Alternating Bowel Movements, Anyone experienced this and any advice?
Posted , 6 users are following.
TLDR: 2 alternating bowel modes, neither ideal
- MODE 1: Soft stool that is very messy to wipe, like mud at end, bowel movement about every 2-3 days, no pain.
:VS:
- MODE 2: hard long stool w/ no wipe needed, bowel movement every day like clockwork, sometimes minor abdominal/back of butt pain for 1 minute after movement, sometimes oddly moist farts/butt.
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Hi all,
29 yr old male here. I’m writing to see if anyone else has experienced similar symptoms, or if any one has advice. It’s a bit long.
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So this is my story.
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Last spring I suddenly felt a difference in my bowel movements one day, they were much softer, I needed to wipe a lot more, and sometimes re-wipe later on, and I was having consistent and smelly gas. I knew I had gotten something, and tests from the doctor came back that I had gotten an amoeba, ‘endolimax nana’. (Some sources say it’s not a ‘pathogen’ but many studies have shown it can still cause gastro issues).
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Fast-forward 4 months: After 3 weeks on an anti-fungal/anti-biotic (a few days only didn’t work), it had it cleared. But my bowel movements were still soft (and messy to wipe!) (the smelly gas went away, and I tested negative for the amoeba).
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Then a few weeks later… one day… oddly I had a super loooong bowel movement, like 1.5 feet, and it was solid, in that when I wiped there was nothing there! I was thrilled, I had never had a bowel movement like that before in my entire life. I then had a bowel movement like that once a day like clockwork. This coincided with another weird issue though… my farts sometimes felt moist, and sometimes it felt like moisture… or something else, was leeking, (or being pushed out during a fart - part of me thinks it might be some anal mucus or something 😦 , and it’s annoying b/c sometimes I feel like I need to re-wipe later on because it is moist). Also every so often I’d have some pain in lower abdomin and lower back/butt for maybe 1 minute after a bowel movement (and more rarely after…self pleasuring… - so maybe something is sometimes pushing up against my prostate too).
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Anyways time goes by… and my bowel movement switches AGAIN… back to how it was right after the anti-fungal - soft and messy, w/ a bowel movement once every 2 days.
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And then later I have a supplement or some special meal and it switches back to the no-wipe-stool mode for a couple weeks… and then it switches back to the soft stool again for a couple weeks (I’ve noticed a correlation between going to the soft stool and having yeast-products, and a correlation with special foods and special probiotics and supplements with going back to the no-wipe stools - such as cranberry extract, or west-african soup with palm-kernal-oil… strange i know).
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Diagram of 2 alternating modes:
Mode 1: Soft stool every 2 days --—> Mode 2: Hard stool no wipe, every day
- Changed by certain probiotics, cranberry extract, westafrican soups with palm-kernal oil
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Mode 2: Hard stool w/ no wipe, every day ——> Mode 1: Soft stool every 2 days
- Changed by Yeast and sugar (Yeast bread doesn’t always change it if not enough sugar, but if I have beer or something that can will do it).
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Anyway it keeps going back and forth, staying at each mode for weeks or months at a time. It’s been about over 8 months now since I finished the anti-fungals. After corona-virus shut-down ends my doctor will be giving me a breath test to see if there is an issue with my bacteria/microfauna (which is the only explanation that I can think of).
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Extra info:
-I have done the low-fodmap, dairy free, gluten free diet for over 2 months, but that did not change anything (Although I do feel mentally better going dairy free, and I’m not sure about gluten free, so I have continued to be dairy/gluten free for basically past 4 months, but gastroentestinally there is no difference that I notice for my 2 modes). I also am using the ‘my Symptoms’ food/symptom tracker app and really like it.
-I’ve tried fiber products and that doesn’t really seem to make a difference either.
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Thanks for reading and any help or advice you have!
0 likes, 4 replies
sam18386 chicagocb
Posted
hi chicagocb, i have been on this forum for years and from what i remember some people have ibs which alternates what your bowel movements are like. you could have that. please see your doctor first then tell us what you have discovered and i'm sure someone on here will help you. good luck, oh and if your symptoms get any worse contact your doctors sooner.
leeniepie chicagocb
Edited
This is a very typical pattern of ibs
maria47829 leeniepie
Posted
sure is
clarissa42245 chicagocb
Posted
Yea it is