Hello,
I been having issues for the last 3 months and I'm really needing some help.
It all started with a swollen inguinal lymph node (right in the crease where the leg connects to the upper body). It came about all of a sudden. Went to the doctor and he said to monitor it and come back if it's not down in a few weeks. He also did a CBC and everything came back normal.
A couple weeks later, I all of a sudden had terrible diarrhea and vomiting (very intense for a day). Figured it was something I ate. The vomiting stopped, but I still had diarrhea (just not as bad). The diarrhea lingered on a little while but seemed to get better after a few days. There was also mucus in my stool.
All this time, the swollen lymph node was still there, and now I could also feel a smaller lymph node right next to it and also a smaller one on the opposite side (so now 1 small node on the left side, and 2 on the right - the original bigger than the newer one).
Then a couple weeks later, pretty much the same thing happened again with the vomiting and diarrhea. This time, there were also many white things in my stool for a couple days. Looked to me like sesame seeds or grains of rice. It was also almost "thread-like" (like there were threads in my stool). I googled that and it seemed like maybe this could be a parasite infection (tapeworm?). I went to my physician who ran my blood and did some stool samples. All came back normal - no parasites supposedly, which really surprised me because I was sure that's what it was.
Referred me to a gastroenterologist, who was maybe the worst doctor I've ever been to. He was running behind and seemed to be a in a rush and didn't really listen to me much. Told him what I thought it was (parasite) and he kind of blew me off (just thought I was having a bad case of diarrhea), but he did prescribe me 1 tablet of Mebendazole, which is used for parasites. I later researched it though and for cases of tapeworm, this would likely not be enough to take care of it (great!).
After taking the medication, I seemed to feel better for a couple weeks, but then the abdominal pressure came back and hasn't left me since. So, I still have chronic lower abdominal pressure, some mucus in my stool (and the stool just looks wet/greasy all the time), and the lymph nodes are still there (although I have been touching them a lot and I read that touching them a lot can make them stay swollen, so I probably need to stop that). The stools vary in their looseness and at times look "rough" around the edges (not compact and smooth). I have not noticed any kind of blood in the stools at all, which is good. I have also had some chronic lower back tightness/pain, but that could be totally unrelated?
I'm not really sure what to do. Trying to decide if I need to go back to a gastroenterologist to get things checked out further - keeping in mind I would have to find a new doctor farther away and start this process all over. I've been hoping things would kind of just go away, but I'm starting to wonder if they will. Not sure if it still could be a parasite, or maybe IBS, or worse???
I'm not in any significant pain or anything, just lots of annoying little things - which I think is why I haven't gone back to the doctor (no severe issues).
Anyone have any ideas on what this could be or what I should do??? Thanks for any help you can provide!!!!!