Undiagnosed 23 year old male with 3 months of diarrhea

[ank]

Hi All,

I am a 23 year old male that has been experiencing diarrhea for 3 months now. This all started in august after a tooth infection during which the dentist prescribed me 3 doses of clindamycin antibiotic. The dentist informed me to ignore the diarrhea as a side effect and keep taking the medication. A month after the medication finished I still had diarrhea and decided to visit a doctor. The doctor prescribed flagyl and ordered stool test for c diff. At this time I also started noticing mucus in my blood and a lot of undigested food. The stool test came back negative and I was scheduled an appointment with a GI.

The appointment with the GI is in mid February and I don't know how to tolerate my symptoms in the meanwhile. I visited the Hospital one night where I had bowel movements 7 times in one day. The hospital ran blood tests and everything came back normal.

I also visited another doctor in mid November who ordered another stool test. This stool test also came back negative. HoWever, the doctor asked me to eat a lot of yogurt and start taking probiotic. I began to take these and my stool started to become formed again. In the past month I go to the bathroom about 3-4 times a day. When I first wake up my stool is mainly formed, but later in the afternoon it becomes watery loose stools. The diarrhea usually stops by mid afternoon and then I have constipation. My diarehea is almost always accompanied by mucus. However, no blood.

I also have a slight very minimalistic sensation of pain on my left lower abdominal. The pain transitions between right and left lower abdominal throughout the day. I also feel somewhat of joint pain.

I have encountered no weight loss, fever, or any other symptom in the meanwhile.

I am extremely scared of my diagnosis. I want to know if others have similar symptoms to me. Also, how do I deal with this problem until my GI appointment?

Thank you all for reading this post. I really appreciate any help that I can get.

 

[StarGirrrrl]

Hi ank, sorry to hear what you are going though, we can all sympathise with those symptoms here!

Try calling your GI's office and getting put onto a cancellation list, you have a shot at being seen sooner that way. Is there another GI you can see which might fit you in before February?

In terms of managing the symptoms i'd suggest keeping a food diary and seeing if you spot anything that might be irritating things. There will always be times when I do things right but things go wrong- that's the nature of bowel issues sadly. But a food diary can help keep those times to a minimum.