Do I just live with it?
Warning: Long and boring medical history
At the end of last summer around September time I started having problems with my bowel movements.. basically I just got constipation and diarrhoea on and off regularly and tbh at the time thought nothing of it, except maybe that it was slightly annoying. Then one day I woke up with this debilitating pain in my arse which meant I couldn't sit, stand, walk, lie down or do anything without being in agony. I also had extremely severe constipation and pain when I pooed. By coincidence, I felt a lump round my anus area which was quite huge, it was not as surprising because I had felt a smaller painless one a few weeks earlier and had it checked out only to get given antibiotics for a cyst. But obviously this time it made me limp into the GP that same day to get it checked out. GP said it had just got bigger and hadn't gone away last time and prescribed me the same antibiotics and said rest (??). I was in so much pain it was unbearable and I missed about a couple weeks of uni at the time but there was an exam right after it which I got mitigating circumstances for based on my condition. I remember thinking at the time 'man up, some people live with this type of pain their whole life at least it's temporary for you'.
So eventually that cyst got smaller and less painful but it has never disappeared which, surprise surprise, according to my GP is 'probably normal'. But what did persist was the inconsistent bowel movement, but now it was predominantly diarrhoea on and off for weeks at a time. I had consulted the GP about this before but he had said it was due to the cyst, which is plausible even though it was small and painless now. But then my diarrhoea just got worse and worse to the point where it meant that 5 minutes after eating I was getting bad abdominal pain and back pain and rushed into the toilet to poo it out!! I became thirsty all the time etc. and again had to start missing uni again for a few weeks because of it. So I went to the GP and just basically told him everything, first thing he wanted was a stool sample to check for infection and he also gave me about 4 blood tests to get checked for a fair few things. I sent the stool sample straight away adamant this must be an infection of some sort and 3 days later it comes back negative. By this time it was getting a bit better but of course was affecting my revision for yet another exam which I ended up failing and couldn't miss otherwise I'd be looking at a serious meeting with senior staff. This exam meant I couldn't go for the blood tests as I just didn't have time even though my GP had told me this could be Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and therefore could be serious. So whilst I was revising in between toilet session I coudn't even concentrate on anything other than the fact I could have a serious chronic disease!
Anyway, after failing the exams I went to get the blood tests, and after a week they come back negative. According to my GP this ruled out IBD and cancer but I still couldn't understand because I was getting these horrendous abdominal and back pains which meant I had to rush to the nearest toilet. This is when the GP mentioned irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). He didn't diagnose me or anything but he just mentioned it. Later on I found out it is a diagnosis of exclusion so they have to rule everything out before making a diagnosis but my GP just said come back if you get any of these red flag signs which were fever, persistent abdominal pain (i told him it was quite regular and there most of the time but he said no, it should be there ALL the time). and a few others.
So basically now I'm in limbo, not having a named condition or disease which of course, don't get me wrong, I'm grateful for, but this doesn't change the fact there is something wrong with me.. My life has turned into a mess because of this. My attendance at uni has been messed up because of days where I can't bring myself to go in even. But the worst part has to be that no one knows except my family. You'd think my family knowing would make a difference but in all honesty it isn't, they think I am overreacting even though they see how often I am in the toilet now. This makes me think '****ing hell, am I just being a wuss here?'. Then I try to tell myself I am, and try to live normally because I start thinking most people have IBS and don't even think it's a disease so maybe I can be the same. I start trying to sort my life out and then bam.. 1 hour later i'm sitting on the toilet thinking '**** that, I'm not overreacting!!'.
The other bad part is university. My university thinks I'm a dosser, my friends have seen my attendance decrease substantially and think I'm dossing because I haven't told them any of this. But they've noticed I've changed, I used to be quite talkative but now I'm not really because have the time I'm cringing on the inside due to the pain in my stomach. I used to be quite funny around them they've all said I've lost my sense of humour..
My university only knows about the first mitigating circumstance and nothing else because what am I supposed to tell them?? I don't even know what I have and they'll probably think I'm lying because diarrhoea isn't even a decent excuse in all fairness. The past six months have been bad ones for me. I've aged a fair bit and I'm only 19. I'm a guy who has never cried before in his life and I've found myself breaking down and crying a few times recently. It's all getting a bit much but the worst thing is I keep telling myelf it's not as bad as I think. This just makes me feel terrible because I know it's bad. So I'm stuck in the middle now, I know there's something wrong, I don't know what it is, and nobody else knows there's anything wrong except my family because I don't want my friends to think of me as that guy.
I don't know why I posted here but there you go, an essay on how my life went so wrong so fast.
