Chronic Soft Stools

I'm at a loss. Five years ago, I was miserable and sick from chronic, diarrhea, gas and bloating. I was tested for Celiac, which came back negative, but some of the antibodies were high. I adopted a Gluten Free diet at the time, and surprisingly enough, my symptoms disappeared.

However, for the past 6 months, I have been plagued with chronic soft stools. I feels as if my bowels never fully empty when I have a movement, I often have painful gas later on in the day, and I feel as if I have to plan my day around going to the bathroom - again.

I started taking probiotics, which seem to help, but  it seems to be making the clearing out of my bowels take even longer (stools are still soft). I try to eat well, but in reality, I'm just not sure what to eat anymore.  I drink very little coffee (a cup in the morning, which actually helps me go to the bathroom), and try to limit fatty foods.  

When I do research for these symptoms, I find that I should stay away from raw veggies, cold drinks, and various other things, and go on the BRAT diet. Do I have to live on a BRAT diet (minus the 'T') for the rest of my life?

I am a 49 yr old female, I work out, not overweight, but could loose 5-10, and for the most part, pretty healthy.

I am at a loss and so tired of feeling this way. Do you have any suggestions? Thank you.

[CalGal]

When you were tested for celiac, which antibodies were high - and how high? If the antibodies were high, why was celiac ruled out?

[happy62]

It was 5 years ago and I really don't remember. what I do remember is that there are specific one that need to be tested and they were.  But because the antibodies were on the high side, the Doc had me sent in for a colonoscopy and endoscopy, and those tests came back with no damage to the villi (I think that is how it is spelled). So with that, Celiac was ruled out.

Since writing the original post, I had become miserably sick this past week, absolutely miserable. Reminiscent of my pre-gluten free days.

I decided to put myself on a BRAT diet (no T however) with chicken as my protein.  I was eating only those 4 items for 2 days straight and I cannot believe how much better I feel. No gas, no bloating, no diarreah (diarrhea) - however, my stools still remain very soft.

Yesterday, I added brown rice instead of white, I had a yogurt, w/a small amount of GF granola, a few almonds (and I mean about 2 or 3 total - I'm thinking could this be diverticulitus?), some steak - and a little popcorn too. All without any ill effects.

Any thoughts? Thank you!

[CalGal]

Big problem in trying to get a definitive diagnosis of celiac is the tests can give false negatives - including the biopsy. If you feel better without gluten, stay gluten-free. In the meantime, you may want to consider checking out enterolab.com and having some fecal antibody tests done to check for celiac and for the presence of specific genes that can predispose you to celiac. My husband's standard celiac tests came back negative and we were stumped until we did the fecal antibody testing - showed strong positive. He's been gluten-free and feeling better for years, now. This type of thing happens to a lot of people, unfortunately.

[happy62]

Thank you.  I will make note of the test you speak of. I have decided to go back to see the doc and ask for extensive testing. It's time as I woke up at 5:00 a.m. this morn with a serious urge to use the bathroom. I'm back to rice for breakfast. This is not fun. I'll post again when I have some news.  Thank you for your suggestion.