28 Yr Old Female - 36 mo+ ongoing loose stool

[Althea99]

Hello,

For the last few years I have had, with increasing issue, 1-2 very loose to diarrhea-like bowel movements per day. They are very acidic and sometime noticeably hurt for hours after the BM. The exterior area has a burning or itching sensation throughout the day.

Every morning I wake up, eat breakfast and then have the sudden urgency (sparked by stomach cramps and pressure in the colon) to run to the bathroom for a BM which I described above.

Throughout the day I get mild cramping and bloating feelings. I saw a doctor a couple years ago and he took a stool sample to test it for parasites or celiac allergy but everything came back negative.

Now I am reading about IBS, inflammatory colon disease and cancer of the colon... and it is scaring me! Can someone please let me know what steps i should take? I don't have any health insurance.

I lead a relatively healthy lifestyle... exercise 4-5 times a week and try to eat fresh vegetables and good proteins. I don't drink that much milk... but I indulge in a couple slices of cheese a day with lunch and maybe cream cheese on toast for breakfast.

I also read that tests for Celiac are not always accurate... but I am definitely not the expert on this.

Please help.... Thank you,

Althea

[venustiana]

You might be eating something that's making you sick. If you don't have money to go to the doctor you might want to try to eliminate others things until you find what's causing it. When my son was little he started to have diahrrea everyday for a while so I had to cut a lot of things. He would only eat meats and rice, cherry juice (no other juices), pita bread and peanut butter. That was it. After a year and a half I started introducing things little by little until he was able to go back to regular foods.

[doggylove]

I am 27 and recently been experiencing the same thing.......although I get constipated and have to take OTC laxatives.....UGH!
I haven't done any tests but I DO drink a lot of soda so I chalk it up to that. i also eat a lot of fruits and veggies.
One thing for YOU to try is the BRAT diet (bananas, rice, apples and toast) it works well but I would spend the money to get a test. I don't have insurance either but I would invest the money..........its your health.

[Matthew007]

Hey just thought i'd add in my experience and symptoms as well,

I'm 31 without insurance as well and I was thinking the worst things too.  Everything from chron's disease to colitis to ...gosh colon cancer.  I had 2 colonoscopies which were both negative... but my symptoms are just like yours, totally loose bowels almost totally afraid to leave the house, sometimes when I HAD to leave I would sometimes use a ducolax to clean out (sad but true) so I knew nothing was in me..

anyway point is it totally could be celiac.  I just started a elimination diet myself for the second time, the first time I didn't do a very good job on being strict but from the research I found - really only casein/dairy/sometimes fructose/celiac/wheat are real constipation problems unless you have some rare food allergy you're dealing with.  Doggylove has a good idea..i'd go on white rice (not brown) get a bag of dates..gluten free rice cakes (you can get like cain sugar ones) and just go totally blah bland diet, ZERO gluten..

I found that soy made me so nauseated I couldn't think straight and ever since going gluten free soy free my IBS pains are still there but i'm going everyday now...even look at your toothpaste..I read somwhere aquafresh is gluten free..but my certain colgate wasn't..if it goes into your mouth make sure it's totally gluten free.  If in doubt don't even try it.  I wouldn't consume any milk..not even rice milk until you know for sure that rice milk is 100% gluten free..

Anyway point is i'm in the same boat as you and now at least I can go out and not worry about the bathroom anymore since doing this diet..hopefully after a few weeks gluten free and with some fiber supplement I'll get my life back but I think it's totally worth trying.  Don't let the doctors scare you with cancer and such.  You're pretty young to have that.

[Matthew007]

you're totally right, I had 3 negative blood tests...and they didn't see anything on the scope, and you still can be totally intolerant to gluten.  I'd save your $$ and just go gluten free.