At the end of last summer around September time I started having problems with my bowel movements.. basically I just got constipation and diarrhoea on and off regularly and tbh at the time thought nothing of it, except maybe that it was slightly annoying. Then one day I woke up with this debilitating pain in my arse which meant I couldn't sit, stand, walk, lie down or do anything without being in agony. I also had extremely severe constipation and pain when I pooed. By coincidence, I felt a lump round my anus area which was quite huge, it was not as surprising because I had felt a smaller painless one a few weeks earlier and had it checked out only to get given antibiotics for a cyst. But obviously this time it made me limp into the GP that same day to get it checked out. GP said it had just got bigger and hadn't gone away last time and prescribed me the same antibiotics and said rest (??). I was in so much pain it was unbearable and I missed about a couple weeks of uni at the time but there was an exam right after it which I got mitigating circumstances for based on my condition. I remember thinking at the time 'man up, some people live with this type of pain their whole life at least it's temporary for you'.
So eventually that cyst got smaller and less painful but it has never disappeared which, surprise surprise, according to my GP is 'probably normal'. But what did persist was the inconsistent bowel movement, but now it was predominantly diarrhoea on and off for weeks at a time. I had consulted the GP about this before but he had said it was due to the cyst, which is plausible even though it was small and painless now. But then my diarrhoea just got worse and worse to the point where it meant that 5 minutes after eating I was getting bad abdominal pain and back pain and rushed into the toilet to poo it out!! I became thirsty all the time etc. and again had to start missing uni again for a few weeks because of it. So I went to the GP and just basically told him everything, first thing he wanted was a stool sample to check for infection and he also gave me about 4 blood tests to get checked for a fair few things. I sent the stool sample straight away adamant this must be an infection of some sort and 3 days later it comes back negative. By this time it was getting a bit better but of course was affecting my revision for yet another exam which I ended up failing and couldn't miss otherwise I'd be looking at a serious meeting with senior staff. This exam meant I couldn't go for the blood tests as I just didn't have time even though my GP had told me this could be Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and therefore could be serious. So whilst I was revising in between toilet session I coudn't even concentrate on anything other than the fact I could have a serious chronic disease!
Anyway, after failing the exams I went to get the blood tests, and after a week they come back negative. According to my GP this ruled out IBD and cancer but I still couldn't understand because I was getting these horrendous abdominal and back pains which meant I had to rush to the nearest toilet. This is when the GP mentioned irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). He didn't diagnose me or anything but he just mentioned it. Later on I found out it is a diagnosis of exclusion so they have to rule everything out before making a diagnosis but my GP just said come back if you get any of these red flag signs which were fever, persistent abdominal pain (i told him it was quite regular and there most of the time but he said no, it should be there ALL the time). and a few others.
So basically now I'm in limbo, not having a named condition or disease which of course, don't get me wrong, I'm grateful for, but this doesn't change the fact there is something wrong with me.. My life has turned into a mess because of this. My attendance at uni has been messed up because of days where I can't bring myself to go in even. But the worst part has to be that no one knows except my family. You'd think my family knowing would make a difference but in all honesty it isn't, they think I am overreacting even though they see how often I am in the toilet now. This makes me think '****ing hell, am I just being a wuss here?'. Then I try to tell myself I am, and try to live normally because I start thinking most people have IBS and don't even think it's a disease so maybe I can be the same. I start trying to sort my life out and then bam.. 1 hour later i'm sitting on the toilet thinking '**** that, I'm not overreacting!!'.
The other bad part is university. My university thinks I'm a dosser, my friends have seen my attendance decrease substantially and think I'm dossing because I haven't told them any of this. But they've noticed I've changed, I used to be quite talkative but now I'm not really because have the time I'm cringing on the inside due to the pain in my stomach. I used to be quite funny around them they've all said I've lost my sense of humour..
My university only knows about the first mitigating circumstance and nothing else because what am I supposed to tell them?? I don't even know what I have and they'll probably think I'm lying because diarrhoea isn't even a decent excuse in all fairness. The past six months have been bad ones for me. I've aged a fair bit and I'm only 19. I'm a guy who has never cried before in his life and I've found myself breaking down and crying a few times recently. It's all getting a bit much but the worst thing is I keep telling myelf it's not as bad as I think. This just makes me feel terrible because I know it's bad. So I'm stuck in the middle now, I know there's something wrong, I don't know what it is, and nobody else knows there's anything wrong except my family because I don't want my friends to think of me as that guy.
I don't know why I posted here but there you go, an essay on how my life went so wrong so fast.
