The forums say I should make my first post here, even though I believe it belongs in the "undiagnosed" forum, but here it is anyway.
My name is Dana, I'm a twenty-two year old medical student from Ohio. I'm a mother to three beautiful children, and a wife to the most amazingly supportive man in the world. I am sick, and with what - I do not know.
For me the problems started as a child, but they were minor, and it started back up in late April, early May of 2009. As a child it was always really hard for me to go #2, and it often hurt really bad and sometimes would tear my rectum, causing me to bleed. My pediatricians told my mother I was just getting too much iron in my diet. Whether or not that's true, I can't answer that. This went on into my early teens, where it tapered off and I did not have problems until I was 19, almost 20 years old.
In early 2009 my problems with alternating constipation and diarrhea began. Weeks would go by with no bowel movements, and then I would suddenly have diarrhea all day long for several days, then back to constipation. Eventually this pattern led me to my physician to see what my problem was. He basically said the same thing that my pediatrician did when I was a child, too much iron, not enough fiber. I insisted that was not the problem, that with the way I felt (bloated, crampy, nauseated, beyond fatigued) I knew there was something else. He settled for doing some stool samples, and told me we would go from there.
Stools didn't get me far, and even at that it was nearly two weeks after my original visit that I was able to even collect one. Nothing was found, so he advised me to stay away from high iron containing foods, and to take daily Metamucil for the constipation. He told me to use a stool softener or laxative if I went more than a week without a bowel movement. This seemed beyond ridiculous to me, but I did it and went on with life.
I dealt with this stupid cycle, and late during my pregnancy with my third child in 2011 I started having problems with the constipation/diarrhea cycle worse than I ever had. New things were cropping up, like extreme tiredness, or headaches that came from directly behind my eyes. I dismissed most of it though because I was so late into my pregnancy I was sure it was the cause. My OB (whom I like very, very much), told me to take some Mlik of Mag, and to drink plenty of water. I did, but with no more results than I'd expected. During my third trimester I was due for routine blood work, so I took off school and went to have it done. A week later, my OB's nurse calls me and says the doctor wants another round done, because my CBC's came back odd. My white blood cell count had came back three times higher than what they should have been, and my red blood cell count was low.
I went back for the recount of my CBC's, and he had tested for some other things as well. The white blood cell count was even higher, but the red was the same. They could not pinpoint the source of where the infection was coming from. I went through a lot of other tests, including all the testing before a bone marrow biopsy to check for a blood born illness, and nothing came up. Now that I look back on it though, nothing was ever checked for an infection in my bowels. After a few weeks, however, the cells stabilized, dumbfounding us all.
I had a cesarean with all of my kids, and when I had my last they said they couldn't release me until I made a bowel movement. I looked at that nurse, laughed, told her good luck with that and that I hoped she'd planned on paying my medical bill! Eventually they did let me go. This is where I actually started to get really concerned about my familiar problem.
While recovering from my delivery (mind you this was mid to late March, into early April) I still had not gone to the bathroom for a few weeks after my delivery. When I eventually did, it was super sticky/greasy, black as coal and HARD. Which was not my normal, at all. If I'd ever go period, it was diarrhea. I drank my water, walked every evening once I was able. At this time I weighed roughly 160 some pounds. This was after I had lost the baby weight.
Used to be that my diarrhea was more of a major nuisance and inconvenience than anything, it never actually caused me pain. Maybe a sore bum for a day or two, but nothing more. Around the beginning of June this year, the food intolerance and urgency with no yield began. Used to be that if I felt like I had to go, I had to go! This was strange and new to me. Immediately following eating, I would feel like I had ingested something terrible. My stomach (lower and in the back) would feel like barbed wire was working its way down to my rectum. I would sit on the toilet for sometimes two hours straining to go when the diarrhea feeling would hit. Nothing would come. So when this would happen I would lay on the couch and try to sleep until it stopped.
