OK so, I recently (Thursday evening) had an episode and it's got me Googling .. and in a lot of results I don't like what I'm reading, so I wondered if any of you guys could ease my fears.
I'm an almost 43 year old male and weigh just over 13 stone at 6' 2"
In the past I have had pancreatitis twice, so anything remotely wrong gets we worrying - the doctors came to no conclusion as to what caused it and have labelled it 'idiopathic' which I believe means 'we have no idea' .. and no, I'm not an alcoholic as every doctor that visited me on their morning rounds asked me about. I had an ultrasound in hospital both times and the first occasion they told me I had a fatty liver.
So, the other night I went for a meal, chinese all you can eat .. and I ate .. a lot! I drank 1 pint (well 3/4 of it) of lousy bitter.
After my 4th round (they were small plates!) I started getting a pain below my chest, so I stopped eating and rested. The pain grew worse and after about 30 minutes started to ease off slightly. Obviously I'd eaten too much and my stomach was likely stretching more than it should. I went to the toilet and did a number 2, nothing earth shattering, just a standard toilet visit and a small amount passed.
The pain subsided to a dull ache and I thought I'd wash it down with some ice cream (yes I'm that stupid!).
The pain didn't get any worse and I decided to quit while I was ahead.
After another 30 minutes or so we left. We said our goodbyes and I started to walk back with my friend to the car about 1/2 a mile away.
After only a few steps I got a pretty intense pain on the left side of my chest, it seemed to travel straight through from front to back. Every step I took was really painful. On the way back we walked past an ambulance and I almost stopped to ask but thought better of it .. didn't want to look stupid and be told it was just indigestion.
We got back to the car and he drove me home .. in pain.
I took a couple of indigestion tablets and some paracetamol with helpful reassurance (and a look of 'stop panicking you moron' that I thought I'd get from the ambulance) from the wife that it was simply indigestion.
I went to bed in a lot of pain and couldn't sleep on my left side but I did manage to get to sleep eventually.
In the morning the pain was still there although not anywhere near as bad. I went to work late (which was pre-planned).
The pain was with me all day, a colleague suggested it might be trapped wind so I went and bought some wind relief tablets.
It was on the Friday that I went to the toilet and noticed that there was a noticeable amount of mucus in my stool. The same has happened each visit (of which there must have been about 7 or 8 since, on one occasion today it looked like white ribbons around it).
I have had mucus in my stools before, normally lasting for maybe a few days and then clearing. Once my stool seemed really light too for about a week, like clay coloured as opposed to the normal dark brown. I visited the doctor on this occasion and was told to give it a few days and if it doesn't stop come back, this seems to be the standard response from my doctors about any problem I've had - seriously thinking of changing.
I have also had the same pain before, perhaps about 10 years ago, I remember it being even worse on that occasion, every few steps I took gave me such a sharp pain that I had to stop till it ended. I went to the out-of-hours surgery and the doc prescribed me painkillers but no diagnosis, can't remember what they were, I think they began with 'K' probably strong paracetamol.
It's now Sunday night and the pain is hardly noticeable unless I twist my body or overstretch but the mucus is still appearing.
So I guess my question is has anyone experienced this before? Is it likely that it is a symptom of IBS?