WOW! that is a longgg post! and im afraid as soon as i saw 'bowel movments' i had to stop!.... sorry 
x
x
I don't understand how your GP can make all these diagnosis' ... If u were in that much pain, he would refer u to a Gastrointestinal specialist for a colonoscopy .. Shove a camera up ur ass ... And then possibly take a biopsy if need be .. Use this results in conjuction with ur bloods .. and hmm then maybe u'll get a lil better news ... u are possibly looking at something like coeliac disease / chrons disease/ ulcerative colitis/ bowel .... Don't take this as a diagnosis .. its just a suggestion ov course
I know how touchy having IBS can be. I dunno if this is a good thing or bad, but I'm quite open and stupidly persistent when it comes to pooing, diarrhoea.
In short I know what you've been through, I spent two days in A&E constantly ****ting throughout the whole day and being in pain, having to deal with useless nurses. I was told it was infective gastroenteritis. After about a week I was effectively back to normal, but I did have occasional episodes and still do to this day. No one was able to diagnose me and the consultant was pretty rude as I remember.
My advice would be, see another GP or go to A&E and over-milk the situation. Wrong maybe? But if that's what it takes to get someone to see you and get that camera up your ass, then that's what you need to do. Once you have the diagnosis, you will feel so much better I promise.
I can understand the stresses and strains of toilets, nervous pooing (watch Scrubs..Elliot Reid...you'll know what I mean) and I assure you it happens to alot of us. I went interrailing and OMG was it hard with the toilets....but I survived.
At the end of the day, you have to push and see a different GP, that is the silver bullet, get the right diagnosis and emphasise how ****ed up its making. Cry if you have to in front of the GP, the means will justify the end.
Good Luck my friend!
In short I know what you've been through, I spent two days in A&E constantly ****ting throughout the whole day and being in pain, having to deal with useless nurses. I was told it was infective gastroenteritis. After about a week I was effectively back to normal, but I did have occasional episodes and still do to this day. No one was able to diagnose me and the consultant was pretty rude as I remember.
My advice would be, see another GP or go to A&E and over-milk the situation. Wrong maybe? But if that's what it takes to get someone to see you and get that camera up your ass, then that's what you need to do. Once you have the diagnosis, you will feel so much better I promise.
I can understand the stresses and strains of toilets, nervous pooing (watch Scrubs..Elliot Reid...you'll know what I mean) and I assure you it happens to alot of us. I went interrailing and OMG was it hard with the toilets....but I survived.
At the end of the day, you have to push and see a different GP, that is the silver bullet, get the right diagnosis and emphasise how ****ed up its making. Cry if you have to in front of the GP, the means will justify the end.
Good Luck my friend!
Original post by stormstar
I know how touchy having IBS can be. I dunno if this is a good thing or bad, but I'm quite open and stupidly persistent when it comes to pooing, diarrhoea.
In short I know what you've been through, I spent two days in A&E constantly ****ting throughout the whole day and being in pain, having to deal with useless nurses. I was told it was infective gastroenteritis. After about a week I was effectively back to normal, but I did have occasional episodes and still do to this day. No one was able to diagnose me and the consultant was pretty rude as I remember.
My advice would be, see another GP or go to A&E and over-milk the situation. Wrong maybe? But if that's what it takes to get someone to see you and get that camera up your ass, then that's what you need to do. Once you have the diagnosis, you will feel so much better I promise.
I can understand the stresses and strains of toilets, nervous pooing (watch Scrubs..Elliot Reid...you'll know what I mean) and I assure you it happens to alot of us. I went interrailing and OMG was it hard with the toilets....but I survived.
At the end of the day, you have to push and see a different GP, that is the silver bullet, get the right diagnosis and emphasise how ****ed up its making. Cry if you have to in front of the GP, the means will justify the end.
Good Luck my friend!
In short I know what you've been through, I spent two days in A&E constantly ****ting throughout the whole day and being in pain, having to deal with useless nurses. I was told it was infective gastroenteritis. After about a week I was effectively back to normal, but I did have occasional episodes and still do to this day. No one was able to diagnose me and the consultant was pretty rude as I remember.
My advice would be, see another GP or go to A&E and over-milk the situation. Wrong maybe? But if that's what it takes to get someone to see you and get that camera up your ass, then that's what you need to do. Once you have the diagnosis, you will feel so much better I promise.
I can understand the stresses and strains of toilets, nervous pooing (watch Scrubs..Elliot Reid...you'll know what I mean) and I assure you it happens to alot of us. I went interrailing and OMG was it hard with the toilets....but I survived.
At the end of the day, you have to push and see a different GP, that is the silver bullet, get the right diagnosis and emphasise how ****ed up its making. Cry if you have to in front of the GP, the means will justify the end.
Good Luck my friend!
Thank you! you have given me hope, going through similar thing...isn't nice and hope they get us all sorted! x
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