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Green stool, leg discomfort, bruising...
The first two paragraphs are my relevant medical history. If you don't feel like reading, please jump down to see the symptoms I'm currently feeling.
I'm a 21 year old male who has always been in relatively good health. I've had a few chronic conditions that have either evaded diagnosis or never caused enough trouble to be worth the effort. When I was a young child, I was very prone to ear and nose infections...whenever I would feel sick, it would be almost exclusively because of these reasons. I would get strep from time to time, and eventually I had my tonsils and adnoids removed. This helped the problem somewhat, though I'm still prone to nasal problems.
My stomach has also been a frequent issue. Whenever I get severely stressed out, I will get painful cramps and nausea, though very rarely vomiting or stool issues. The correlation between stress and stomach distress, I feel, is benign. It doesn't seem unheard of that one would get a tummy ache when worrying about things. The problem started to get complicated when stress was no longer a correlate. Perhaps once every one to three months, I would have what I will refer to as a "stomach attack". With no real stress being felt or odd foods being eaten or anything of the sort, I would feel slightly nauseous early in the day. The sensation could easily be confused with hunger, so I would eat when I would start to feel it, though normally I would end up eating what I normally would, and at the normal time. As the day would progress, the pain would slowly get worse, feeling like terrible stomach cramps. As night started to roll around, it would get to a point where all I could do is writhe around on the floor of the bathroom, groaning and crying and clutching my stomach. Even breathing would make it hurt worse. It seemed to operate in cycles: 45 minutes to an hour of pain, followed by enough of a respite that I could stand (though still hunched over from the pain) to get some water or a blanket or a bucket or whatever...maybe 10 minutes or so, just enough time to prepare for the next surge. This would continue for hours and hours, keeping me from sleeping and in complete and utter misery. Finally, I would fall into a fitful sleep, waking every half hour or so to the same excruciating pain. The next day I would be exhausted and sore, and I would spend it laying down and trying to drink some water and eat light food. After 10 or so of these attacks over the course of a year or so, I found that if I could induce vomiting, I could cut the extremely painful portion in half. When I would do this, however, I found that anything I had put in my stomach during the whole day would still be there, almost completely undigested...almost as if my stomach clamped off the passage to the intestine, keeping digestion from occurring. Sometimes, one good puke would give me a long enough window of less pain that I could fall asleep, and then normally I would sleep the night through. However, normally I would be in front of the toilet for a couple hours; I'd vomit once, still be in pain, and end up puking two or three more times, only bringing up yellow, disgusting bile. Eventually, I would get so tired that I would fall asleep...but this was still preferable to not vomiting and just enduring the pain that only worsened as the night went on.
It has been several years since my last stomach attack. My stomach can still be quite touchy, and very reactive to stress, but not to a crippling extent. I've gotten some tests done--drinking barium and getting x-rays taken, as well as going to the emergency room during a particularly bad episode for xrays and pain meds--and nothing has come up.
Lately, however, I've been noticing what seem to be several unrelated symptoms. For the past couple weeks, my calves (and, more recently now, my thighs) have been acting very odd. I'm an ex-soccer player, and I try to jog or bike on a regular basis, though this new development has kept me from doing that. I find that with very little provocation, my muscles will act as if I'm about to get a charlie horse. It is normally only one muscle or muscle group at a time, and it will feel like the muscle is very tight in only a small part of it, and unless I change my position, it starts to evolve into pain. As soon as I move the muscle, though, the tightness disappears. What's most odd about all this is that I've not been exerting myself any differently than normal...and the tightness comes on at the most odd times. I can do yoga and squats just fine, which both require me to exert my legs for extended periods of time, without any problems. But, for instance, stepping up onto a curb, or adjusting my left leg while I'm driving, will bring on the sensation. Again, it seems to happen at random, without warning, and it disappears quickly.
