Diarrhea, low fever, rectal bleeding, fatigue

[allie1987]

I am a 22-year-old female diagnosed with IBS 5 years ago. I find my IBS is best controlled by a gluten and dairy free diet, but that celiac disease runs in my family, so that could be why. "Normal" for me now I guess is ~5 bowel movements a day, sometimes diarrhea consistency, but never persistently, several times a day, for two months straight.
Very early in August I came down with a fever of 102+, diarrhea, and nausea. I was taken to the ER for IV fluids since I got so dehydrated. The fever and other symptoms improved, but the diarrhea did not. After a couple weeks I went back to Family Medicine where a doctor (not my PCP) deemed my diarrhea infectious. I was given a week of Cipro.
Then my diarrhea became very watery, which was abnormal for me. I went back to the doctor and a stool test confirmed I had C diff.
I took 14 days of Flagyl until September 10th or so. But the diarrhea continued, several times. So did abdominal pain. Though it was no longer as watery, for a week or too is was very soft, ill-formed, pale with bits of green and orange, looked like undigested food. very strange, and not normal for me. Then for a week or so it was a solid brown color, but still very soft and long, thinner than normal, still frequent, still with belly pain.
Now it's back to the paler, orange-ish color.
I've been really tired the past few weeks.
And starting recently started having rectal bleeding and low fever of 99.5 or so.

Any advice for me? I have an appointment with a GI doctor in two weeks, but is that too long to wait, given my symptoms?
I went to the health services at my university and they did a blood test, and my RBC count was low, my RBW was high. They referred me to the GI doc, but GI docs are hard to get an appointment with soon.
oh, also Flagyl gave me bad acid reflux. I have NEVER had acid reflux before, but my sister has. It went away when I finished the antibiotics, but it came back on Wednesday (just that day though).

[allie1987]

thank you for the reply! I had more lab work done today and my sed rates are elevated, which my doctor said indicates inflammation? so they worked me in at the GI doc tomorrow. I will update then!

[poseidon5]

I don't know if I can enlighten or help you in any way, but I can add a little insight as to what you're experiencing.  I have been diagnosed with Crohn's for 2.5 years now.  I don't know a lot about what different colors of stools mean, but I can tell you that the color of stool to be the most worried about would be a tarry black.  That means that you have bleeding up in the intestinal tract somewhere.  The rectal bleeding you are experiencing, if it looks like fresh blood, is likely from hemorrhoids and/or fissures.  Both are really common occurrences with frequent diarrhea and bowel movements.  

I would not be surprised at all if you came back with a diagnosis of Crohn's disease.  I was told by my physician that I had IBS, but with no tests or screening tools for it I think it can be misdiagnosed easily.  It was not until I had a CT scan and a colonoscopy that I got my Crohn's diagnosis.  With Crohn's, I also have anemia and am frequently fatigued - very similar to what it seems you are experiencing.  

The antibiotics you were on can definitely alter your stools since they interfere with the natural bacteria in the intestinal tract.  Try not to worry too much as long as you don't see the tarry black stool or if you can see "old blood" in your stool.  Of course, if you have incredibly sharp and unbearable pain, you should consider going to the ER for a CT scan to ensure there are no major problems going on with your intestines.  Take acetaminophen for pain instead of ibuprofen or aspirin, as they can cause bleeding or further damage to an already affected intestinal lining.

Sorry, I'm rambling quite a bit here - I hope you find out what you need from your doctor, and that all goes well for you.  Crohn's is not the worst thing in the world to be diagnosed with - in fact, I was incredibly pleased and relieved to receive my diagnosis, since there are treatments available to help ease the pain when dealing with Crohn's, as opposed to IBS where there are no medications that can help you.

[allie1987]

Additional health history: had my appendix out when I was 9. it was technically unnecessary though: my lymph node near the appendix was what was swollen, but they were unable to tell until they operated. still, the surgeons decided to remove my appendix then anyway! may or may not be relevant in this case. But yes, I'm a bit concerned about Crohn's..