HealingWell
Search Close Search
☰

Post colonoscopy problems?

Support Forums
>
Fibromyalgia
✚ New Topic ✚ Reply
❬ ❬ Previous Thread |Next Thread ❭ ❭
Posted 3/1/2016 6:24 PM (GMT 0)
I'm such a mess. I've been a mess my whole life. By that I mean I've always been different. I've always had funky problems. I'm 66, have mod-severe osteoarthritis, bad feet, knees, hands. I have GERD and IBS. I have pelvic organ prolapse. I have TMJ and wear a mouth appliance and have sleep apnea and use cpap. I'm always struggling with some darned thing.

But I was "limping" along fairly okay. Then in October, I developed diverticulitis. I was treated with Cipro and Flagy for 1 week. Then developed a horrible mouth yeast and was on Diflucan for 3 weeks. But.......funny thing was, I felt GREAT during all that time! My bowels were finally normal, I had tons of energy..........life was good!

Then I had a follow-up colonoscopy. He said everything looked good, and he removed 4 small benign polyps.
But.........ever since then, my bowels have a hard time moving (even when they're soft), I pee all the time and am sometimes incontinent, and I have buzzing and tingling all over my body, and have aches and pains constantly EVERYWHERE........head to toe.

What happened??? At first I thought it was from the clean-out for the colonoscopy on top of the antibiotics, so I took probiotics for 2 months and ate a live-culture yogurt every day. No change.

Is this "JUST" fibromyalgia? I've had fibro for almost 20 years, and it's never been this bad.
Have any of you found that after any kind of procedure, your FMS just goes crazy?
To make it all worse, I have a doctor phobia.........so I haven't gone to see any yet. Most of my doctor visits in the past have been fairly useless.
I have had labs tested and everything looks good........CBC, lytes, thyroid, Vit D level, no inflamatory thing going on, etc.

Man, I'm in pain. Could my osteoarthritis be causing all this? I, unfortunately, can't take NAIDS, so I just take a little tylenol. This is such a bummer.

I know I should be happy I'm still alive at 66..........but there's so much I want to do that I can't, because of the pain.

I've been on sertraline for a long time. Could this be symptoms of it just not working any more? It bums me out thinking about changing SSRIs. It's not always easy.

Can you tell I'm depressed too? eyes
Sorry for the rant.

Any input or suggestions?
Thanks for listening.
Posted 3/1/2016 7:08 PM (GMT 0)
Cathy, first off, you are not a mess. If you are a mess then so am I. I always say I need a doctor of weird stuff. I can't tell you how many times I have gone to the doctor and either they don't know what is causing me the problem or they do know but there is no help available. It does get frustrating.

I was having severe pain in my back, hips, and raw nerve pain running down my legs. I almost couldn't walk and needed two canes in order to walk. All my muscles were screaming at me so I asked my doctor if I could take Robaxin, which is a muscle relaxer I used years ago. He said yes. Gave me a prescription for the generic version...Methocarbomol... and it has made a world of difference in my pain levels. The prescription said I should take two tablet four times a day. I only take one tablet twice a day! I don't have the typical side effects of muscle relaxers and not only is a lot of pain lessened, I have more energy. I think when we hurt so badly that we tense up and are always in this tense, tight muscle mode and that causes even more pain and is exhausting, too. So, maybe something like this could help you. It might even help with the bowel problems because muscles move the waste through the intestines through peristaltic movement. Just guessing here. I'm not a doctor but I do like to think out loud. turn

Sherrine
Posted 3/1/2016 7:11 PM (GMT 0)
Sorry to hear you had all these probelms come up following the test..

Some drugs can cause the digestive system to slow down , but that would in no way explain the bladder symptoms, i have known medications to also slow the bladder down...

Sounds like you will have to run this all past your dr again.

It has to be very hard when you can not take medication that you need...

This is a good place to talk through issues. I think many with chronic conditions can get dr phobic at times.

Lj
Posted 3/4/2016 12:15 AM (GMT 0)
Hi Cathy, I am sorry to hear you are going thru these symptoms. My thoughts are perhaps it came from the cipro. There are lawsuits around claiming it causes neuropathy with the buzzing, tingling, burning symptoms. I personally know a healthy young police officer who came down with weird neuropathy symptoms and chronic pain after using cipro. I hope you find answers and start feeling better.
Posted 3/7/2016 2:18 PM (GMT 0)
Thanks everyone, for your encouragement and suggestions.

What makes it all worse is that I have a doctor/test phobia.

I finally just made an appointment with my internist, who I like and trust, to help me sort out what approach I should take.
There are so many different systems involved and I absolutely hate going to each specialist and having them have tunnel vision with their specialty. That ends up costing thousands of dollars and getting way too much radiation from ct scans, etc. So I'm hoping my internist will help me sort things out and make a plan.

I know it must sound like I'm making lots of excuses. Who knows.....maybe I am. All I know is I love doing lots of things and can't do them anymore. I guess I'm always afraid I'll look like a hypochondriac. I really don't think I am. I just don't want to hurt all the time.

I think I probably had fibromyalgia long ago, and I went on a wild goose chase to figure out what was wrong. In the process, I've probably had at least 15 ct scans....which was a heck of a lot of radiation. I also had a couple radium treatments to my sinuses when I was 8 (thanks mom)...... So I'm really wanting to avoid any more radiation.......but so many doctors seem to not be able to tell anything without a ct scan anymore.

Sorry to whine so much. Spring is coming and I've changed my usual garden into a raised bed garden, so I'm looking forward to that.......but my hands are hurting so bad, I just hope I can do it. Gardening has always been so important to me.
I really do appreciate your support and suggestions. :)
Posted 4/1/2016 11:23 PM (GMT 0)
Cathy,

I so relate to what you're saying about each specialist and their tunnel vision! How did you find an internist? Are they like air traffic control? LOL You gotta laugh or you'll cry. I have GERD, and several years ago I had a pulmonologist tell me he thought I'd picked up something bronchial and wanted to do a bronchioscopy but he had to stand in line behind the gastro who was doing a colonoscopy and an upper endoscopy that same month. I never did get to my bronchial tubes...

I am 66 and have been blessed with good health for most of my life. I guess turning 50, having the recommended colonoscopy because my grandmother had CA, started complications. It was traumatic and I won't get into the details.

I think you are right to be wary of CT scans. It always seems necessary at the time, and then they want to do a follow up scan "just to make sure". Your gardening sounds very healthy - do you grow food? Do you still have GERD issues? I'm sorry if this is too chatty, and I wish you the best in managing the pain of your hands.
Posted 4/2/2016 12:03 PM (GMT 0)
Cathy, read my posts in the link below about how dill pickles and green olives help me with pain. This could help you too.

www.healingwell.com/community/default.aspx?f=24&m=3274470

Sherrine
✚ New Topic ✚ Reply