Adominal pain and soft slim stool

[patient1011]

Symptoms: Woke up one morning having to urinate badly during an illness, I experienced abdominal pain, loose bowels, soft bowels, and slim bowels. After I recovered from illness these symptoms did not go away.  Continued loose, soft, and slim bowels.  Notice protrusion rectally (hemorroid), Never had slim bowels or hemorroid before. Abdominal pain is ussually during the morning when I wake up and subsides a bit in the day. Some days it does not bother me, other days worse than others.

This has been going of for some months now.  Have been to the doctor he suspects IBS.  I have taken Clidinium-Chloridiazepoxide one before bed one in morning. Also Dexilant (dexlansoprazole) 60mg 1/day, Xifaxan 200mg 3/day for 5 days.  They have not cured the problem.  

They did a bunch of blood tests and stool tests.  Nothing positive except I had elevated ALT, checked it again 1 month later along with other liver tests, it went down to 42. Normal is below 40.  I suspect this is from strenuous excersice, I was working out almost everyday, weightlifting few times a week and jogging for 1 hour a few times a week, plus basketball and golf (walking course).  I haven't been working out as much lately, which is why it may have went down.

I have noticed that when I sleep on the couch the chances of morning pain goes up as well as the severity of the pain.  It feels like a dull diffuse pain below my belly button.

[patient915]

You have responded to an old, outdated thread from 2010. The people who originally posted these comments may very well have moved on. Rather than reply to an old thread, we recommend that people start a new topic to discuss the subject anew, if there is anything you would like to discuss. To do that, please click on the green "Post a Question" button at the top of the page.

Also, just to correct something you said, vitamin C is in no way a stool softener and it will not help with constipation.

[ar950]

FIRST I WOULD LIKE TO SAY WARNING, NOT TO SCARE YOU BUT SLIM STOOL CAN BE A SYMPTOM OF POLYS THAT CAN BECOME COLON CANCER (IT WONT SHOW UP ON THE BLOOD TEST UNTIL IT IS ACTUALLY CANCER). I AM NOT TRYING TO SCARE YOU BUT YOU MUST CONSIDER THE WORST CASE SITUATION(ALTHOUGH IT COULD BE ALOT OTHER THINGS SO DONT PANIC). DO NOT TAKE THE ADVISE OF MYSELF OR ANYONE ON THIS SITE WHO IS NOT A DOCTOR AS A DIAGNOSIS BECAUSE PEOPLE WILL USE BIG TERM AND MAKE COMPLEX RECOMMENDATIONS WITHOUT REALLY KNOWING YOUR PERSONAL SITUATION. IN FACT, YOUR DOCTOR COULD MISS COLON AND STOMACH CANCER UNTIL IT IS IN A LATER STAGE IFYOU DONT HAVE A COLONOSCOPY(ALONG WITH THE SIMILAR PROCEDURE TO CHECK THE STOMACH). SO WHAT I AM SAYING IS THAT WITHOUT A COLONOSCOPY YOU REALLY CANT TRUST YOUR DOCTOR'S CLEAN BILL OF HEALTH. YOU KNOW YOUR BODY, IF YOUR DOCTOR CANT FIND ANYTHING, CHANGE OF DIET AND DRINKING ONLY DISTILLED WATER AND HERBAL TEAS DOESNT HELP DONT HESITATE TO GET CHECKED THOROUGHLY.
OK Friend,for any stomach and colon problems THAT IS NOT CHRONIC,OR EVEN JUST FOR MAINTENANCE OF YOUR BODY I mean everything(Hemmoroids, IBS, Diarrea, pre ulcers, etc) I would suggest Kyodophilus and Daily Fiber by Prima Vera(the daily is the best, the others arent as effective). To support the Kyodophilus you should take FOS and Multi Enzymes (I recommend the Vitamin Shoppe brand, FOS capsules are more effective than powder). In fact anyone who takes the combination of these three will benefit and they all represent what is in your body naturally or what you need to be taking everyday. You almost feel like your 21 again- lol I discovered this because I have been thru the slim stool, the slight pain in the morning, bloating, constipation everything.
one last note, if you have constipation take 3000 mg of vitamin C(ITS ACTUALLY THE AMOUNT YOU SHOULD TAKE EVERYDAY, DONT TAKE MORE) its a stool softener. GOD BLESS YOU EVERYONE :)

[michell221]

No it should be ok to take this.  It will not get rid of a bacteria if you have it.  It will also not cover up anything so you should be fine.