I went through this for about two weeks, and then I started to have diarrhea with the straining and severe cramps. When the barbed wire feeling hit, I learned to strain the hardest and it would produce results. It almost reminded me of what having a child vaginally might be like (LOL). This is also when my weight loss began. As I had previously stated, after my delivery in March I had weighed around 160 pounds and wore a size 17 in jeans. Now, 5 months later, I weight 103 pounds and my jean size is now a 0. A feat that most women would envy, but not if they knew what it entailed. I started to get tired all the time, and didn't have the energy to do much of anything.
Then the headaches came back in July, as well as the constipation. Weight loss continued. I couldn't explain any of it. Ignorant as I was, I still didn't go to the doctor. When I would go to the bathroom to strain to poo, I was startled to find a load of blood and mucous in the toilet in the place of poo. Even after I had got up I still was bleeding, so I put a pad on until it stopped. On and off throughout July this was happening. Along with headaches behind my eyes that turned into migraines in my sleep, and the diarrhea returned and would hit me in the middle of the night and last for hours. The cramping in my lower abdomen was so bad at times it actually made me vomit. I can't eat grains anymore, it doesn't digest. Eating oats, or wheat or bran of any kind makes me so sick to my stomach, and makes the cramps so much worse. The oats or bran will actually come out whole, undigested. I knew it was not normal, but I still didn't go to the hospital. Through the searing pain, all the blood, I still didn't go.
Beginning of this month I've started bruising, and I mean bruising like a cancer patient would. If my now 5 month old baby girl squeezes my arm too hard it looks like I've been abused. Most of the time I'm so tired all I want to do is sleep. Sometimes, I do. I have not been back to school since my delivery, and I only work 3 days a week, 5 hours a day. Last Sunday I was trying to go to the bathroom, and I felt a horrid ripping coming from my rectum, I had a rectal prolapse. It later that day corrected itself, but that was the final straw. I called my doctors' after hours office and explained what had been going on the last couple of years, and then more recent.
They wanted me in immediately. So this Monday of this week I had gone in with my husband, explained everything to the doctor who was very disturbed by everything, the massive weight loss, headaches, bleeding, pain, occasional dizziness, mucous in feces, the vicious cycle of diarrhea, and he decided he was sending me to a GI specialist for a colonoscopy because he thought I could have Chron's or UC or possibly something worse. I have an appointment next Monday for this. I am SCARED TO DEATH.
My name is Dana, I'm a twenty-two year old medical student from Ohio. I'm a mother to three beautiful children, and a wife to the most amazingly supportive man in the world. I am sick, and with what - I do not know.
For me the problems started as a child, but they were minor, and it started back up in late April, early May of 2009. As a child it was always really hard for me to go #2, and it often hurt really bad and sometimes would tear my rectum, causing me to bleed. My pediatricians told my mother I was just getting too much iron in my diet. Whether or not that's true, I can't answer that. This went on into my early teens, where it tapered off and I did not have problems until I was 19, almost 20 years old.
In early 2009 my problems with alternating constipation and diarrhea began. Weeks would go by with no bowel movements, and then I would suddenly have diarrhea all day long for several days, then back to constipation. Eventually this pattern led me to my physician to see what my problem was. He basically said the same thing that my pediatrician did when I was a child, too much iron, not enough fiber. I insisted that was not the problem, that with the way I felt (bloated, crampy, nauseated, beyond fatigued) I knew there was something else. He settled for doing some stool samples, and told me we would go from there.
Stools didn't get me far, and even at that it was nearly two weeks after my original visit that I was able to even collect one. Nothing was found, so he advised me to stay away from high iron containing foods, and to take daily Metamucil for the constipation. He told me to use a stool softener or laxative if I went more than a week without a bowel movement. This seemed beyond ridiculous to me, but I did it and went on with life.
I dealt with this stupid cycle, and late during my pregnancy with my third child in 2011 I started having problems with the constipation/diarrhea cycle worse than I ever had. New things were cropping up, like extreme tiredness, or headaches that came from directly behind my eyes. I dismissed most of it though because I was so late into my pregnancy I was sure it was the cause. My OB (whom I like very, very much), told me to take some Mlik of Mag, and to drink plenty of water. I did, but with no more results than I'd expected. During my third trimester I was due for routine blood work, so I took off school and went to have it done. A week later, my OB's nurse calls me and says the doctor wants another round done, because my CBC's came back odd. My white blood cell count had came back three times higher than what they should have been, and my red blood cell count was low.
