Colonoscopy clear, symptoms never resolved
Posted , 7 users are following.
In 2014, I noticed some fresh blood in my stool after the birth of my child. My doctor thought piles and gave me a Sigmoidoscopy. It was clear, biopsy normal. No piles or even a fissure. It never resolved, so in 2016 I went to a new doctor, I had an Endoscopy with full Colonoscopy. Both tests came back clear. Endoscopy had normal biopsy and he didn't even take a biopsy for Colonoscopy as there was nothing to sample. Not even polyps. No piles or a fissure.
I still have fresh blood. Never changed, never went away. It's obviously coming from somewhere. I've had constipation (hard stools - very hard), my whole life but I don't know where this is coming from. I'm scared I have cancer.
I cannot afford a whole new Colonoscopy (insurance won't pay til next year). What should I do? Are there any other tests in the meantime? I can't believe I need a third test.
0 likes, 26 replies
etheremail megan30689
Posted
I can absolutely understand you feeling nervous. Blood is very alarming and we are taught to regard it as serious. I had a cough years ago that had me coughing it up for weeks and I was sure it was the end. It was just a bad infection deep in the lungs in the end. The gut is a bit prone to bleed because there are a huge number of tiny blood vessels criss-crossing the lining. My father had bleeding there too because of a damaged liver but you get other symptoms with that and you look ill. You could think of having that camera you swallow that goes through the whole digestive tract and they can see everything in the stomach, the small bowel and the colon. But first I'd try and relieve the constipation and see if that stops it. If it does then you have the answer. Good luck Megan. It sounds very unlikely to be anything nasty like colitis or other bowel inflammation but it would good for you to get a final answer. David.
megan30689 etheremail
Posted
I went back to GI. Bloodwork normal, just a little low in iron. Thyoid normal. He said to do Miralax or Metamucil. I don't want to take the Miralax long term. I heard of horrible neurological side effects. I'm nervous to take the Metamucil, too. BM are very painful. I'm afraid it'll just make it worse.
Guest megan30689
Posted
I hope you have decided to try the Metamucil for a couple of weeks to see how things go. The only side effects I've had from the UK equivalent is softer more frequent stools, nothing else whatsoever. I've never heard of anything else bad - just people becoming impatient because it takes time to work effectively. If your BM are hard and painful, Metamucil (which is plant derived) should make them very much better. If you've been straining I would guess that is what has cause little tears and bleeding.
Guest megan30689
Posted
Hi Megan
How are you getting on? What have you decided to do? I hope it's working out OK for you.
jeannette37038 megan30689
Posted
Stress can play mean tricks. You stress because of hard BM's that are also painful. If you can work on relaxing thoughts and destressing it might help. My daughter went thru this same thing for years and it finally resolved itself. All stress related
ashley94333 megan30689
Posted
Megan I also had bleeding off and on as well as mucus. I had a full colonoscopy last week and nothing was found. The GI said sometimes you can get an episode of colitis and it goes away or something gets irritated from hard stool but there's nothing that would be visibly wrong when you go for testing. I wouldn't worry too much. I have very intermittent bleeding but again no reason for it other than irritation or a hemmroid that is temporarily inflamed.
ashley94333 megan30689
Posted
ashley94333 megan30689
Posted