I've become familiar with this sensation before the past month. On a few occasions when I was younger, I would be woken up out of a deep sleep for seemingly no reason, only to suddenly feel my calf muscle tighten up and be wracked with terrible pain. I would stretch and massage the muscle, and after a minute or two the pain would subside, though the next morning the muscle would be slightly sore. I also found I could induce the sensation. One day I'd woken up from a nap, stood up, and stretched my whole body, reaching as high up as I could and standing up on my tiptoes. I found that when I tried to stand up as tall on my toes as I could and stretch my calves, the same charlie-horse like sensation would come on and I would have to drop to my heels and massage my muscles to keep the same terrible pain from coming on. Now, whenever I flex my calf as hard as I can, it will tighten up like that, and if I chose to continue, the muscle would lock and cause me extreme pain.
Yesterday, my girlfriend noticed I had some small bruises on my legs. It's possible that these happened during the process of packing all my belongings and moving furniture and what have you, but the bruises are not painful to touch, and they seem to only be on my legs. They aren't even that bluish...just a darker red sort of color, like a very minor bruise.
To wrap up these odd symptoms, my stool has been a vivid green for the past few days. It could be very possible that this is just from eating some darker colored candy recently, but the quantities I consumed weren't all that large.
My diet has been a bit erratic in the past couple weeks. I've also been incredibly stressed, as my roommate decided to move out without telling me, leaving me with the chore of cleaning the whole apartment, getting rid of most of my belongings, finding a new place to live, and driving across the country. It seems to me that it could just be a combination of stress and poor nutrition, but it also seems like it could be a mineral-absorption problem, or perhaps some sort of nerve damage or disease. It's just so bizarre that all these symptoms are happening all at once, and that I've never really experienced any of them like this before.
Basically, I'm looking to see if there is any correlation between these symptoms and some odd disease. They aren't bad enough by themselves to require medical attention, but if this is a precursor to something more sinister, I'd sure like to know. Any information would be appreciated. Thank you for your time.
I'm a 21 year old male who has always been in relatively good health. I've had a few chronic conditions that have either evaded diagnosis or never caused enough trouble to be worth the effort. When I was a young child, I was very prone to ear and nose infections...whenever I would feel sick, it would be almost exclusively because of these reasons. I would get strep from time to time, and eventually I had my tonsils and adnoids removed. This helped the problem somewhat, though I'm still prone to nasal problems.
My stomach has also been a frequent issue. Whenever I get severely stressed out, I will get painful cramps and nausea, though very rarely vomiting or stool issues. The correlation between stress and stomach distress, I feel, is benign. It doesn't seem unheard of that one would get a tummy ache when worrying about things. The problem started to get complicated when stress was no longer a correlate. Perhaps once every one to three months, I would have what I will refer to as a "stomach attack". With no real stress being felt or odd foods being eaten or anything of the sort, I would feel slightly nauseous early in the day. The sensation could easily be confused with hunger, so I would eat when I would start to feel it, though normally I would end up eating what I normally would, and at the normal time. As the day would progress, the pain would slowly get worse, feeling like terrible stomach cramps. As night started to roll around, it would get to a point where all I could do is writhe around on the floor of the bathroom, groaning and crying and clutching my stomach. Even breathing would make it hurt worse. It seemed to operate in cycles: 45 minutes to an hour of pain, followed by enough of a respite that I could stand (though still hunched over from the pain) to get some water or a blanket or a bucket or whatever...maybe 10 minutes or so, just enough time to prepare for the next surge. This would continue for hours and hours, keeping me from sleeping and in complete and utter misery. Finally, I would fall into a fitful sleep, waking every half hour or so to the same excruciating pain. The next day I would be exhausted and sore, and I would spend it laying down and trying to drink some water and eat light food. After 10 or so of these attacks over the course of a year or so, I found that if I could induce vomiting, I could cut the extremely painful portion in half. When I would do this, however, I found that anything I had put in my stomach during the whole day would still be there, almost completely undigested...almost as if my stomach clamped off the passage to the intestine, keeping digestion from occurring. Sometimes, one good puke would give me a long enough window of less pain that I could fall asleep, and then normally I would sleep the night through. However, normally I would be in front of the toilet for a couple hours; I'd vomit once, still be in pain, and end up puking two or three more times, only bringing up yellow, disgusting bile. Eventually, I would get so tired that I would fall asleep...but this was still preferable to not vomiting and just enduring the pain that only worsened as the night went on.
