What could it be?

[bbaggins]

I've had gastrointestinal problems all of my life, but as of late it seems as if they are getting worse.

For many years, I've had a problem with going to the bathroom. Since my late teens/early 20's, my stools would often come out large and hard (they still do often as well), and dark brown in color. Now it seems I swing between the hard, large stools and diarrhea. The diarrhea can vary in consistency and color from light brown and spongy to dark brown and almost tar-like (although I've had my stools tested a few times, and there's no blood in them). Sometimes it will be green, others yellow-ish, and it was even orange-ish once (I believe I had the flu then, though).

A few years ago, when I went to the bathroom, I had expelled a large amount of blood, but the doctor said it was probably due to a hemorrhoid rupturing or something. I do get the occasional blood in the stool when I get constipation, but that's from the stool causing an anal fissure. A few days ago, I did see a small pool of blood in my stool, but didn't think much of it since no other blood came out afterward.

Sometimes if I eat hard vegetables (corn, green beans, etc.), they will literally go right through me. Often I will expel the green beans undigested within 12 hours of eating them.

I've also had and intestinal infection (diverticulitis) a few years ago, but nothing since.

I have been diagnosed with GERD, depression and anxiety. I've had depression since I was about 10, and anxiety since my late teens.

I've had an Upper GI done, a colonoscopy done, blood tests, you name it, and they all have come back normal (although my TSH test was, to me, questionable).

I don't smoke, drink alcohol or do drugs, don't drink caffeine. About the only medication I take is Prilosec OTC for the frequent heartburn I get, but I only take that PRN.

I sometimes become bloated, but not as much as I did in the past.

My body temperature can vary from under 98 in the morning to around 100 in the evening, although I don't do a lot of activity outside. I sometimes get tired in the afternoons, and other times I'll feel hot even though my temperature is normal (thyroid?)

I do get an occasional pain in the center of my back, like someone is stabbing an ice pick through it, but it only happens once in a great while, and usually passes within 30 minutes or so.

I try to eat fairly healthy, although that's hard to do anymore with all of the chemicals they put into food nowadays. I've even given up a lot of the foods I enjoy to see if it would help but it didn't seem to make a difference.

This problem is causing the inability for me to work sometimes. I often find myself calling in sick (although I never used to call in sick in the past).

For the record, my family does have history of cancer .My mother, grandfather, grandmother, grandmother on my mother's side, and two of my uncles have all died of cancer (four of those within the past two years); my 2nd cousin has been diagnosed with breast cancer. However, I don't believe this is the issue.

I've been to many doctors over the years, but they all have told me that everything is fine.

The only thing I can deduce it to being is spastic colitis (IBS), IBD, depression related, thyroid related, or something to do with possibly having pockets in my colon...or all of the above.

Anyone have any ideas as to what might be causing this?

And does anyone have suggestions of diets I can try to minimize the symptoms?

I really would like to get my life back to normal.

[bbaggins]

The problem is is that I go from constipation to very loose stools to diarrhea. So, Miralax would probably only make matters worse for me.

[Fuzzz]

All it took for me was starting daily MiraLax.   No more hard, over-sized stools from trying to get enough bran.  MiraLax isn't a regular bulk laxative, and it actually works.  I had no idea how constipated I was until I took the prep for my colonoscopy.  Turns out my colon is so twisted that the gastroenterologist couldn't scope me past my sigmoid colon.  He says that's why I stay constipated, and he recommended MiraLax.