Upset stomach every day and gp just recomends immodium

[2notenuff]

Hi

My dh has an upset stomach every evening, really loose stools with groteque smell. He does not have stimach pains but feels his stomach churning before he goes.

This has been happening for well over 6 weeks now, he went to his gp last week who told him to collect a sample and send off for analyse. results came back today normal and gp said to just try immodium.

Surely immodium does not fix the problem long term or am i wrong?

why doesnt the go do more to find out why this is happening.

surely his body is not getting to absorb enough nutrients from his food if he is going every day. for some reason he is just going at night but now and then twice during the day.

Should he go and ask for blood tests tomorrow instead of trying immodium first?

what we they be testing for? if he had bowel cancer or something else nasty the stool sample tests would of detected it right?

i feel sorry for him and want to help me sort this out.

any advice would be great

thanks x

bump

my mum has chrons disease and takes immodium and other stuff daily. I would push for further test though

I had loose stols once after a bug. They would not stop for weeks afterwards - Gp reckoned my gut was a bit irritated so I tried Imodium. It did work, so is worth a try. Also, your body is very efficient at extracting nutrients form food even when there is a problem with loose stools, so don't be worried about that.
I would ask for a refferal though if the immodium doesn't work, just to make sure everything is fine. Ask another GP if you are not happy.

I had a long term problem with diarrhoea after an infection. A few days of immodium actually did sort it out.

You need to get him back to the GP and ask for further investigation - a referral to a gastroenterologist would be a start. Has he taken antibiotics recently - I mean in the last say 3 months?

has he had a blood test for coeliac disease (gluten intolerance)?

mine kicked off after a stomach bug that just didn't clear up. Looking back after my diagnosis I could see that I had suffered on and off all my life.

It commonly isn't diagnosed until people are in their mid 30s as well.

is he stressed at work?

the reason I ask is, on the days I am at work, my tummy is awful (not going to give details!).

at the weekend and on hols, it is fine

I'd certainly try the immodium but I'd be expecting results pdq - three days maybe - before going back to GP and asking for next stage. Maybe book an appointment for Friday?

Immodium might work for some stuff, but PLEASE check with your Dr before you use it.

The reason I asked about antibiotics is that sometimes these can trigger an infection which is actually quite dangerous if untreated, and using immodium is one of the worst things you can do if it is that, because your system is trying to get rid of the toxins and you could end up very ill by interfering with that.

Ask the Dr if the sample was tested for C-diff. It isn't a standard test so probably wasn't done. It's not massively likely but it is possible and you don't want to risk taking an antimotility agent like immod. if it is.

HTH

You also need to ensure he is getting plenty of fluids. His electrolyte balance is likely to be way out if he's had diarrhoea for 6 weeks. The GP should be taking this more seriously.