Problems for over a year with bowels (pain, dark blood)
Posted , 3 users are following.
Hello, I'm in my early 20s and I've been having problems with my bowels for over a year now. At first I had cramps/pain in my abdomen (and sometimes back) that would come and go. The pain would sometimes be dull and only on one side, sometimes it would be sharp on another side, sometimes my whole abdomen would hurt or feel like there's something wrong with it, like someone's pulling on it (don't know how to explain this). My stools also became more watery/loose, they'd change consistency at times as well and I started going to the toilet more often. All of this didn't really have a pattern on when it would happen or anything. I'd sometimes be fine for days/weeks until some symptoms would start acting up again. Afterwards I noticed bright red blood in my stool so I went to a doctor to get checked out. They did a sigmoidoscopy and found out I had hemorrhoids (this was in June last year). They also said I most likely have IBS. The pain and blood continued. My stools have also become more light colored, almost yellow. I also noticed a dark red spot in my stool in November. So I finally got a surgery to remove hemorrhoids back in December.
Then in January I noticed more dark red blood mixed in my stools and overall various chunks of colors in my stool (orange, darker/lighter shades of brown and yellow and even black or very dark brown, undigested food?). These would come and go. I'd sometimes go a few weeks without noticing any blood and my stools looked normal, sometimes they'd be more watery/loose, yellow but no blood and then sometimes it'd be bloody. I bought that occult blood test from a pharmacy in February and it tested positive so I went back to the doctor. They checked my stomach (dunno how the procedure is called in English) but found nothing. Then in April they performed a colonoscopy but found nothing. Said everything looked fine, no idea where the blood might be coming from. Only that my colon was very sensitive and got instantly red when the tube (or whatever it's called) touched it. Everything seemed fine after that, no blood, stools looked normal, had some pain but it was minimal and only happened once or twice.
Until last week when it all started again. Pain was now in my right side, alongside my belly, though the pain would sometimes go even higher or lower and encompassed all of my abdomen at times. It was like someone was stabbing me but it wasn't very painful. It continued for 3 days only to go away again. Stools changed consistency again, more watery/loose, some look like they were torn apart, others like they were lumped together like chunks of clay. Dark blood and chunks of various colors.
So now I'm just going crazy and don't know what to do. As most doctors are on vacation. The earliest I can go to will be in August (I've been waiting to register again since my colonoscopy since I still wanted to talk to the doctor since they found nothing). Feels like you can die before you even get to see a doctor to check what's wrong with you. All the doctors and nurses kept reassuring me that it's not cancer but I just can't let go of the idea because of my symptoms and I'm scared that they missed it during the colonoscopy.
Anyone have any advice or similar experiences? I'm just totally lost. Sorry for the long post and any mistakes I made.
0 likes, 7 replies
Mankis735
Posted
Forgot to mention that my mom's side has Ehlers Danlos Syndrome and I know that it can also cause bowel problems. But I dunno about dark blood. Oh and I'm very sensitive and overreact to things. Can't really control it no matter how much I try. Hence why the doctors said I might have IBS since it seemed like the flare ups happened more often when I was stressing out, but to me it seems like they're a bit more random. Since sometimes the flare ups would happen as soon as I woke up.
mary19068 Mankis735
Posted
Hi Mankis735
Are you sure it is blood you are seeing. A good plan would be to keep a food journal. Note day time and all you eat each day and see if a correlation emerges between what you eat and the color of your stool and pain....It sounds to me you are residing in US as i know a lot of docs take vacation at this time of year, but do you have a Bowel Screening in US? They do in UK by way of testing stool for abnormalities. Perhaps you can try this if it is provided is US while your doc is away....
Mankis735 mary19068
Posted
This is what I'm starting to doubt as well actually, that it might not be blood. Bought another one of those occult blood tests on my way home today, did the test and it came back as negative. I'm actually from Eastern Europe, not US. They took a stool sample once, found nothing wrong, but it was normal looking at the time. I was planning on asking to do it again since I'm going to a family doctor next week. I also thought about keeping a food journal and writing down on how I was feeling that day, but it seems really random to me. Like one time I ate some salted peanuts and a flare up happened. Next time I ate some spicy ones, flare up happened again so I thought that one of the foods might be nuts, but half a year later I tried it again just to see what will happen and I was fine. Tried several times again but nothing.
Either way thanks for the advice. Maybe it's like everyone's saying and I'm just going crazy and worrying too much. Still don't exactly understand what the black and dark brown/red stuff is in my stools then unless it's really undigested food (can undigested food even come out as black though?)
mary19068 Mankis735
Posted
Hi Mankis735
It depends on your bowel movements do you evacuate every day regularly or is there a long time lapse between bowel movements. Food that is kept in the bowel for a length of time can discolor depending on what you have eaten over the time...
Mankis735 mary19068
Posted
It really depends but usually I go a few times a day, like 1-3 times and on some days I get the urge to go even 4-5 times. Very rarely do I get constipated.
mary19068 Mankis735
Posted
Hi Mankis735
You do have regular bowel movements, so not constipation causing you to bleed. I do not know what country you are in but wheeever you are is there a 'Bowel Screening' facility where you live so you can send samples of stool to have analysed?
mary19068
Posted
sorry 'wherever'