It has been several years since my last stomach attack. My stomach can still be quite touchy, and very reactive to stress, but not to a crippling extent. I've gotten some tests done--drinking barium and getting x-rays taken, as well as going to the emergency room during a particularly bad episode for xrays and pain meds--and nothing has come up.
Lately, however, I've been noticing what seem to be several unrelated symptoms. For the past couple weeks, my calves (and, more recently now, my thighs) have been acting very odd. I'm an ex-soccer player, and I try to jog or bike on a regular basis, though this new development has kept me from doing that. I find that with very little provocation, my muscles will act as if I'm about to get a charlie horse. It is normally only one muscle or muscle group at a time, and it will feel like the muscle is very tight in only a small part of it, and unless I change my position, it starts to evolve into pain. As soon as I move the muscle, though, the tightness disappears. What's most odd about all this is that I've not been exerting myself any differently than normal...and the tightness comes on at the most odd times. I can do yoga and squats just fine, which both require me to exert my legs for extended periods of time, without any problems. But, for instance, stepping up onto a curb, or adjusting my left leg while I'm driving, will bring on the sensation. Again, it seems to happen at random, without warning, and it disappears quickly.
I've become familiar with this sensation before the past month. On a few occasions when I was younger, I would be woken up out of a deep sleep for seemingly no reason, only to suddenly feel my calf muscle tighten up and be wracked with terrible pain. I would stretch and massage the muscle, and after a minute or two the pain would subside, though the next morning the muscle would be slightly sore. I also found I could induce the sensation. One day I'd woken up from a nap, stood up, and stretched my whole body, reaching as high up as I could and standing up on my tiptoes. I found that when I tried to stand up as tall on my toes as I could and stretch my calves, the same charlie-horse like sensation would come on and I would have to drop to my heels and massage my muscles to keep the same terrible pain from coming on. Now, whenever I flex my calf as hard as I can, it will tighten up like that, and if I chose to continue, the muscle would lock and cause me extreme pain.
Yesterday, my girlfriend noticed I had some small bruises on my legs. It's possible that these happened during the process of packing all my belongings and moving furniture and what have you, but the bruises are not painful to touch, and they seem to only be on my legs. They aren't even that bluish...just a darker red sort of color, like a very minor bruise.
To wrap up these odd symptoms, my stool has been a vivid green for the past few days. It could be very possible that this is just from eating some darker colored candy recently, but the quantities I consumed weren't all that large.
My diet has been a bit erratic in the past couple weeks. I've also been incredibly stressed, as my roommate decided to move out without telling me, leaving me with the chore of cleaning the whole apartment, getting rid of most of my belongings, finding a new place to live, and driving across the country. It seems to me that it could just be a combination of stress and poor nutrition, but it also seems like it could be a mineral-absorption problem, or perhaps some sort of nerve damage or disease. It's just so bizarre that all these symptoms are happening all at once, and that I've never really experienced any of them like this before.
Basically, I'm looking to see if there is any correlation between these symptoms and some odd disease. They aren't bad enough by themselves to require medical attention, but if this is a precursor to something more sinister, I'd sure like to know. Any information would be appreciated. Thank you for your time.
I certainly don't want to mislead you, but I'm thinking you're 21, you *are* under a lot of stress and I wouldn't be surprised if this is really the core issue. And your leg cramping issue sound perfectly normal (especially for a young athletic person) to me, too. I'm just looking at all your symptoms and you essentially had logical explanations for all of them. Hope it's as easy as that!
