Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with gastrointestinal

Might Metafilter Mitigate My Metformin Misery?

Lord Widebottom — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 12:14:59 -0800

So there is this lovely drug called Metformin that I take to help control the ole blood sugar and it works a treat. However, it seems to be leaving me with a constant low grade stomach ache and very very frequent Diarrhea. My Doctor and I have experimented with lowering the dose but it does not seem to make much difference. This is a known side-effect of the drug, but I am reluctant to start changing things and risking introduction of new side-effects or lose some of the effectiveness of my current cocktail since it does a good job of keeping the numbers where they should be.

Has anyone out there experienced this issue and found a way to help minimize the side effect? (besides taking it with food, which I do)

Ugh. Make it stop!

missuswayne — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 11:05:47 -0800

How do I heal my gut? I have a history of IBS, and years ago I had an H. Pylori infection. After the infection was taken care of my gut was good for several years, no real issues to speak of. Since I had my kids a few years ago, my tummy's been on a bit of a rollercoaster, especially in the last year. Recurrent gas, terrible sharp pains an hour or two after eating, alternating diarrhea and constipation. Thought it was gluten (nope), dairy (nope), coffee (nope).

Coincidentally (or not?) I've been on antibiotics several times in the last 4 or 5 years, and I've had about 7 or 8 courses in just the last two years. I have severe allergies and have taken the antibiotics for recurrent sinus infections.

I now suspect that perhaps the antibiotics have obliterated the good bacteria in my gut. I eat yogurt (Stonyfield) most days, and I'm trying to increase my exercise (to get my intestines moving regularly and normally) but I'm looking for guidance as to what other things I can do to heal my gut from the antibiotic assault.

(I know you're not my dr, I've got an appt with a gastro coming up. Just looking to get a jump on things.)

oh, poo

Anonymous — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 17:42:00 -0800

What could cause this particular intestinal condition? Yucky details inside. Let's put this straight as possible: I shit pebbles. Little piles of tiny turds. Maybe gravel, at largest. This is every day, quite regularly. I'm vegetarian, and I know I don't eat enough fiber, but even if I take Metamucil, nothing really changes. This has been going on for years, and is not painful or uncomfortable in any way. Just strange.

I know you are not my doctor. I know I should see a doctor, and maybe I will, when I find a primary care doctor I feel comfortable bringing this up with. But if anyone knows anything...well. Googling is not really helpful for this kind of question. Anonymous email set up at anonynony1@yahoo.com, if that's worth anything.

Digestion and the end result.

jason's_planet — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 11:43:56 -0800

This is a question about digestion and the end result. This is purely a matter of abstract curiosity. I promise not to provide too much information. OK . . . here goes:

At what point in the digestive tract does food start to resemble feces?

Is it in the large intestine? The colon? Does this vary for different types of food? Would yogurt, for example, convert to feces at a different point in the digestive tract than, say, a big piece of steak?

Does this vary for different people? Or is this point pretty universal?

Thanks for your time.

Oh, okay, I wasn't aware that anal bleeding was such a pedestrian concern-- thanks, Doc.

Anonymous — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 20:33:40 -0800

TMI Medical Filter: Previously, I had sometimes crippling stomach pain. That went away. Now I'm, uh, bleeding. Rectally. Um. Yeah. But my HMO doesn't seem to care all that much. MetaFilter is not my doctor, but I can't go to my doctor to ask... should I skip my HMO and go to the hospital? Demographics note: Caucasian male, 20 years of age, only other major prior health problem--familial (?) migraine headaches.

Around August, I started having these awful, crippling bouts of mid-torso (stomach-area) pain in the morning and night, accompanied by abdominal bloating and upper-back pain. This continued for a week until I stopped being a moron and went to see a gastrointestinal doctor through my HMO, who put me on a preliminary regimen of Prilosec and ordered a round of tests.

