Urgent; Need help

I've been having a lot of issues with my stomach and bowels, and lately losing a significant amount of weight, and plenty of blood in stool. I'm thirsty all the time, and am really sensitive to pressure on my abdomen.

I don't have health insurance, and was able to fork out money to see a GI doctor, and he believes I am probably suffering from UC/CD, but can't give me a colonoscopy because it would cost thousands of dollars, up front.

I've been to the E.R., and all they've done for me is tell me that I'm not immediately dying, and that they don't do colonoscopy's in the ER.

I'm at my wits end. I don't know what to do. I have an appointment with the county clinic in a couple of weeks to see if I'm eligible to be covered by them, but the process is going to take a while, and I'm really freaked out. After I may or may not be eligible, I still have to see a doc there, and then get the scope done a few days later.

I'm really scared, and I don't know much of anything about UC.

Any help? will I make it a few weeks? I get really, really lightheaded a lot, especially after the GI pressed on my abdomen. Each day is becoming an eternity and is challenging. I've had blood work checked for anemia and blood sugars, of which came out normal, they also screened me for cancer, negative.

I've had abdominal X-rays and an abdominal CT done with some kind of IV dye while in the E.R. I never saw any pictures or had any lengthy conversation with the doctors about these, but what I've been told was that the X-ray showed that I'm significantly backed up with stool, including what appeared to be calcified stool. The CT "did not show any abnormalities" although I was also told that the CT wouldn't really show ulcers unless they were "really big and open"(I don't know what that means?)

They gave me stool softeners, Magnesium Citrate, and oral Mineral oils to take to try to clear me out, which I took 250mg of Colace per day for a few days, still didn't notice much stooling, so I was advised to take 10 fl oz of magnesium citrate and the mineral oils, which I did. A few hours later, I had many hours of extreme dhiarrea(sp?), but didn't notice any hard stool passing at all. It's been about 24 hours since passing the last of the diahrrea and I haven't stooled at all since. I haven't taken any more of anything out of fear of dehydration and the pain/discomfort of the experience.

I don't know what to make of all this, or what to do, or when to go back to the E.R. (I have several thousands due to the E.R., so I don't want to unless they're actually going to do something for me, or it's undeniably medically necessary) or how I'm going to hold up. I feel really bad sometimes. Sometimes I feel ok.

I've been losing weight for at least a month or two, I used to weigh almost 180, now I weigh about 155, which I haven't been that low weight since before high school, I'm 5'10'', 21 years old, male. I've been noticing blood in my stool here and there for a month or two, told my regular physician who did a rectal exam a month ago and said I had bleeding hemmies, but since I've been to the E.R. their rectal exam didn't show bleeding from a hemmy, but showed that I do have one. I've been noticing more and more blood a lot more often the past week or two. A lot of mucous too. One time a week or two ago I had stool that was hard, and had dark stool swirled in with light stool, looked like a marble effect. I guess I won't go into too much more detail since no one here is an M.D., but I figured to put myself out there with as much info as I can think of because maybe someone will think or see something that tells them that either I'm possibly O.K., or has had UC/CD/IBD and had to go to the E.R. because of something I have experienced.

Any ideas? Any help of any kind will be greatly appreciated, I don't know what to think, if I'm in real medical danger, when to go back to the E.R. if I have to, if anyone else has had challenges with getting colonoscopies/UC work done without insurance and can give me a hand, it would help me beyond words.

Thank you for your time, I know it was a long read

UC and Crohns both have similar treatments. The cheapest one is prednisone but it is not something that you should be on longterm. While a colonoscopy is very helpful in a diagnosis, especially in helping to determine between UC or Crohns, your doctor could try treating you as if you do have one or the other without the procedure and see what happens. As I said the treatments are similar anyway. Good luck.

perhaps if you indicate where you live, what country, state, someone in that area may know of other resources. there are people from all over the world on this forum.
Hope you find relief and answers soon.

A tender abdomen is pretty common with both UC and CD. It's just a sign of possible inflammation. Perhaps you are getting lightheaded because you are anxious about all this? It would be understandable. But it is within your power to do some calming exercises, take deep breaths and push away the panic.

None of this warrants a visit to the ER. If you start vomiting to the point where you cannot keep down water, or if you have so much diarrhea that you become dehydrated, that is when you visit the ER.

If you are very constipated, you should continue to use the stool softeners (miralax) and drink plenty of fluids. Get up and walk around as much as you can. If you were able to empty your bowels with the mag citrate, it is not surprising that you had no stool for 24 hours. Plenty of people go days between bowel movements, and while it's not pleasant, it's not a pathology either.

Since you are 21, you are still eligible to be carried under your parent's health insurance.

Sorry to hear Inuk,

try to remain calm in this tough situation, and take care of yourself by getting plenty of water, rest and relaxation time.

If you're feeling lightheaded at least keep a bottle of water handy, maybe smart water or gatorade with the addition of electrolytes. I was thirsty prior to diagnosis in the beginning of all of this and couldn't make sense of it. It's likely that your whole system is taking a beating, and its haywire right now, flushing so much out of your system because your body signals an invader.

Ask your current doctor or even pharmacists about getting you on some medicine to take care of the acute inflammation thats going on right now.

Are you parents not willing to help you out financially in this time of crisis?

Hope you can get this under control.

Here's a place where you can search for free or low cost clinics in your area:

http://www.needymeds.org/free_clinics.taf

Maybe you'd be able to find some help that way.

Diarrhea is more common with UC than constipation, but inflammation can cause that too.

Most of the cost of scoping is the hospital cost. Could you GI do a FlexSig in the office for less?

Thirsty is usually dehydration (from Diarrhea) or high blood sugar form diabetes. But your blood sugar was normal any you do not report diarrhea.

Lightheaded is usually form anemia or just plain blood loss (i.e., low blood pressure). But, you report no anemia, and presumably they checked you BP. Possibly it is a form of pain response.

The blood could just be form the hard calcified stools. With UC there is often lots of blood and mucous between bowel movements with actual poop.

The lack of hard stool is the most alarming thing. On the one hand the x-ray shows what appears to be hard calcified stool. On the other hand, no hard stool comes out with all the mag citrate diarrhea. Either it dissolved and the x-ray overstated the issue, or it was something else and it is still there. I think this is what you should work to clarify. While I hate to encourage use of the ER for diagnostic purposes, it would be interesting if a new x-ray showed whether the mag citrate did or did not remove what they thought was calcified stool.

Good luck.

Great! I'm glad I could help and I hope you get some answers soon.

Inuk, I'm glad you have found a way forward. If it's any consolation to you, most of us have travelled a long and winding road to our diagnoses also.