Well, just spoke to my doctor. She went through the blood tests (full blood count, kidney function, liver function, thyroid function, and two types of test for inflammatory markers). She said they were some of the most perfect blood results she'd seen, and the only one that wasn't absolutely perfect was one of the haemoglobin counts. But she didn't seem at all concerned by that so I presume it was just not 'spot on' and not actually outside the realms of vaguely normal, and that as the rest came back normal it probably isn't worth worrying about. If it had been a concern they'd at least have suggested testing the levels again now, I would have thought, since that was a month ago.

She asked me a lot of questions that I could answer no to ("is there any blood in your stools?" "are you experiencing any pain?" "is there a family history of any inflammatory bowel disease?" "are you throwing up?") and basically said that none of my symptoms were ringing any alarm bells, though she understood that they weren't normal for me and that it was upsetting/frustrating. She said that although it's more commonly seen in children, she suspected that the gastroenteritis had damaged the lining of my intestine (which is what I thought) and it was taking a while to heal. When I mentioned that I thought I was also lactose intolerant she said that supported the 'damaged intestinal lining' idea. Apparently everything I'm experiencing is pretty much consistent with that - I told her I'd always had a slightly 'sensitive' stomach and she said that's probably made me more susceptible to this kind of thing after a nasty bug. She also mentioned that bugs can set off IBS, but trying not to focus on that bit as that just sounds too long-term even though I know you can have a temporary post-infective kind of IBS. She also confirmed that both hormone levels and stress can affect bowel function.

Basically she doesn't think it's cause for alarm, just annoying (agreed!), and she says to give it a month and then maybe come back in if I'm no better. I'm really hoping that I will be, as I think I'm a bit better than I was a few weeks back.