Anyone 4 years on and still no answers to bowel issues

[TwittleBee]

4 years ago I started to suffer with rectal bleeding, extreme bloat, abdominal pain, needing to poop several times a day.

Initially it was dismissed by my Dr and told it didn't seem like anything serious.

I ignored it for a couple years but last year it got really bad. I lost 2 stone, became very ill and lived on the toilet.

I had blood tests and a failed colonoscopy (is that how you spell it? Brain feels frazzled today). I say failed because they couldn't get very far without the pain being so much that I was screaming in agony. They said they didn't see anything, maybe a bit of inflammation but nothing extraordinary.

My GP said there was nothing else they could do and it was left as that. And things did seem to resolve, especially when I fell pregnant. I still had some pain, some urgency to go to toilet and bleeding but nowhere near what it had been.

But this past fortnight (just for reference I am 4 months postpartum) it has ramped up again.

I've phoned my GP and have another blood test lined up along with another colonoscopy (which I am terrified about) but I am nervous it will be all for nothing again.

It really feels like it is ruining my life now. I have to plan to go places around the toilet locations. I have no self confidence in my appearance either because I just feel gross.

Any advice very much welcomed or just a hand hold I guess.

Have you had a stool sample tested for fecal calprotectin?
I really feel for you having these issues for so long. DD has similar symptoms and within a few weeks was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis - the treatment has worked like magic.

Hi, thank you for replying! No I haven't actually, is that something worth asking to have done?

Did you not have sedation or entonox for your colonoscopy? I have had many of these procedures and always always opt for sedation.

I'm not sure what it was, but it was like I was awake but unable to really move and I wasn't really with it. Similar to what you feel like if you have pethidine during labour.

I think that's what made it worse, I felt so out on control.

Ask the team to administer max sedation for your colonoscopy, it wears off pretty quickly anyway. I get one every 3 years and always ask the consultant to give me the absolute maximum and remind them again when I'm getting put under - on my last couple I haven't remembered anything from going under until recovery.

The fecal calprotectin is a must if IBD is suspected, certainly request it from the GP - it shows if there’s inflammation.