[patient1011]

I'm wondering if I should try to take start taking some before I go to see the gastro specialist because it might screw up their diagnosis.  Could that change anything they check, because they might want to check for flora balance?

[michell221]

The stomach is made up of tons of different strains of bacteria. There is  good bacteria  and bad   You always want the good flora to dominate.  Each brand has  a different strain of good bacteria and the pacticular strain is what differentiates one brand from another. Both of these brands have been known to work quite well.     A lot of people take one of each to get 2 different strains of good bacteria and some even add florastor in the mix which is a good yeast .    You could try one and see how it works for you.  It has helped a lot of people and GI docs are now beginning to recommend them.  They are especially helpful during and after taking antibiotics.  The antibiotics kills all the good flora in your stomach along with the infection you are taking it for.  These help keep everything in balance so your have less of a chance of getting IBS, Cdiff, or yeast infections after taking antibiotics.

[patient1011]

I'm sorry they are slightly different.  Maybe somone could explain the difference in Bifidobacterium bifidum vs Bifidobacterium infantis?

[patient1011]

Well it looks like Align and culturelle are the same thing except culturelle has 10b, and align only has 1b and more expensive...

[michell221]

A good probiotic is culturelle or align.  I take one of each a day.  They do seem to help keep stools more regular.   You could try more fiber and see if it helps.  The infection could have caused motility problems with your GI system.  This often takes a while to correct itself.  Some people are better in 6 months - 1 year.  

[patient1011]

Also should I be eating more/less fiber and what type of probiotic should I eat?  I will be seeing a gastro specialist in a few weeks.  What should I ask keep records of.

[patient1011]

Well it was just a thought.  So now my next question is will this ever go away? How long will it take? Years?  I'm amazed that IBS is a diagnosis of "we don't know what you have".  I'm highly disappointed we don't more than we do as it affects 10% of the population.  What has the newest research discovered?  What are the possible culprits.

[B_Shel20]

The hemorrhoids and IBS are not related. The hemorrhoids may have been caused because of the stool, and straining to have them pass,etc, but hemorrhoids do not cause IBS.
IBS is a diagnosis of exclusion, which means its a fancy way of saying, "We dont know what you have, we only know you dont have anything that we can fix" in a nutshell anyway!

IBS causes pain in many ways. It can cause the colon to spasm, due to the nerves firing off pain when they shouldnt be(Kind of like a malfunction) it can cause pain due to excessive gas, or trapped gas. Gas gets traps at the bends in the colon and can cause pain. Also you have basic constipation and diarrhea that can cause pain. Pain is the most common symptom of IBS.

But again, hemorrhoids, no matter how big and how internal, will not cause IBS. If big enough and the stool is soft enough, yes, it can form the stools,etc. But thin stool is mainly caused by stools being loose and full of water.

What can you do to fix it? Yes, one thing is diet. Eat as healthy as possible. Keep a journal of what foods cause you to have more gas, pain or loose stools and avoid those foods. Try natural items to help with colon pain like peppermint.(Tea, altoids,etc) they are a natural anti-spasmodic. Also try digestive enzymes like beano to help prevent gas from starting, which is a culprit for IBS pain.

[patient1011]

OK so if it is IBS what actually causes the pain? What kind of pain is it?  

I have read up a bit on IBS and is unfortunate they don't know what causes it.  I tend to believe IBS being caused by an as-yet undiscovered active infection. I was a healthy individual before the infection.  What can I do about it?  I can start eating yogurt everyday.  I already eat pretty healthy.  Whole grain breads, fruit, and vegetables every day.

I'm sick of this pain. I want to smash its face in.

Thanks for your comment.

[patient1011]

I have a hypotheses. I was just reading about IBS and it seems that it can occur if the bowel does not get as much blood as normal.  I know I have gotten hemmeroids at the same time I got adominal pain symptoms.  I posit I may have gotten some internal hemmeroids that are cutting off some blood supply to bowels...  I know they are large enough to be causing my slim bowels...

Is the plausible?

[B_Shel20]

What you have is referred to as PI-IBS, or also Post Infection IBS. You got some illness that healed up, but IBS has now taken over. Google it and it should fit alot of your symptoms. PI-IBS will cause the same symptoms as IBS, and everything you have posted is symptomatic of IBS.