<b>"Well maybe you're having a tough time adjusting to life out of school. Now I sometimes have patients like this and the pain just goes away on its own." </b> -Shitty Gastroenterologist
"It's probably depression" -Shitty internal medicine specialist.
My response was, "I'm not sad about my life, I'm angry and frustrated because I'm in pain and constantly uncomfortable needing to shit. I'm about as happy as someone in this state can be, but it doesn't leave a lot of room for bliss here!"
The long story:
Had terrible stomach pain, everything was giving me bad diarrhea besides very simple foods with salt as the only spice, even a leaf of lettuce was too much. By severely limiting my diet and not drinking too much water, I was able to get away with being in the bathroom for about 2 hours each day. Stool smelled foul AF. Had no energy to even brush teeth most days.
After going to my doctor about 3 times and none of his ideas working (antacids, switching back to meat, aspirin, Gravol). I wasn't able to do much with this kind of suffering (life goes tends to get bad when one can't get up in the mornings, had to withdraw from University as I couldn't make it to class) so I stared smoking marijuana throughout the day so I could just get basics done. About a year later, my partner is concerned with my constant need for relief (both bathroom and marijuana) so I started going to my GP again, but this time refusing to go away. I kept making appointments every week, right after one finished asking, "so if this doesn't work, I'll just make an appointment for next week?"
I eventually get to see a gastroenterologist (8 months to refer, 3 months to wait to see her), she thinks I don't have enough anxiety to have IBS. Recommends a colonoscopy but warns that since I'm small, and that she likely won't find anything, there isn't much point. So of course I said why bother then? Gets jotted down as me refusing. Go back to her a few times, she sends me to another Gastro. He thinks an endoscopic ultrasound might show something so get that done. Here I am thinking great, I've finally got a doctor who is willing to explore. Go for the results, all looks very healthy, no colitas so I should even be able to eat what I want. I ask him about the constant pain and long bathroom time and this was the response, <b>"Well maybe you're having a tough time adjusting to life out of school. Now I sometimes have patients like this and the pain just goes away on its own." </b>
Surprise surprise it didn't. Switch GP's to one that's less caring and does a shit job of putting on a caring demeanour, but he actually seems to want to help solve my issues in a manner connected to my illness. Pushes for the colonoscopy with my gastro (the old one, I couldn't bring myself to go back to the second one without wanting to sock him). The test before going for it shows my issue, <I> C.diff </I>. Two weeks of antibiotics and I'm back to my old self. I found I had some other issues along the way. I'm intolerant to a set of carbs with the acronym FODMAP. Foods like garlic, onion and apples are loaded with them. I also have pelvic floor pain that I've found treatment for. But the antibiotics for the c.diff made the most difference. Now I only shit liquid if I eat the wrong food.
I had to learn to hide my discomfort over the years (or I would have been spending several years in my early to mid 20's with a sour face and constant groaning) and being brown with dreadlocks doesn't help anything. I also try to face everything as calmly and logically as possible. Maybe that's why my doctors had a hard time diagnosing? I'm accustomed to discrimination, from all kinds of people, for all kinds of things but this was next level. This is Canada, so at least it's all free, and I'm 2 months away from completing my degree. But at 31, if this had been caught earlier, I could have easily had a second degree by now or maybe even have gotten into and finished law school.
3,000 plus comments so I fully expect this to get buried. Thank for reading if you made it this far!