C.diff or Proctitis?

Hello All,

I was diagnosed with proctitis about 8 years ago. I also had c.diff colitis twice, right before my proctitis diagnosis. My biopsy at the time was inconclusive for UC but some genetic testing told the doctors it was likely the proctitis was a UC variant.

I've been fine all these years until recently. My husband and I both either had a mild stomach virus or ate something bad. He recovered fine but I wound up with lingering symptoms. It started out having pretty severe rectal pain and an urgency to have a bowel movement. Sometimes the stool was normal and other times I'm passing tiny bits of stool with lots of mucus. I increased my probiotics and things seemed to ease up a bit until the last two days. For the last two days I haven't had any normal bowel movements. I just get a feeling in my rectum like I have to go but I just pass tiny bits of what looks like stool and some mucus. Overall, this has been going on for two weeks. The only other symptom I have is some bloating. There hasn't been any blood yet but I feel it will come soon. The inside of my rectum feels like it's burning.


I don't live in the same place I did 8 years ago so I need a new GI doctor. I'm calling my primary care doc tomorrow for a referral. That might take a few days or a week or so to get in. All I have is a prescription hemorrhoid cream. Do you think I should ask my primary guy to test my stool or should I wait to see the GI doctor? Does this sound like a proctitis flare? I should mention that both time I tested positive for c.diff I never had diarrhea. My symptoms always seem atypical for whatever I get. My bouts of c.diff and proctitis were almost identical. Either way I'm feeling depressed. I really thought I'd never get this again. I've been a stay at home mom for 13 years-mostly to help with one of my kiddos who has special needs. We've been financially strained for years. We're finally at a point where my son is doing extremely well and I'm ready to go back to work full time. I can't even think about going on interviews until I get this under control. I'm worried the new GI doc will want to do a colonoscopy. Not only am I a nervous patient but I really can't afford that right now as we're paying off other hospital bills.

Anyway...thanks for listening.

Post Edited (Sunflowergrl) : 9/16/2018 7:21:38 AM (GMT-6)

I would call your GP and request a stool test to check for infectious causes, like c diff (tell him/her that you have a prior history of c diff). I would also ask for a Fecal Calprotectin stool test to measure if you have any intestinal inflammation.

It's possible your new gasteroenteroligist might ask for a colonoscopy. You can ask for an un-sedated flexible-sigmoidoscopy instead, which is a lot more affordable (about $500 for flex sig, versus thousands for a colonoscopy). You have only proctitis, so it was only rectum involvement before and might still be. A flex-sig does the entire left-side and can peak/slightly go into the tranverse colon (covers roughly half of the large intestine's length). A colonoscopy goes the entire length.

Often c diff and flare symptoms are identical, and only diagnostic tests will tell which it is.