Hi everyone,
I’m a new member to the forum, but was hoping to gain some knowledge about my illness and hopefully progress a little past what has been a very life-changing experience. I’m a 26 year old, 6ft 3in, 15st male with terrible issues regarding my stomach.
So, I should probably start from the beginning…my mother always says that I’ve suffered bouts of ‘upset stomach’ (cramping that leads to diarrhoea) since I was very young; I myself can remember back to my pre-teen years being plagued with this, which gradually got worse as I grew older.
Everything seemed to focus around eating – as I grew into a teenager and beyond, I was always wary of going out to eat, as whatever I ate would usually upset my stomach and cause painful cramping and, again, diarrhoea. I self-medicated with Immodium capsules for many years and saw a few doctors over this time, all of which just blamed it on mild IBS and that was that.
So, things were on a downward spiral for quite some time – I could tell this, but continued increasing my doses of Immodium and any other over the counter stomach-aiding medication, in hopes that I could keep symptoms mostly at bay.
Then, during a massively stressful period of my life, on December 8th 2009 I was struck down with a stomach ache and accompanying diarrhoea worse than I had ever felt it – this was the moment that my life changed forever…
Whereas before I could take a few Immodium capsules and all would be well, this diarrhoea was not going away and came with tear-jerking cramps that left me unable to leave the house. I started taking excessive doses so that I could visit my GP/consultant and even so I could get to sleep at night – at one point I was taking 36 capsules a day, which is a scary amount.
Over the course of the next four years I experienced a variety of symptoms, including the following:
• Severe, continuous and sudden diarrhoea
• Rectal bleeding (varying amounts, from slight to what looked like a crime scene)
• Terrible cramps in my upper, but predominantly lower stomach
• Fatigue
• Joint pain
• Inflammation of the gut
• Plus FAR more, that I just can’t remember at this moment…
Essentially, my life has been hell from that point onward.
Added to this come a list of other non-stomach related issues – I developed severe anxiety problems, including vicious panic attacks due to my fear of being ‘caught short’ outside of my own home; essentially leaving me a prisoner in my house. Alongside this is the more recent arrival of painful Gout in my right big-toe knuckle joint – which doctors seem to attribute to the amount of inflammation in my system.
As for my doctors themselves, they have now diagnosed me with Crohns disease – or at least, they seem to think that it is such. I have seen a laundry list of GP’s, all of which have been most unhelpful and my consultant seems to swing wildly between thoughts of me either having Crohns, IBS, UC or something else altogether.
I have run the list of medications for stomach ailments – from Predsol and Pentasa suppositories, to oral medications, bulking agents and SO many more; alongside strong doses of Valium and anti-depressants to deal with the accompanying social anxieties and depression.
Test results have never really been incredibly helpful in the long run in determining an outcome for my illness – as, as soon as I get one lot of results back and have another test, the findings seem to contradict those diagnosed previously. I have had everything from colonoscopies to nuclear white-cell count tests done and I am still no closer to finding a cure/treatment for what is wrong with me.
Now we reach the present and the most important bit that has led me here…
Over the past six months my symptoms have begun to change – whereas I once could not stop myself from going to the toilet and having diarrhoea, now I get the urge to go around 20-30 times a day and when I arrive at the toilet, will only pass green pus, white fluffy mucus and bright red blood; mixed together in a light brown and sticky paste that stains the bowl.
Alongside this, the cramps that usually signal that I am going to need the toilet have been getting worse – I am now usually in agony for about 60/70% of every day and the pain wakes me up to run to the toilet a good few times every night.
When I wake up in the morning, I know that within five minutes the cramps will come and force me to evacuate whatever I can from my bowels – which usually isn’t a lot – and then I will continue to repeat this around every 15/20 minutes for the rest of the day.
I can also time how long between having a meal and going to the toilet will take – after taking the first bite of a meal, I can mark a time between 6-8 minutes as to when cramping will start and I will feel the strong need to empty my bowels again.
This latest change in symptoms has me at my wit’s end and I was hoping that I could find some help on here – maybe someone who has had/heard of similar conditions and knows what was done to combat them? Or even someone with a friendly hint on how to deal with these worsening issues!
I am booked in for a sigmoidoscopy on August 1st (three days before my 27th birthday, so happy birthday to me!) and hope that doctors will be able to see something then, as well.
Thank you for taking the time to read this – if there is any missing information that would be useful to aid those who would be kind enough to take the time to help, please do not be afraid to ask; whatever the questions may be!
Thanks again – I hope to hear from some of you soon.
