Need an opinion on cause of MAJOR Diarrhea!!!

[Patsandy]

Hi-
About Mom:
1. 69 years old, 5"4, 225 lbs.
2. Re-covering alcoholic (100 days clean)
3. Had Colon Cancer 10 years ago, and is in remission.
4. She's a diabetic.
5. Has had MAJOR Diarrhea for the past few weeks.
Is it alcohol/pancreas or colon or diabetes related???????
Thx- Sandy

[boron]

Opinion?

HOSPITAL. Is she mobile? Is she severely affected. First to GP, he will see, what tests he can perform, or, if she is dehydrated or otherwise affected, he will send her into hospital.

There are so many reasons for diarrhea...liver, gallbladder, pancreas, intestinal inflammation, infection, bacterial overgrowth, cancer.

Remember, she has to DRINK all the time, not to exaggerate, but she has to replace all lost water. It may help a lot, if she EXCLUDE as much of FAT as possible from the diet. Red meat, eggs, also milk, nuts, oil, fat sauces, cakes contain alot of fats.

[dmbfan07cb]

Take her to the doctor, 12 weeks is too long.

[Patsandy]

Hi Again-

Diarrhea is a bit light brown in color, and has been going on for 12 weeks!!!!!!
(I just found out).
It's like having a baby that just goes and goes, mostly after eating food.
She now is wearing diapers 24/7.
Opinions???
thx-Sandy

[boron]

There can be other causes of diarrhea, like diverticulitis, ischemic colitis food poisoning, etc.

Two weeks is a long time to have diarrhea. She has to DRINK so much water or even better a sport drink like Gatorade (contains sodium and potassium), that she will excrete at least 200 ml of urine every morning. But she probably lost some electrolytes, which may be dangerous.

Take her to the doctor and she will have appropriate stool and blood tests, a lot can be seen from this two only.

[boron]

This is hard to say.

Acute or chronic pancreatitis would cause lack of pancreatic enzymes, what would mainly affect fats, which would be not absorbed and hence excreted with stool. Such a stool would be whitish, floating, and would stick to the toilet.

Diabetes is also a disease of pancreas, but I can not say if it affected the secretion of digestive enzymes also. If enzymes are normal, then stool in diabetic diarrhea would be of normal brown color or even greenish from unabsorbed bile.

From the color of the stool it would be possible to say more.

Pancreatitis is diagnosed by checking pancreatic enzymes in blood.