New and worsening GI issues

[NewinPA]

I am 31 years old and my entire life I have been constipated. I had my colonoscopy last year for polyps and everything was fine, except for a few polyps that were removed. A few months ago, however, I started getting diarrhea. I went to the doctor and they did stool tests and found staph aureus which was treated with antibiotics. I am still having constant diarrhea for 4+ months, and I have now progressed to a constant state of abdominal discomfort that is kind of pain but also bloating and pressure. I also over the past few days have been extremely fatigued to the point of just needing to stay in bed and sleep as much as possible because my body seems to tired to move around. I'm just wondering if it's out of the ordinary to go from chronically constipated for your entire life, and then to switch to the complete opposite over night with no real external reason for it. To note, I had a hysterectomy so the abdominal discomfort cannot be coming from a female related problem.

[Jen12977]

Yes it is the same type of strep

[pramuk73]

Were you tested for celiac disease and small intestinal bacterial overgrowth?

[NewinPA]

Also, I'm on Dexilant, which from the research I have done says can make a lot of what I am experiencing worse because of the reduction in stomach acid, and my doctor said he figures I got the staph infection from taking the Dexilant, but he thought it would just be an isolated incident.

[NewinPA]

I haven't had a follow up stool testing done but I am going to go this week and do it. As far as the fatigue goes, It started about 4 days ago, and nothing has made it better. I have been able to get up long enough to take my kids to school and to get them food, but even small tasks like that have left me just feeling like I can't go anymore. So I lay back down and I sleep some more and wake up just as worn out as I was before. I'm not having any other symptoms although I have noticed since the fatigue has started that there isn't much to the diarrhea, it's mostly watery. I don't have any rashes and even though I am extremely fatigued my mind is clear my body is mostly what feels so overly tired. The bloating doesn't seem to be different with any types of foods. I can have it without eating anything at all or I could eat a variety of different things. Either way it still seems to come on, and I only notice it not being present maybe an hour or so out of an entire day at no specific times.

My grandmother and mom both have issues with diverticulitis or diverticulosis, not sure which it is, and I have a cousin that has Crohn's but that's about the extent of my families GI history.

[CalGal]

Here's the problem that worries me, you had staph took antibiotics which hopefully killed the staph but continue to have diarrhea. The problem with the antibiotics is that they kill off good and bad bacteria. And in the process, they can leave behind some bacteria like C. diff that can 'bloom' after the antibiotics are stopped. So if you're having diarrhea after the antibiotics were done and you've been taking probiotics, something isn't right. If you haven't had stool tests since the antibiotics were done with the on-going diarrhea you may want to consider doing the stool tests again.

One thing I'm wondering about is the bowel habit change.....for a couple of reasons. I gather the fatigue is severe. Is it constant? Or does it get more severe at times, to the point you feel you have to sleep or you'll collapse? Are you having any other symptoms? Rashes, brain fog, etc? Does the bloating go 'up or down' with any specific foods you eat? Anyone in your family with GI issues or food intolerance issues?

[NewinPA]

Also in regards to H pylori, around September last year I started having severe chest pain and my PCP thought for sure I had an ulcer and I read that peptic ulcers are generally caused by H pylori I believe. I had an upper endoscopy done and I didn't have any ulcers and all the testing came back negative but I had developed a hiatal hernia from years of uncontrollable GERD.

[NewinPA]

Thanks for the reply. I was tested for h pylori and c diff and several parasites. The thing that came back on the stool testing was the staph aureus.

Also, I have been taking probiotics for a month and a half or so now. Also, I'm not taking Miralax.

That's interesting that you say something about strep. Right after I got done taking the antibiotics for the staph aureus I got a very bad strep throat infection and I hadn't been around anyone and my doctor told me that it can lay dormant in your system and come out from stress. Would the strep your referring to be the same strep that would have caused the throat infection?

[Jen12977]

Have you been tested for h pylori? This can be from having strep that is lying dormant. No I do not think its normal to go from being chronically constipated to diarrhea to this extreme. Ask your doctor to do a strep test. Are you currently taking Miralax? If so try cutting back on it to see if this changes say for instance of you are taking it twice a day cut back to once a day or if you take it once a day cut back to every other day and see if that helps.

[CalGal]

NewinPA, get back to your doc and request some stool tests for a start. This isn't a normal state. In the meantime, have you considered starting yourself on some probiotics? They might give you a hand with what's going on.