I went back for the recount of my CBC's, and he had tested for some other things as well. The white blood cell count was even higher, but the red was the same. They could not pinpoint the source of where the infection was coming from. I went through a lot of other tests, including all the testing before a bone marrow biopsy to check for a blood born illness, and nothing came up. Now that I look back on it though, nothing was ever checked for an infection in my bowels. After a few weeks, however, the cells stabilized, dumbfounding us all.
I had a cesarean with all of my kids, and when I had my last they said they couldn't release me until I made a bowel movement. I looked at that nurse, laughed, told her good luck with that and that I hoped she'd planned on paying my medical bill! Eventually they did let me go. This is where I actually started to get really concerned about my familiar problem.
While recovering from my delivery (mind you this was mid to late March, into early April) I still had not gone to the bathroom for a few weeks after my delivery. When I eventually did, it was super sticky/greasy, black as coal and HARD. Which was not my normal, at all. If I'd ever go period, it was diarrhea. I drank my water, walked every evening once I was able. At this time I weighed roughly 160 some pounds. This was after I had lost the baby weight.
Used to be that my diarrhea was more of a major nuisance and inconvenience than anything, it never actually caused me pain. Maybe a sore bum for a day or two, but nothing more. Around the beginning of June this year, the food intolerance and urgency with no yield began. Used to be that if I felt like I had to go, I had to go! This was strange and new to me. Immediately following eating, I would feel like I had ingested something terrible. My stomach (lower and in the back) would feel like barbed wire was working its way down to my rectum. I would sit on the toilet for sometimes two hours straining to go when the diarrhea feeling would hit. Nothing would come. So when this would happen I would lay on the couch and try to sleep until it stopped.
I went through this for about two weeks, and then I started to have diarrhea with the straining and severe cramps. When the barbed wire feeling hit, I learned to strain the hardest and it would produce results. It almost reminded me of what having a child vaginally might be like (LOL). This is also when my weight loss began. As I had previously stated, after my delivery in March I had weighed around 160 pounds and wore a size 17 in jeans. Now, 5 months later, I weight 103 pounds and my jean size is now a 0. A feat that most women would envy, but not if they knew what it entailed. I started to get tired all the time, and didn't have the energy to do much of anything.
Then the headaches came back in July, as well as the constipation. Weight loss continued. I couldn't explain any of it. Ignorant as I was, I still didn't go to the doctor. When I would go to the bathroom to strain to poo, I was startled to find a load of blood and mucous in the toilet in the place of poo. Even after I had got up I still was bleeding, so I put a pad on until it stopped. On and off throughout July this was happening. Along with headaches behind my eyes that turned into migraines in my sleep, and the diarrhea returned and would hit me in the middle of the night and last for hours. The cramping in my lower abdomen was so bad at times it actually made me vomit. I can't eat grains anymore, it doesn't digest. Eating oats, or wheat or bran of any kind makes me so sick to my stomach, and makes the cramps so much worse. The oats or bran will actually come out whole, undigested. I knew it was not normal, but I still didn't go to the hospital. Through the searing pain, all the blood, I still didn't go.
Beginning of this month I've started bruising, and I mean bruising like a cancer patient would. If my now 5 month old baby girl squeezes my arm too hard it looks like I've been abused. Most of the time I'm so tired all I want to do is sleep. Sometimes, I do. I have not been back to school since my delivery, and I only work 3 days a week, 5 hours a day. Last Sunday I was trying to go to the bathroom, and I felt a horrid ripping coming from my rectum, I had a rectal prolapse. It later that day corrected itself, but that was the final straw. I called my doctors' after hours office and explained what had been going on the last couple of years, and then more recent.
They wanted me in immediately. So this Monday of this week I had gone in with my husband, explained everything to the doctor who was very disturbed by everything, the massive weight loss, headaches, bleeding, pain, occasional dizziness, mucous in feces, the vicious cycle of diarrhea, and he decided he was sending me to a GI specialist for a colonoscopy because he thought I could have Chron's or UC or possibly something worse. I have an appointment next Monday for this. I am SCARED TO DEATH.
