My Story Thus Far

Wanted to formally say hello to everyone. I am about to be 43 and live in the U.S.. Well was starting to experience bowel issues in 2013. Major rushes of D with extreme amounts of mucus. Then the left sided pain set in shortly thereafter. Bowel changes with alternation between semi solid to watery. Went to doc and they did blood work,celiac test,h pylori,etc. All were normal. They suggested IBS. Was losing weight during that time. Went from about 190 lbs. to 145 mid 2014 before I started to regain my weight. By November 2014 when I had my colonoscopy I was not feeling to bad other than occasional left sided pain that was tolerable. Scope results were "normal colon". IBS became my diagnosis. Well from that time through about March of this year I was doing o.k. in general. Still had alternating bowel habits and daily left sided pain was there but manageable. Well around april I started getting urinary symptoms like I had a uti. Frequency,late night trips,pain in bladder,etc. Well I had it checked nothing found. It stopped botherung me after only a 48 hr period. So may comes and I had what I thought was a gastrointestinal bug that gave me diarrhea,cramps and chills. Ran to toilet all night with painless watery movements. Went away next day and felt fine. Did not get it checked as it went away. Well July comes. Had late night left sided cramps wake me with gas all night. By morning of the 13th I was in full diarrhea mode to the point of seeating and extreme abdominal cramps. By noon I was passing blood but not much else. Went straight to emergency where I had a smaller amount pass then a movement of undigested food with no blood. Bleeding ceased. Did not have fever but white blood cell count was up and so were nuetrophils. CT with contrast revealed sigmoid diverticulosis but no diverticulitis. Nothing out of thd ordinary. Bladder,prostate,male reproductive organs all unremarkable. Was sent home to follow up with doctor so I did. My doctor still thinks its IBS and the bleeding was from either rupturd internal roid or what may have been a gi bug. She said diarrhea can sometimes cause bleeding. Especially forceful diarrhea which the july 13 event was. I told her I thought there was still some minute bleeding as my stool sometimes looked streaked. She said that it has only been 20 or so months since my scope which revealed nothing so she was not to concerned. So that was that. She wrote me elavil for IC,IBS and back pain relief due to left sided sciatica. I already was scheduled to see GI after her on Sept. 1st so I intended to go. Which I did. He says he thinks that even with the negative ct that there is diverticulitis that is of the smoldering type. Wrote me cipro 500mg 2x daily and flagyl 500mg 2x daily. I showed him the blood stained toilet. He said the big D can do that. I asked if he thought a I needed a confirmatory scope to get proper diverticulosis diagnoses because my scope did not see these pouches or anything else in Novemeber 2014. He said maybe down the road but not now due to him thinking I was inflammed. He did not seem to think a scope was all that important at least for now considering I just had one under two years ago. I am concerned however. I do not truly have a confirmed case of diverticulitis although I must admit the symptoms do seem to fit regardless of the ct scan. So here I sit. Anxious about the cipro and flagyl. Not wanting to be floxed. And having not took it yet. Am having some symptons but bo fever,bowel movements coming every morning although with their usual alternating pattern. Sort of unsure of which way to go at this point. Do I take the antibiotics risking horrible side effects not even knowing if I have true diverticulitis? What if I do and I am gambling with a horrible end result to come? I am a bit overwhelmed thinking I was just IBS all this time and now this. Could use sound advice,support and suggestions.

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