 18 month old. Things have been going downhill a lot. I have a good family doctor now and I went to her about 7 months ago because I was having many urgent bms a day and a lot of mucous. I was put on an 18 month waiting list to see a gi specialist and a colonoscopy.

Then last month, I had a bad stomach virus and had severe vomiting and diarrhea. During this virus, I had two gushes of just blood without any stool. I called a nurse line and they said to go to the ER. They ran some blood tests and my CBC was normal. Also my C-reactive protein was normal last spring. No tests have been abnormal for me to date.

After getting fluids, I was sent home from the ER. Since then I have had mostly diarrhea, some days of constipation, my stool has been mostly dark green but there's been some blood and a lot of mucous. I've had a few fevers of 39 C. On Friday night and Saturday morning, my stool was quite bloody, as in bloody throughout and not just on.

I've had some episodes of cramping that feel like menstrual cramps but they radiate down to my knees. I do not feel like my pain is "that" bad. I've read stories on here where people say they thought they were going to die. I don't feel that sick. That being said, I literally didn't feel labour cramps until pushing time with my kids and I have a really high pain threshold.

I followed up with my doctor yesterday and did a blood test and stool sample which it's too early for results now. What if they're normal? Then I am not sure if ill get moved up the waiting list for a colonoscopy. I'm very worried. I've got bloody diarrhea today and I've lost count of visits to the bathroom.
 
Sorry for the long ramble. I don't want anything to be wrong with me but at the same time I do because I feel like I've been critically judged by my family, my job and other people in my life for the amount of time I spend in the bathroom as if it's something I have control over. It would almost be a relief even though I'm terrified.
 
Blood and mucus in stool is a pretty good indicator it's more than IBS. You will need a colonoscopy to confirm. Is there any way your regular doctor could do a stool test and some more bloodwork to start ruling out other things? Parasites, infections.

I use Lomotil to control diarrhea right now and it works well. Loperamide works decently too. But I wouldn't advise to do that unless your doctor says it's ok.
 
Yes, I had a blood test late yesterday and a stool sample this morning. I haven't heard anything, but it's still too soon. Thanks for your response.
 
I would also say to try to get the C-reactive protein checked while you are having bloody stools and mucus. In between flares, my C-reactive protein can be normal too.

Is there any way to get to a GI specialist sooner? If it is IBD, allowing it to go untreated for another 18 months really isn't ideal :(

Something you may want to look into in the meantime is to do whatever you can nutritionally to help with your symptoms. Try to figure out what foods make it worse -- it's often caffeine, alcohol, fried foods, dairy, fatty meats - and eliminate them. When you are really bad, do a low residue diet for a week or so -- extremely low fiber (can be googled). You can also google anti-inflammatory foods and incorporate them into your diet. I know this isn't a perfect solution (if it was, I wouldn't need meds!) but I think it can't hurt right now if you are suffering so badly.

Good luck. I hope you get some answers soon.
 
Thanks again for responding.

The blood test I did yesterday, my doctor said that she was testing for inflammation, I think that is the C-reactive protein? She is also checking for signs of blood loss and white blood cells. The stool sample I gave this morning was to rule out infections and parasites. Then she is taking those results and faxing the specialist a letter requesting I be seen sooner. I don't know if they'll see me sooner though if my results from these tests are normal. So we will see. Despite my issues over the years, I've always had normal test results so idk.

I wish I could just have a colonoscopy and know what I am dealing with.
 
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