Undiagnosed, but Pepto works?

[smicker]

Good evening all and hello,

I'm a 34 male from the UK. Woke up one morning in March to horrendous watery diarrhoea (UK spelling!) and that was the start of it.

Lots of blood tests, stool samples later, and I'm still no better off. I've been waiting for a colonoscopy which should be scheduled for the end of July.

As well as the diarrhoea, I've had occasional stomach cramps and a general feeling of being unwell. The BM happens within 20 mins or so of waking up, and I usually have 1 or 2 more throughout the day. No blood present.

So heres the thing. I tried Lomotil-works, but sicky feeling, Loperamide-same, probiotics, husks, and diet changes with no luck of feeling better.

I then tried pepto bismol at the end of April, and within 2 days I felt practically normal!! Appetite back, no sensitivity to foods, and normal stools!(well, black from the pepto). I only have one dose in the morning and night, and if I forget to take it, I start to feel sick pretty quickly. I've been on this since April.

What I'm asking is:

Does this sound like MC? When I go for my test, will they test for this?

I'm pretty worried, and have convinced myself it's something much worse.

thanks

 

[Cat-a-Tonic]

Hi, welcome to the forum. I'm undiagnosed too and my GI has put microscopic colitis very high on the list of suspects, so I can relate to a lot of what you wrote. Unfortunately, Pepto doesn't do much for me, but it's my understanding that Pepto works really well for the majority of people with microscopic colitis.

When you go in for your colonoscopy, make sure they take lots of biopsies! Microscopic colitis cannot be visualized on scope (so if you have MC, things will look perfectly normal) but it can of course be found on biopsy. Complicating matters, MC has a "skip pattern", so it is patchy, meaning they have to basically luck into biopsying the correct areas to find it. So, the more biopsies they take, the more likely they will be to find MC (assuming that's what's there). Good luck with your scope! I hope you can get a diagnosis soon, but it sounds like you've already found a good treatment plan.

 

[smicker]

Thanks for the reply.

The last couple of days I've had a real heaviness feeling at the back end, so not sure what's happening. I wonder if worry is making it worse!

 

[SN8888]

Just a warning - Long term use of Pepto can cause problems (Bismuth builds up and can cause Alzheimer's-like symptoms, though it's reversible). You shouldn't take it every day for more than a month or two (check with a Dr).

Saccharomyces Boulardii (like Florastor) can work wonders for chronic D and can be taken for a long time....