I need help

[bdb503]

Hi, im 19 years old and I have been experiencing on and off pain in my lower right side and sometimes underneath the belly button. A few times I have went to the bathroom and had blood on the tissue paper, but none in huge amounts all very very little, like a tear maybe from pushing. I also have been seeing yellowish-white strings floating on the top of the water and sometimes connected to my stool.

I recently went to the ER because I had a burning/stinging feeling in my lower right abdomen and they took a blood and urine test. My urine came out clean, they just told me to eat more bananas, and my white blood cell count was a 12 (the average is between 8-10). With the 12 blood cell count they knew that an infection was just starting but I have been having on and off pain/soreness in my right side for about 6 months now. The doctors gave me a CT scan and they said I might have appendicitis but they didn't sound too confident in their results. I stayed overnight and they gave me antibiotics. They took my blood again early in the morning and my white blood cell count had dropped to 9 which is in the average, and my pain was gone in my side, just a little tenderness. They told me they could do unnecessary surgery or send me home on antibiotics and have me come back in for an appointment. The antibiotics were Cipro and Metronidozole.

Now it has been 12 days since I left and 2 days since I finished up all my medicine. I have had very little pain in my side, I had an episode right before I went to bed after having a big chicken dinner one night and that is it. I also seen a spot of blood on the tissue twice in those 12 days on the same day both times. I am also still seeing the yellow stringy mucus in the toilet bowl though and it doesn't happen every time I use the restroom.

I just basically want to hear your opinions on this and what I should do. I have been eating a lot of bananas and it seems to be working and I have been trying to not think about it so much.

[FurballsMom]

IBS-C does that.  As long as you don't end up developing sensitivities to the OTC stool softeners, those help a lot.  But, food sensitivities also will continue to cause problems for people.  I ended up not being able to use the OTC stool softeners any more.  It isn't wise to use it too much, but on a temporary basis, one can use cascara sagrada (herb) in the lowest dosage to work as a stool softener.  However, you need to find out which foods are aggravating the IBS or the problems will not resolve.  I speak from experience.  I no longer get that mucous you're talking about because I'm more careful about what I eat.

http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=faq&dbid=30

[bdb503]

Thanks for the reply. Hopefully drinking water and watching what I eat helps. I have stool softener medicine and have yet to use it but I don't know if that would help much, guess I could give it a try.

What does the mucus stuff look like for you? I have seen mucus that is stringy and I have even seen like hunks of yellow mucus. could it just be food? I normally just eat a banana for breakfast, turkey sandwich with 100% ground wheat bread for lunch and I try avoiding the cheese, and for dinner its a normal meal normally with a vegetable on the side.