Mushy stools, general discomfort in abdomen area, heartburn

So I'm male, 21, normal bmi (a little on the underweight side), several months ago I had 2 blood tests, endoscopy, stool test (parasites)  and a h. pylori test. Neither family doctor, nor gastroenterologist found any problems. As the title says, I've been experiencing (for ~2 years or so) mushy stools, sometimes pale (perhaps due to problematic fat absorption?), usually floating, discomfort in abdomen area, sometimes heartburn, somewhat frequent flatulence. I've also noticed that when I drink water sometimes I really feel the water passing through the esophagus to stomach and settling there, as if my insides got "bloated" (maybe due to too much gas in gastro tract?). On the other hand, sometimes I do have perfectly normal solid stools, no discomfort, no nothing. At this point, the only thing that makes sense to me is a problem that has something to with fat malabsorption, but it doesn't quite explain why I feel normal at day A and bad at day B.

Any thoughts on what the hell this might be? I'm not that eager to go to my doctor again, because it's kinda likely that he'll prescribe more unnecessary drugs and I'll just wait for weeks until they'll finally decide to run another that'll turn around inconclusive or something.

[nielsbohr]

Anyone?

[patient915]

Welcome to the gastroenterology community!  You might have IBS.  I would recommend trying to eliminate different things from your diet to see if that helps (lactose, gluten, etc.).  Good luck.

[nielsbohr]

Trouble is, I tried switching to rice and buckwheat, tried avoiding yogurts and milk, stopped eating fried (meaning sauteed and pan-fried) stuff, tried this, tried that, it doesn't seem to matter - for a couple of days I'm perfectly fine with eating pretty much anything and not experiencing any problems, then for weeks no matter what I try eating the problems wouldn't go away. Could it be something parasite-related, maybe the test was inconclusive or something? It's just that as I've said, I do plan to visit my doctor, but I'm positive he'll just prescribe me some crappy drugs that won't do jack and that would be it.

[patient915]

Can you please tell me all of the medications you've tried?  Have you had an upper endoscopy or a lower endoscopy (colonoscopy) or both?  The thing about food elimination is that you need to eliminate 100% of everything for it to work.  For lactose, you need to eliminate 100% of all lactose (cheese, butter, milk, ice cream, milk powder, everything) for at least 2 weeks to see if it works.  For gluten, you need to eliminate 100% of all gluten for at least 2 months to see if it works.  You need to read all labels of everything you eat.  Please don't give up yet, there are still many many things to try.

[nielsbohr]

Well, I don't remember the names of the first two, but I do remember that they had to do with inhibiting the acid secretion in the stomach. I suppose the doctor first thought it was an ulcer and when I've finished taking the medications and had no improvement, he sent me to a gastroenterologist and I got a gastroscopy. No ulcer, no problems found. The gastro guy gave me Motilium (domperidone, 10mg/tablet), it didn't really do anything.

Could lactose or gluten intolerance just... develop all of a sudden? I thought they were mostly genetic and manifest themselves at childhood.

[patient915]

Yes, lactose or gluten intolerance can develop all of a sudden.  Have you had the blood test for celiac disease?

[nielsbohr]

No, I don't think they've tested me for that.

[patient915]

That would be a good thing to get tested for.

[nielsbohr]

Well, thanks for the suggestions! I've decided to avoid lactose products for two weeks like you've said, and come to think of it I do remember now that I've had some gastric distress in the past associated with consuming large quantities of dairy products. Hopefully it's gonna be that simple... if not, I suppose I'll pay another visit to my doctor.