Serious Anxiety Over Stomach / GI Issues. My life isn’t enjoyable anymore :(

[tjf]

I’ll preface this by saying I’ve been diagnosed with panic disorder / GAD in the past, when I was 16. At that time I was convinced there wa something wrong with my lungs, after I had a panic attack from weed. Several lung/heart doctors later, I turned out fine, and never really worried about it again (or if I did, I was able to get over it within the hour). So I do have a history of stuff like this.

But this time, it just feels so real :/

I’m gonna try and keep this short, but it might end up long

This all started when I got sick back in late January / Early Feb. I was just starting college full time at night. I’m a non-traditional student - 26, also working full time during the day. Its worth mentioning I absolutely hate and am completely miserable at my job. So much stress comes from it.

Anyway, I had this sinus infection I couldn’t kick (this leads into stomach issues I promise), which me to believe I had something serious going on.

After my 3rd visit to the doctor, he prescribed me antibiotics and I was on my way. About a half a week into the medication, I started to notice small white “balls” when I went to the bathroom. This seriously freaked me out and led me into the Google Oblivion we all know so well. This is were my problems really kicked into over drive.

Eventually I noticed small streaks of blood on the stool and also floating blood once.

I went back to the doctor and he did a test check with his finger, an on the spot test for blood, and a stool test, looking for C-Diff. All tests came back clear, and he diagnosed me with IBS. This, of course, as health anxiety sufferers know so well, almost completely calmed my symptoms, and eventually they slipped to the back of my mind.

Fast forward a few weeks I go to the dentist. X-rays show I have an infected tooth that is messing with my sinus. This of course leads me into another freak out and more antibiotics. About 3 weeks worth. During that time, the tooth gets taken care of. My anxiety over that starts to fade.

Surprise surprise, my throat starts to hurt and lasts almost a month. I went to an ENT doctor, sinus looks good, throat looks fine, says it could be acid-reflux related. This throws me back into the frenzy over my stomach. I started to experience (and am currently going through) these symptoms:

Mucus in stool
Mucus mixed with blood in stool (only once)
Blood on stool if you look close (like it’s a part of it?)
Blood on paper
More recently lower right back pain on hip?
Middle back pain (my bed recently broke and it is dipped in the middle so honestly maybe that’s the cause of it?)
I also noticed like small black areas on the stool (not the tarry stuff or fully black stools, I looked up pics of the bad stuff ) - it’s kinda like mixed in with it, hard to explain (please no triggers on this! I know black stuff can mean bad, but as mentioned I looked up pictures of the bad stuff and it looks way different)

I have a GI appointment August 6th but that just seems so far away :(

Anyone else out there who have/had similar symptoms? This is all so overwhelming :( I feel like I hadn’t been able to enjoy my life in so long

[WiseMonkey]

Hi and sorry you are going through all this. I'm not a Dr but the symptoms you're experiencing could be autoimmune related, which is exacerbated by stress.

I've had most of the symptoms you've had over the years and I was diagnosed with CFS (Chronic Fatigue Syndrome) which is fairly easy to handle.

I would urge you to follow through on the blood in your motions, bright red means it's localised, but I'd push for a colonoscopy. At your age it's not going to be anything serious but it should be checked. Again autoimmune conditions can cause this as well as hemorrhoids and fissures, which are common complaints. Mine didn't happen all the time, it was caused by over activity of the bowel which pulled mucus and blood through the mucus lining of the large intestine. I got this in my early 30's but haven't had it now for over 15 years.

All of these things can cause major stress and yes it's overwhelming but try not to worry too much. The 6th August is less that 2 weeks away now.

By the way how is your sleep?

[tjf]

Hi and sorry you are going through all this. I'm not a Dr but the symptoms you're experiencing could be autoimmune related, which is exacerbated by stress.

I've had most of the symptoms you've had over the years and I was diagnosed with CFS (Chronic Fatigue Syndrome) which is fairly easy to handle.

I would urge you to follow through on the blood in your motions, bright red means it's localised, but I'd push for a colonoscopy. At your age it's not going to be anything serious but it should be checked. Again autoimmune conditions can cause this as well as hemorrhoids and fissures, which are common complaints. Mine didn't happen all the time, it was caused by over activity of the bowel which pulled mucus and blood through the mucus lining of the large intestine. I got this in my early 30's but haven't had it now for over 15 years.

All of these things can cause major stress and yes it's overwhelming but try not to worry too much. The 6th August is less that 2 weeks away now.

By the way how is your sleep?

I hope it’s not autoimmune that sounds scary D:

And my sleep is pretty bad haha, get about 4-5 hours a night, sometimes more sometimes less. I go to bed late, and have to wake up too early for work. Sometimes I can’t sleep because of anxiety for work the next day.

I should mention I also had 2 blood tests done a few months ago and they came back good (one was a basic one, the other more in depth)