Hi there. After reading the last person's comment, it is very possible he could be right. I've seen a show recently about someone with very similar problems. HOWEVER, if you further explore this possibility and it is NOT the cause for everything going on, I would HIGHLY suggest you get the SWEAT CHLORIDE TEST FOR CYSTIC FIBROSIS. Cystic Fibrosis is a fatal, genetic disease, however, the median age of survival is roughly 37 years, with many living beyond this. Especially those with milder cases, which, believe it or not, may be your case. This disease, to me, matches almost all of your symptoms. The earaches, the sinus problems, breathing problems (if you have had any) the stomach issues, including malabsorption of fat-soluable vitamins A, D, E and K, and not being able to digest and absorb proteins, nutrients and fats normally. This could be causing the stomach pain and the discoloration, along with blockages in the intestines, rectal prolapse or bleeding, etc. The bruising, particularly on the legs, I can tell you first hand is a common trait of Cystic Fibrosis (also known as CF) because my daughter has it and she was born with this disease. However, this, most likely, will not show up in internet research or as common symptoms of CF. I highly believe this is due to a very serious Vitamin K deficiency due to malabsorption and maybe not all people with this disease get this. The ONLY thing that I am not certain of is your leg cramping you've been experiencing. . . however, I can tell you that my daughter is only six years old and CONSTANTLY complains of leg pain, cramping and joint pain as well. This also could be due to vitamin deficiencies I would imagine? Anyhow, this disease may very well describe you or not, maybe check it out and see what you think. Like I said, some people do have milder symptoms and there are over 1,400 different mutations of the gene that causes this disease; meaning that one person affected by CF might actually be able to digest foods, nutrients, etc. but might have their Lungs and sinuses affected much more. And there are those who are affected more with the digestion issues, and even some whom are plagued by both. My daughter has both, pancreatic insufficiency and the Respiratory issues. Most people with the disease are diagnosed by the time they reach the age of 3. Although, MANY people with milder cases are diagnosed later on in life, some in their teens, twenties, even forties. Those with milder cases that usually have the later diagnosis also tend to have a much longer prognosis. Please check it out at www.cff.org or you can google Cystic Fibrosis, but you will get less scarier facts on their actual website. They tend to try to provide a world of hope to those affected, which there is and can be, but in more severe cases, like my daughter's, sometimes people want to know the truth, good or bad, and they take it upon themselves to do the dirty research. ;0) I'm one of those Moms. lol. One last thing, if you do decide to get tested - PLEASE MAKE SURE YOU HAVE THE SWEAT CHLORIDE TEST DONE, NOT JUST BLOOD WORK! This is the most effective way to test for Cystic Fibrosis and blood tests only test for like the most common 23 mutations. . . remember, there are over 1,400!!! So just keep that in mind. If it comes out as a borderline test, try to retest, usually those with even borderline tests tend to have the disease in milder form. I hope that you are fortunate enough NOT to have this horrible disease though. Good luck in your search for answers. Oh, and if you have any questions or want to reach me, I'm available anytime at brandy.***@****
~Brandy
~Brandy
I have been suffering from very similar symptoms that seemed infrequent as a child but now that I am 44 they have gotten very frequent and much more severe with new added symptoms almost monthly. The most recent of the symptoms being the leg cramping followed by bruises without having bumped into anything. I have also begun having bouts of rectal bleeding soon after the stomach pain begins which has put me in the hospital 3 times. The doctors there have concluded that I have diverticulitis brought about by gluten sensitivitie also known as celiac disease. There are two forms of this which is why it wasn't noticed sooner, the exterior diverticulitis is harder to see without a laproscoptic surgery. Gluten is found in wheat, rye, barley and less in oats and is used in a wide variety of foods for various reasons. You should look into this since your symptoms are almost exactly like mine but to a lessor degree because you are much younger and the disease (if you have it) has not deteriorated your body as much yet.
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