Diarrhea - Had to name change for this one

[worried99]

I've had diarrhea on and off for the last 3 weeks. I tend to have it every other day. I don't know why I have it or what's causing it. I'm quite concerned know as there is blood in it also. Could this be an allergic reaction to some sort of food?
Help please. Too embarrassed to go to the doctor but can't keep forking out so much money on immodium.

now not know

stop taking immodium and go and see your gp or walk in centre

blood in poo isn't a good sign

You have to get to the doctor asap- it could be the first signs of something serious. DO not leave it or be fobbed off at Doc. PLease make an appointment.

Please make an appointment to see your Dr.

Hopefully, it will nothing, but just to give yourself some peace of mind. They have seen it all before, you won't be the first.

I very much doubt blood in your stools will be an allergic reaction to something.

Gosh, quite surprised by the response, and quite scared now. Something serious - like what?

FWIW my husband suffered with ulcerative colitis for many years, runny stools and blood in them are symptoms of this, not that I am saying you have it, but you really need to get it checked out.

do you have any other symptoms

At work right now. Just on a break. Will book an emergency appointment for tomorrow. What will they do at the doctors?

nailpolish - symptoms of what?

have just sent an msn message to my dh to ask him what they will do

they will have a feel of your abdomen and ask you questions like
how i s your diet
do you have pain
have you lost or gained weight
do you get bloated

any other problems

they will prob give you a container and ask you for a sample to be handed in to the surgery

they may take blood tests

they may refer you to the hospital

symptoms like
nausea
weight loss
headaches
etc

DH said they should get you to see a specialist, 3 weeks of bloody diarohea is not good.

They will also do as nail polish says.

to be honest I would by pass the DR and go to A&E or a walk in centre - or at least get an emergency appointment with your GP tonight or phone NHS24. Passing blood from the rectum isn't normal you have obviously got some sort of internal bleeding. If you had said you were constipated and bleeding It would have reasonable to think that the blood was from burst vessels or piles from pushing. You really need to get seem asap.

I'd agree with the others - definitely get checked out. But there are other possibilities - if you have a tummy bug or something like IBS the Immodium will have just continued to let the problem fester so each time you have stopped taking it the dirrohea will have started again. And if the blood is red and separate from the poo then it may just be a pile or a small tear near the anus. But as mentioned by the others defnitely not symptons to ignore far too many serious illnesses with these side effects too!

Worried99 - try not to panic.
The most common cause of bleeding from your bottom is piles, and these can easily be aggravated if you have a lot of diarrhoea - it could also have caused an anal fissure, again not serious. But the diarrhoea is not usual to go on for this long.

Have you recently been in hospital, visiting relatives in nursing homes, have you been taking antibiotics within the last few months? All these things are important.

Also (TMI!) is there a lot of blood or just when you wipe? Is it bright red, or darker red?

I know quite a lot about this as recently had some problems myself. I was asked to lie down and the Dr felt my abdomen, then she did a rectal examination with a gloved finger - it wasn't bad - very quick. She didn't insist on it but I wanted her to check for fissures or haemorrhoids.

I had to send off numerous samples for testing, because after the initial one tested positive for an infection I kept getting symptoms on and off for a few months. You might only need to do one or two.

It was just that - an infection - caused in my case by taking antibiotics and being in a hospital to pick up the germ.

It wasn't much fun but I am Ok now. If it is an infection you'll need to take something for it, the bleeding could be caused by it damaging your colon wall so this is important. I'm glad you have an appt tomorrow.

If you need to ask me anything else you can CAT me, happy to help if I can.

The other possible causes (not probable, just possible) are Inflammatory bowel disease (usually either Crohns or Ulcerative Colitis) or very rarely cancer - or just a polyp in the colon.

The diarrhoea could be caused by a bug (various different ones) or sometimes just stress.
So don't panic yet, but DO go to your GP tomorrow as you've arranged, or tonight if you can get an appointment to see the out of hours. the sooner you get a stool test the better as it might rule out anything nasty.

Good luck, take care x

Please don't feel that you needto change name - even the Queen poos y'know.

Seriously, get thee to a doctor asap.

Oh I forgot to say - STOP the immodium. If there's an infection you could do serious damage to your bowels by making the germs stay in there longer. It could be quite dangerous in fact. So don't touch the stuff till you've got the all clear.

Also, have you had any pain? Temperature?

Thanks for your help everyone. In regards to piles, I do have them and they do sometimes cause bleeding. However this bleeding was different. Gosh TMI but here I go anyway. It was kind of like chunky blood. More like period blood then blood when you have a cut.
I don't have any other symptoms. A bit tired, but I'm really busy right now, so nothing unexpected.
In terms of temperature, I only get one when I actually have diarrhea i.e. when I'm on the toilet. I get very hot, cold and shaky. Afterwards I feel a little weak but about an afterwards I am fine again.

Flightattendant4 - I haven't been anywhere like a hospital or had any antibiotics

Hi there. glad you came back, was worried about you

Ok, well if it's clotting a bit then it's from higher up and sounds like it might be something like UC or Crohns. the blood with those tends to be darker red like you describe.

They are eminently treatable. But you do need to see someone asap and they can get things rolling for you.

If it were redder blood I'd say more likely infection or piles etc. but darker means it's from higher up iyswim.

I think the hot and cold thing is common with diarrhoea and if you don't have an ongoing temp that's a good thing I would place bets on this being an inflammatory condition, but I am not trained, just over-googled so please don't believe me on that, as I might be wrong.

I would think something like a tumour would have caused less acute onset, more gradual symptoms.
let me know what the GP says tomorrow. Meanwhile try and get some rest and make sure you are drinking plenty of fluids, and definitely no more immodium.

Hope it goes Ok tomorrow x

Good about the antibiotics btw and the hospitals. I was thinking of C difficile (that's what I had)
you don't want that, really...and the bleeding was different.

I would imagine the tiredness might be linked, as you're losing a bit of blood - also fluids, and dehydration can make you tired. is there any chance of slowing down at work? I don't think you can afford not to rest up at the moment, your body might be trying to tell you to slow down. You need to concentrate on getting better.

Hello flightattendant4. Thanks so much for you help. Will definately book an app when the doctors open in the morning. Can't really slow down at the moment. In my fourth year of uni and working as an au-pair as well. Not long till christmas.

Oh its Ok, I might as well put my 3gb over allowance to some use!

hope Dr puts your mind at rest.

Stress is a big factor in all these things - you know that I expect. You only have one body - the other things can wait a while x