lower back pian, abdominal pain, diarrhea, and black stools
Ok.
Diahrea started over a month ago, severe and watery/abdominal pain and discomfort while having bowel movement.
2 weeks later-- watery/greyish green.
3 weeks later- diahrrea stops a little..only happening once every couple of days. Though still having discomfort (sick and achey feeling) during bowel movements.
4 weeks later-- bad episode of diahrrea-explosive/watery/sulfer smell. Bad abdominal pains and lower back pains.
Currently- stools formed normal but black/ lower back pain and abdominal pain.
The only thing that concerns me is the back pain and diahrea with it.
Or should I be concerned at all.
I am only 22 and have no medical coverage..
I have been eating like I always do...
Maybe its an iron thing (considering some stools do float)? a parasite? should I be concerned about a possible tumor at my age?
What I'm worried about the most is the black stools. When you mean black, do you mean black like asphalt, or there was just a few black spots in the stool?
The black stools can be caused either by iron pills (I'm not sure if you're taking any) or bleeding somewhere in your intestinal tract. This should definitely be investigated by a doctor. It sounds like you may be developing inflammatory bowel disease (NOT, I repeat, NOT irritable bowel disease) and will need to get this treated. As I say, however, in all my posts on subjects like these, I am not the one investigating you, and it is best for you to go to a doctor and have the proper tests done and then see what the result is.
Is it possible to have cancer at your age? Yes. Is it likely? Not in the least! This is much more likely to either be:
Inflammatory bowel disease
Some type of infectious colitis (lingering intestinal infection)
Irritable bowel syndrome (which I place at the bottom of the list because of the black stools).
You did mention something about an "iron problem"...do you take iron pills? Because if you do, that might be the cause of your black stools, but if you don't it might hint at the fact that you're anemic because you're losing blood through the GI tract.
Have you been having any other symptoms like: rash on your legs? joint pain? eye pain?
Another reason why I was thinking that you might be developing inflammatory bowel disease was because you mentioned back pain. Often, IBD is associated with problems in other areas of the body in the acronym MESO.
M = Musculoskeletal system....lower back pain, and other joint pain.
E = eyes (something called iritis where your eye is inflamed)
S = skin (you can get rashes on your legs and feet)
O = Other (i.e. inflammation at random other parts of the body)
No, I dont take iron pills...
In fact, some stools float (which I heard meant lack of iron).
See.. they are going from dark green to black and back to dark green.
No its not specks... its all black/dark green with just a couple of specks of brown.
I think whatever I have is making my stomach sensitive too. I got very ill last night..my stomach and had more severe stabbing abdominal pain. Still have pain in my lower back as well.
Im too worried about taking pain pills because it upsets my stomach.
When I could use to take 4 ibprofin no problem... I can barely take one.
Ive had to stop all my anti-deprresant meds and migraine medications because everything just upsets me now.
I have no insurance, and was laid off.
::sighs::
is there any home remedy I can use to at least fix me up for awhile until I can afford the hospital?
You sound as if you may have the same illness I have recently been diagnosed with. It is called Celiac Disease. It's an autoimmune disease, though thankfully very easy to treat and control. My symptoms are watery diahrrea almost every day, low back pain especially after being on my feet for 10 minutes or more, nausea, headaches, trouble walking at times, fast heart rate, weight loss, and a generally ill feeling. You may have some of these symptoms and not others, but still it may be Celiac. See a doctor as soon as you can and ask for blood work to see if Celiac is indicated. If it is, have a small intestine biopsy and go from there. The treatment for this is a gluten-free diet, which you could try now although I'd still suggest you not put off seeing a doctor. Even if it's not Celiac, you need to know what it is. I know what it's like, I'm young and just recently got insurance, but even if you can't pay right away, this is too important.
Originally posted by gillian30: You sound as if you may have the same illness I have recently been diagnosed with. It is called Celiac Disease. It's an autoimmune disease, though thankfully very easy to treat and control. My symptoms are watery diahrrea almost every day, low back pain especially after being on my feet for 10 minutes or more, nausea, headaches, trouble walking at times, fast heart rate, weight loss, and a generally ill feeling. You may have some of these symptoms and not others, but still it may be Celiac. See a doctor as soon as you can and ask for blood work to see if Celiac is indicated. If it is, have a small intestine biopsy and go from there. The treatment for this is a gluten-free diet, which you could try now although I'd still suggest you not put off seeing a doctor. Even if it's not Celiac, you need to know what it is. I know what it's like, I'm young and just recently got insurance, but even if you can't pay right away, this is too important.
I agree that Celiac disease should be on the differential, but it doesn't rank as high as inflammatory bowel disease. You don't get the same black stools with CD, and you won't get all the other associated joint pain that was mentioned in the first post. However, that is a common bowel disease and it has to be investigated by the GI guy.
...and by the way, stools don't float because of a lack of iron. They float because there is a lot of gas or mucous or fat (the last one is if you have some kind of absorption problem) contained therein.
The two main things that made me curious about the possibility for Celiac were the floating stools and low back pain. I've had extreme joint pain with my celiac disease, which may or may not be common in general, but it was always a part of it for me. I'm not as familiar with other bowel disorders, however. I'm assumiing these symptoms could fit alot of illnesses, though.
Though the back pain is still there, its not as bad unless I have bad cases of diahrrea.
I generally feel ill to my stomach now. Im afraid to eat or take any pain medications.
(and no--Im not taking any meds)
In fact Ive prolly lost weight just because I know its just going to go right through me so I just dont eat much.
I havent had black stools today (do you get it every day)..... but Ive had Grey and Green? mainly all grey... like.. really grey. (they are loose as well)
I dont know... maybe its just a parasite.
Ill go to the doctor as soon as I can get some money.
Thanks everyone...
if anyone wants to pop in some more comments, symptoms, or questions.. feel free.
lower back pian, abdominal pain, diarrhea, and black stools 
