Should I get a second opinion

I'm a 39 year old male and have been having gastrointestinal issues for about a year now. I have had the gambit of wierd stools (mustard yellow, green, runny with mucas). I have left to lower left abdominal pain and a lot of upset stomach, I have back soreness and I have generalized itching, numbness and tingling in the legs and arms (more the right apendages), faitigue, dizzinness. I also have distribed sleep.

I have been to a GI (all occurred in the latter part of 2007) and he has done colonoscopy, endocopy and abdominal CT Scan and everything came back clean with the exception of some diverticolis in the colon. He diagnosed me with Irratiable Bowel Syndrome.

I still have all the symptoms and have gone back to him since I fear that something was missed and I have something seriously wrong such as pancreatic cancer. I reiterated all the symptoms such as the upset stomach, strange stools and generalized body itching and even asked of it could be somethng with my pancreas or liver. He pulled the my chart and read the CT Scan results which said the liver and pancreas are unremarkable.

I have also talked to my General Practitioner numorous times and he thinks that I have fibromyalgia or that have severe anxiety and need to see a psychiatrist and get on some mental meds. I do have an appt with the Shrink this Friday

I feel that I'm going crazy and I know that my condition is affecting my family.

What should I do? Do you feel like the Doctors have done enough and are not concerned for good reason? Should I seek a second opinion.

Any advise would be really appreciated as because I think that I'm loosing it.


This discussion is related to Terrified of pancreatic cancer.

[CalGal]

Some of the symptoms could be related to gallbladder issues, so if you haven't had a HIDA scan with CCK injection done, you may want to request one. The other thing you may want to check out before you allow yourself to believe that you need to see someone for anxiety meds is celiac issues. Check to see if anyone in your family is gluten intolerant, even distant cousins. And consider doing a fecal antibody test (including the genetic testing (allele) to check to see if you might carry a 'possiblity' of being celiac). Most docs use a blood test and biopsy, but in my opinion the better test is the fecal antibody test. You can read about it at enterolab. There are numerous individuals who have been told they're negative on both the blood test and the biopsy who go on suffering until someone tells them to doublecheck with the fecal antibody test. Many people who end up on the celiac support boards relate stories of continuing misery until they take the initiative of doing a fecal antibody test and get a result that helps them put an end to their misery.

Having said that I have to add that I can't say for certain that you're going to pop positive on the tests, but your symptoms are suggestive and seem to 'fit' with that problem, including the tingling and fatigue. It's possible it may be due to coincidence, but why not check it out. The other thing is that a lot of people with 'silent' celiac have found themselves in the same boat as you - nothing is found and docs tend to suggest it's all 'in their heads' which it isn't.

It could be IBS, but in some studies 25 percent of those 'diagnosed' with IBS were actually found to be 'silent' celiacs.