I’m a new member to the forum, but was hoping to gain some knowledge about my illness and hopefully progress a little past what has been a very life-changing experience. I’m a 26 year old, 6ft 3in, 15st male with terrible issues regarding my stomach.
So, I should probably start from the beginning…my mother always says that I’ve suffered bouts of ‘upset stomach’ (cramping that leads to diarrhoea) since I was very young; I myself can remember back to my pre-teen years being plagued with this, which gradually got worse as I grew older.
Everything seemed to focus around eating – as I grew into a teenager and beyond, I was always wary of going out to eat, as whatever I ate would usually upset my stomach and cause painful cramping and, again, diarrhoea. I self-medicated with Immodium capsules for many years and saw a few doctors over this time, all of which just blamed it on mild IBS and that was that.
So, things were on a downward spiral for quite some time – I could tell this, but continued increasing my doses of Immodium and any other over the counter stomach-aiding medication, in hopes that I could keep symptoms mostly at bay.
Then, during a massively stressful period of my life, on December 8th 2009 I was struck down with a stomach ache and accompanying diarrhoea worse than I had ever felt it – this was the moment that my life changed forever…
Whereas before I could take a few Immodium capsules and all would be well, this diarrhoea was not going away and came with tear-jerking cramps that left me unable to leave the house. I started taking excessive doses so that I could visit my GP/consultant and even so I could get to sleep at night – at one point I was taking 36 capsules a day, which is a scary amount.
Over the course of the next four years I experienced a variety of symptoms, including the following:
• Severe, continuous and sudden diarrhoea
• Rectal bleeding (varying amounts, from slight to what looked like a crime scene)
• Terrible cramps in my upper, but predominantly lower stomach
• Fatigue
• Joint pain
• Inflammation of the gut
• Plus FAR more, that I just can’t remember at this moment…
Essentially, my life has been hell from that point onward.
Added to this come a list of other non-stomach related issues – I developed severe anxiety problems, including vicious panic attacks due to my fear of being ‘caught short’ outside of my own home; essentially leaving me a prisoner in my house. Alongside this is the more recent arrival of painful Gout in my right big-toe knuckle joint – which doctors seem to attribute to the amount of inflammation in my system.
As for my doctors themselves, they have now diagnosed me with Crohns disease – or at least, they seem to think that it is such. I have seen a laundry list of GP’s, all of which have been most unhelpful and my consultant seems to swing wildly between thoughts of me either having Crohns, IBS, UC or something else altogether.
I have run the list of medications for stomach ailments – from Predsol and Pentasa suppositories, to oral medications, bulking agents and SO many more; alongside strong doses of Valium and anti-depressants to deal with the accompanying social anxieties and depression.
Test results have never really been incredibly helpful in the long run in determining an outcome for my illness – as, as soon as I get one lot of results back and have another test, the findings seem to contradict those diagnosed previously. I have had everything from colonoscopies to nuclear white-cell count tests done and I am still no closer to finding a cure/treatment for what is wrong with me.
Now we reach the present and the most important bit that has led me here…
Over the past six months my symptoms have begun to change – whereas I once could not stop myself from going to the toilet and having diarrhoea, now I get the urge to go around 20-30 times a day and when I arrive at the toilet, will only pass green pus, white fluffy mucus and bright red blood; mixed together in a light brown and sticky paste that stains the bowl.
Alongside this, the cramps that usually signal that I am going to need the toilet have been getting worse – I am now usually in agony for about 60/70% of every day and the pain wakes me up to run to the toilet a good few times every night.
When I wake up in the morning, I know that within five minutes the cramps will come and force me to evacuate whatever I can from my bowels – which usually isn’t a lot – and then I will continue to repeat this around every 15/20 minutes for the rest of the day.
I can also time how long between having a meal and going to the toilet will take – after taking the first bite of a meal, I can mark a time between 6-8 minutes as to when cramping will start and I will feel the strong need to empty my bowels again.
This latest change in symptoms has me at my wit’s end and I was hoping that I could find some help on here – maybe someone who has had/heard of similar conditions and knows what was done to combat them? Or even someone with a friendly hint on how to deal with these worsening issues!
I am booked in for a sigmoidoscopy on August 1st (three days before my 27th birthday, so happy birthday to me!) and hope that doctors will be able to see something then, as well.
Thank you for taking the time to read this – if there is any missing information that would be useful to aid those who would be kind enough to take the time to help, please do not be afraid to ask; whatever the questions may be!
Thanks again – I hope to hear from some of you soon.
. Hopefully someone with a little more experience will be here soon to offer some more information. Keep hanging in there