Mucus and frequent BM with discomfort/occasional pain

I've been having symptoms for a while and they don't seem to be getting better and at times seem to be getting worse.

I have been having very large amounts of mucus in my stool. The mucus is clear to yellow. The stool can be clay colored to light brown and is normal textured. Approx 75% of the stools float. Some days I can have 8-10 BM's and other days none. But I go no more than 24 hours without a BM. I have been getting increasingly worse discomfort and occasionally pain in the left quadrants. Bowel sounds are normal and very rarely hyperactive. Sometimes the pain is felt closer to my bladder. I have times where the urgency is severe and becomes painful if I wait even a few seconds. I have a high tolerance to pain. But I would say the pain is a 5 or 6 out of 10. It goes away or decreases after a BM. But sometimes if I have to go again within the next hour or so the discomfort will continue until the next BM. I haven't observed any blood (neither bright red or coffee ground appearance).

No fever that I'm aware of. No other symptoms that I can think of. I have GERD which presents as the need to cough up mucus after eating a meal and after a meal with tomato sauce or red meat (rare for me) I get discomfort/pressure under the sternum and feel a lump in my throat like something is stuck and trying to swallow to make it go away doesn't help. If it gets very uncomfortable I'll take 40mg of Prilosec which was prescribed by my Dr. Otherwise I'm a healthy 32 year old female. My BMI is 25.2, so I'm just slightly overweight. I don't have insurance currently.

Thanks.

[anonynurse]

Sorry, just realized this was posted in the wrong area. Can a moderator please move this to the appropriate location? Thanks and sorry about that!

[S. Kaul, MD]

Hi there!

Well, without a detailed clinical evaluation it would be difficult to determine the cause of your symptoms. Possibilities that may need to be considered include dietary causes, malabsorption syndromes, GI infections, inflammations, medication side effect, GI motility disorders, hormonal/ endocrine abnormalities etc. I would suggest getting this evaluated by a gastroenterologist for an accurate diagnosis and appropriate management.
Hope this is helpful.

Take care!