Hello! (A long story...)

Hi Everyone,

I just wanted to write a hello since I am new to the forum, I'm not sure yet if I'll be super active or if I'll mostly be reading, but I wanted to post something in order to get the opinions of all you experienced members :)

I am actually not sure if I'm posting in the correct area since I am yet to receive a definitive diagnosis, but I have tried to aim in the area most similar. I will tell you my story and I have a couple of questions, if anybody feels like answering them that'd be cool

So for the past few years I had a really bad problem with anxiety, and it led me to the stage where I was almost agoraphobic (this doesn't seem appropriate yet but all will become clear!). I had quite a fixation on my health because when the anxiety first manifested I only had the physical symptoms and not the emotional ones, so for example I felt sick constantly, blurred vision, palpitations, dizziness, etc etc. It was at this point that I had a bunch of tests for digestive related conditions due to my losing weight, but nothing was found. Thankfully now I have managed to work very hard to get myself to the stage where I would say I'm about 70-80% normal again (as close to normal as anyone is!), but my first question is this, I wondered if any of you with digestive issues or diseases have a history of anxiety or stress? Or a tendency? I can't help but feel like it would be a massive coincidence if my current health problems were entirely unrelated

The next little stepping stone that I had was this year, (ladies this is mostly aimed at you) when I started getting terrible pain in my abdomen when I had my period. It wasn't menstrual cramps, but rather a very very strong pain in my gut and especially when I had a BM. It only lasted for the first day but it was incapacitating, I couldn't do anything except lie on the floor and cry (dramatic, I know) I visited the nurse who suggested I make a doctors appt and prescribed me the mini-pill in order to relieve this problem - and it has mostly worked, I no longer get a period at all and it is pretty fantastic so long as I don't stop taking it. So this leads me to my second question, do any of you notice an increase in symptoms around that time of the month?

Subsequent to when this pain started, I then started passing mucous and a little blood and this was kind of the final straw before I said ok this is definitely in need of a consultation with my GP. Luckily I have a wonderful GP who is very calm and pragmatic, and he performed a DRE (which by the way was a pretty big deal for me considering my previous anxiety symptoms - I'm a little bit of a baby!) and said I have some inflammation and he thinks it may be proctitis.

Now, this is as far as I have gotten in the process and I am currently waiting on an appt with the hospital for further tests and perhaps a diagnosis. I honestly don't know what to think, because I don't seem to have any other symptoms. I never have diarrhoea, my bowel movements are relatively frequent but that is usually if I am nervous about something (which I think is the case with most people, healthy or otherwise) My blood tests were normal and I'm not anaemic, and apart from being a little tired I don't seem to be suffering to the extent of a lot of people with UC or Crohns, but then I read that proctitis is usually related to another IBD, so I am at a loss. At the moment I am eating a diet high in fibre in order to aide digestion which seems to be helping (things get much worse if I am constipated at all) and I don't seem to have any nasty side effects

Anyway! I apologise for this extremely lengthy post!! I just wanted to get the opinions of some people who are experiencing some of the same things as me. If anybody feels like replying I'd appreciate that :)

Many thanks
Chris

I wondered if any of you with digestive issues or diseases have a history of anxiety or stress? Or a tendency?

For me the answer is no, no anxiety or stress issues at all but I did have a high stress job. That may sound like a contradiction but since stress was normal for me (and many adults) it didn't seem causal. Of course it may have been a contributing factor.

Hormones may have also contributed since I was going through menopause at the time I got UC. Again perhaps a contributing factor.

There is a strong mind-gut relationship but who knows which came first for you. Did your gut send signal causing anxiety or did your anxiety signal your gut to act up? Most of us treat the symptoms until some genius figures it out.

I believe antibiotics killed off my gut flora, especially Cipro, was my greatest causal factor but stress and hormones were there too.

Post Edited (imagardener2) : 8/7/2014 10:07:26 AM (GMT-6)