[Beeoner75]

Hello,I ran across this board last week and I must say that it is one of the greatest information resources on the web in regards to IBS. It has helped me understand some of what I am going through since alot of you have the same problems that I have. Here is my story.I'm a 30yr old male, and I know that I have health anxiety. I tend to worry about every ache or pain and then assume it's a catastrophic illness with no cure. Back in early March I over heard a friend of mine talking to a guy about some man that was diagnosed with colon cancer at the age of 45 and he was in bad shape. Being the worrier that I am, I totally took it to heart and assumed that I too was at risk. So immediately I became "bowel obsessed" and paid close attention to size, shape, color and even frequency of my stools. But I felt great for the most part. Well later that week, I fractured my foot playing basketball and ended up in a cast. Subsequently I had to miss a week off work due to the injury until I could be assigned to light duty. So during that week without much mobility I turned to the internet and before you know it I was living on the webMD website. I looked up every form of cancer that I could think of and assumed that I had all of the symptoms. I then began to notice that some of my stools were flat and somewhat soft. I took that as being the "pencil thin stool" symptom of colon cancer and immediately saw my PCP two days later. I was embarassed to talk about it with him but did so and he told me that I worry WAY too much. He went ahead and did the digital rectal exam and said that everything appeared fine. He then gave me a referral to a GI to ease my mind.So a week and a half later I develop strep throat and have to go back. Probably the worst pain that I have ever felt in my life. At that point my bowel habits were normal although I paid very close attention to them. Well the Dr. put me on antibiotics for 10 days at 1700mg a day. My infection cleared up in 2 days but I had to take the pills for 8 more days. During that time I noticed a change in my bowel habits. I didn't have D but I had to go to the bathroom alot due to the feeling of incomplete evacuation. I also realized that it took longer for me to have a BM. My last dosage of the antibiotics was on 4/1 and I still have the "incomplete" feeling everyday and some back pain on both left and right sides.I cancelled my GI appointment back in March once I did some research on GI disorders that mentioned that flat stools were common in IBS due to the colon contracting. My stools went back to normal and I felt better. But now with the stress of having this broken foot and what seems like constipation and pain off and on, I rescheduled the visit to the GI and I go tomorrow. I am really freaking out as to what I have. I read a few posts on the bb about how antibiotics caused people to have IBS and my symptoms seem to suggest that what I am going through is possibly that. Yet I am so nervous about seeing the GI in fear that it could be something else. I'm sorry for rambling on. All of you seem like a good bunch of people and I was hoping that you could give me any insight to what I'm going through. Any help is appreciated.Thanks,Bee (James 1:1)

 

[Guest]

Antibiotics and some pain medications (particularly the narcotics) can disrupt the functioning of the colon. If you are taking pain medications that have narcotics in them that typically causes constipation (in fact Imodium and Lomotil which are for diarrhea act on the same receptors in the gut as the narcotics do, but tend to stay in the gut)For the most part, for most people these changes go back to normal after a while off the medications.Most people have a fairly wide range of stool shapes, colors, and frequencies as a part of normal life so try not to spend too much time looking. Since everyone has variations it is pretty easy to get worried if you look in the toilet bowl too much.K.