Really worried, advice please

[kellykapowskiismyidol]

Posting here for traffic. Really working myself up.

For the past week and a half I've had quite severe stomach cramps and diarrhoea a few hours after eating. At least once or twice a day. I took an Imodium and had a few days relief but once the effects wore off it came back.

I've lost quite a few family members to cancer and whenever anything odd or unexplainable like this happens I immediately think the worst. I have serious health anxiety over it.

I did have a colonoscopy for something else last year and nothing flagged up then. I will speak to the GP if it goes on much longer (nhs advice is to seek advice if it persists for 3 weeks or more) but I'm worried they will fob me off after my clear colonoscopy last year.

Does anyone have any idea what this could be? I've not noticed any intolerances or allergies previously. I've had IBS episodes but nothing this severe or long lasting before. I'm mid 30s.

Are you having pain? Nausea? I was really unwell with gallbladder and gallstones and had a bad tummy after whatever I ate for around a month before I saw a doctor.

Only pain is stomach cramps but they go as soon as I go to the loo. I do feel a little sick but it's not depleting my appetite! I only feel safe eating a meal if I know I'm staying home though. I have no idea where it's come from. Initially thought a bug or ibs issue but it's gone on quite a long time for that :(

Could you have a test done privately for food intolerances? I suddenly became intolerant to dairy mid 30’s, a lot of the test people can run stool samples too, I’m sure it’s something like that and nothing too serious, try to not google it to death.

It might be worth starting a food diary to see if you’ve developed intolerances. And maybe try drinking bottled or boiled water for a while.

Thank you. If it were anything sinister would it have shown up on the colonoscopy? It was less than a year ago...

Because it’s always after eating I think it’s food related. It’s amazing how many people develop intolerances nowadays.
Dairy is a frequent one, it might be worth avoiding it for a week to see what happens.
Flora do a nice vegan spread in a white tub.
And my two like the Oatly ‘whole’ milk in the dark blue carton, the one you get in the fridge.

You definitely need to go back. My brother developed bowel cancer in his early 20s but they kept fobbing him off saying that he was too young to have it. Sadly, he passed away from it at 25. I’m sure it’s nothing sinister but you need to rule everything out. It might be as simple as one thing in your diet that provokes it (in my friend’s case- she used to eat a banana every day- had the same symptoms as you and the gp told her to cut bananas out- fine since. She was also extremely low in vitamin B and has to half injections now). If I eat white bread, I tend to have similar side effects to what you’ve described.
It is probably nothing to worry about at all but better to get it sorted as soon as possible 💐

Could be Helicobacter Pylori - just a bacterial infection

A week and a half I'd speak to a GP sooner rather than waiting 3 weeks.

I think I may have had covid with just gastric symptoms in hindsight. I had 3 months of upset stomach with no explanation. I have IBS though so thought it could be that at the time.

I also developed a food intolerance in mid thirties. Cut out dairy, gluten, all sorts of the usual suspects. Even the GP told me it was gluten. Allergy testing said it was a certain food that I don’t even like but sneaks into a lot, cut that out and now I’m golden but like you I was worried about cancer for ages, has all the tests going. At least allergy testing might rule out food intolerance, if nothing else.

Get yourself tested for coeliac disease.

It often gets misdiagnosed as IBS and can present in a variety of ways.

It may also be a gluten intolerance.

I will speak to GP again. This isn't like anything I've experienced before. I just feel like they'll say 'well you had a colonoscopy last year so what more do you want'

At your age and with a recent clear colonoscopy the chance of this being bowel cancer is minuscule, so don't worry. If you are still unwell after three weeks of symptoms or if you feel worse in the meantime, then contact your GP

@VulcanVause

Could be Helicobacter Pylori - just a bacterial infection

This is really common and can cause those symptoms too. Thankfully it’s easy to treat. It’s easy for GP to check for this: ‘your GP thinks your symptoms may be caused by an H. pylori infection, they may recommend one of the following tests:

a urea breath test – you'll be given a special drink containing a chemical that's broken down by H. pylori; your breath is then analysed to see whether or not you have an H. pylori infection
a stool antigen test – a small stool sample is tested for the bacteria
a blood test – a sample of your blood is tested for antibodies to the H. pylori bacteria (antibodies are proteins produced naturally in your blood and help to fight infection); this has now largely been replaced by the stool antigen test’

Its always worth getting checked out just incase but it honestly sounds like either IBS or a food intolerance to me.

I would also suggest you cut out gluten.

I had campylobacter last summer with similar symptoms. After losing my father in his 40s to colon cancer I too was thinking worst case scenarios.

Don’t cut out gluten. Get a coeliac test first. No point in cutting out gluten if you don’t need to. And you need to be eating it to test for it

FWIW my symptoms were like yours and I had coeliacs.

I have had the same thing for over 7 years its ibs it gets worse with stress and the food you eat

I have had IBS issues in the past but none this severe that have lasted this long.

I will try keeping a food diary and see if anything flags up :-(

Food diary might be useful but you need a blood test. Don’t hang around just go to gp and ask for a coelisc screen. Look at this isitcoeliacdisease.org.uk/

You may just have a bug. Could be IBS but coeliacs is common and worth testing for.

Go back to your GP and ask for further investigations too.

@VulcanVause

Could be Helicobacter Pylori - just a bacterial infection

Sounds like that to me. It's a possibility.

My dad had fairly regular colonoscopies bcs he suffered from colitis. His bowel cancer was first detected during one of these regular check ups, they said it was very early stages and it would have been a long time before he had any actual symptoms from it. Not sure how long a long time is but hopefully it means changes of this being bowelcancer are negligible.