Hello Doctors and fellow members. I would first like to thank all of you in advance for reading and addressing my questions.
I am a healthy, 34 year old male, and not allergic to anything as far as I know. I have ever so often had some mild burning reflux if I eat too much of the wrong thing or too close to bed, but to my knowledge I am not having serious problems with this.
WEEK 1: My story actually began with some middle back pain which started around 3 or 4 weeks ago. I have always had considerable back trouble but mostly just annoying opccasionally, but this was certainly the most nagging case I had ever experienced. Around a week after the back pain, I developed a sinus infection and went to an urgent care facility and was prescribed Cephalexin (500mg capsules) to be taken for 10 days. I barely made it to day 5 before some cramps and diarrhea kicked in. I was advised to stop the Cephalexin. I was additionally given Methocarbamol (nonaddictive muscle relaxant) to help with the back pain, although it seemed to have little affect on the pain after 3 days. I had blood drawn and an ultrasound done on my stomach which showed nothing, (though there was a little "sludge" in my gallbladder, though not noteworthy of anything).
WEEK 2: Still having loose stools (less diarrhea, but still very fluffy and loose (sorry for the details), and I went to get a back Xray (which showed nothing) and was given Celebrex and stopped the Methocarbamol. By day 3 of the Celebrex, the back pains ceased, but unofrtunateIy, I began having considerably more stomach trouble. Much of anything I ate, particularly dairy, made my stomach sound like Jaba the Hut. Stools alternated from diarrhea to partially solid (fluffly), but we at this point looking very thin and had a darker yellow color to them. Upon seeing my Primary dcotor again, he gave me a GI cocktail which helped, although I was asymptomatic that morning - figures huh?, and he told me to stop Celebrex and began me on prescription omeprazole (20 mg) once daily for a month and then to see if my problems improve). Around this same time I bought the best probiotic I could find at the health food store (refrigerated with over 40 billion strains or something). It was actually recommended to me buy the folks there as being one of the top ones. I did wake up one morning after eating just before bed with a terrible pain in my upper middle stomach (felt like where the esophagus would end), but it has since gone away.
WEEK 3: back to primary doctor, and I was still complaining of some mild stomach discomfort, back pain. Stools still a yellow color with thin, fluffy consistency, though not really any diarrhea. Back pain still off and on. I was told to continue omeprazole, and to go ahead and begin taking a teaspoon of pepto bismol once daily until my stools began to look normal again. More blood was drawn to check my pancreas for pancreatitis, but it all came back clean. The next day I had a normal looking bowel movement, but of course it was very dark because of the pepto (which is a known side effect). I ate well all that same day, but maybe a little too well, because this morning I had more fluffy, watery stools that were skinny. The first of two BM's looked like a light brown and was more solid, but then the second which was more watery, had gone back to the thin, yellow color. This week I have had much more pronounced back discomfort at times. I basically have sleep on heating pad at night. It seems sitting for periods of time aggravates the pain, but stretching yields no results usually. I am especially afraid to try the Celebrex again due to risk of more stomach issues, however since I am on the omeprazole, could there be a reduced chance of this problem happening again?
My questions are as follows:
Should I be pressing to have more testing done?
Is this the result of a bad bacterial "wipeout" from the cephalexin?
Am I missing something else, such as potential pancreasis issues that I should be aware of?
Any help anyone can offer would be so greatly appreciated. I have to leave town for 3 months beginning Mar 21st and I just don't know if I can deal with this type of problem that entire time. It has increased my anxiety 10 fold and my wife and kids are beginning to see me withdrawn from the things I normally love to do. (I should also note I am also on .5 mg clonazepam daily since this started to keep my nervous mind at ease)
Any thoughts? Thanks so much!