For awhile, these bouts subsidied (with no word from my doctor RE: my tests), but then mid-September they began again for no readily apparent reason, prompting me to schedule another appointment, which I was not able to get in until October. I learned that apparently turned up negative for my H. Pylori scan (which apparently is predictive of having an ulcer?), though my HMO/doctor lost (!) all of the other related tests (I don't even recall all of them--one of them was an "occult blood" test). My doctor quibbled about perhaps performing an endoscopy, but would not commit to any further orders.

With a significantly increased dosage of Prilosec, the painful episodes had until recently subsided into occasional odd, funny, light pain in my stomach that I had been unaccustomed to feeling prior, but nothing that interfered with going along my day-to-day business. I had largely put that out of my mind until a few days ago, when I started to bleed rectally at almost every defecation. This began as a few drops or a bloodiness of the feces, but in my very subjective perception seems to have gotten steadily worse day-by-day. Accordingly, I've made an appointment with my doctor, but it won't be for another two weeks!

I've been calling for the past few days to try to catch a dropped appointment or see if any doctors at associated facilities have openings, explaining my circumstances, but have had absolutely no luck. Today, my bottom-torso even hurts some.

My own self-diagnosis was Meckel's Diverticulum, but, uh, then I noticed that this is mostly diagnosed at youth, and really, I don't understand anything. The symptoms seem to match me exactly, though (minus the, uh, life-threatening ones, as far as I know).

These are a lot of words to ask: At one point should I say "fuck you!" to my HMO and decide to seek some ER help at one of my great local hospitals? Is this potentially life-threatening in the immediate term? Should I have said "fuck you" the moment I started bleeding? I'm worried about incurring unnecessary hospital costs as my family and I are in a difficult financial situation (though I'm lucky to have healthcare at all, I suppose). If it helps at all or if anyone has any experience working with them, my HMO is Kaiser and I live in the Northern Virginian area.

Belching, farting and other icky stuff. What the hell just happened to my gastrointestinal system?

Anonymous — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 14:50:22 -0800

Belching, farting and other icky stuff. What the hell just happened to my gastrointestinal system? Disgusting details inside. Starting about three weeks ago, my gastrointestinal system went haywire.

* In the mornings, I often must belch great huge belches that taste/smell like rotten scrambled eggs. Or perhaps an old malted milk.

* These belches often seem to be composed of unusual gases -- the sound of the belch is strangely higher in pitch than usual. I say "unusual gases" because the effect is similar to speaking after inhaling helium.

* I'm farting like a madman bent on suffocating those around me.

* There is diarrhea. There is bloating. There is abdomninal discomfort and gurgling. 'Nuff said.

* This all doesn't seem (to me, at least) to be related to any specific dietary change. I'm eating normally. I'm no health food nut, but nothing has obviously changed.

Just what the hell happened to me? More importantly, how do I make it stop?

I want my worm early!

Anonymous — Wed, 25 May 2005 16:50:52 -0800

Where/how can I get myself some pig whipworm eggs? I seem to just be coming out of ulcerative colitis remission (it seems to happen once a year or so) and I'd really like to try this apparently effective (but totally nasty!) treatment. But without, y'know, eating pig poop or something like that.

Capsule vs traditional endoscopy questions.

geoff. — Thu, 18 Nov 2004 12:05:49 -0800

So this upper-GI endoscopy thing I keep hearing about. Uh, is there anyway you can request one of those new capsule endoscopies? Apparently the also don't knock you out. Personally I'd rather have to swallow a capsule then have them snaking a tube down my throat while I'm awake. Can I demand being knocked out? Am I the patient that doctor's roll their eyes at? No apostrophe. Doctors. Dammit.

So yeah this is hitting one of those "phobias" that we all have. God is smiting me. Here's the conversation:

"So uh, they don't knock you out?"
"No."
"I see. This is stupid, how much does it hurt?"
"Well, many people have it done. You can still breath during it."

Well thank God, I won't suffocate. I want a capsule. My internet search results in it being FDA approved. How does one go about finding a doctor who does it? Can any doctor do it if I can find a place to order it? The doctors I'm dealing with are kind of, uh, "just do it, don't be a wuss."