Hi, everyone. First off I just want to say I'm so inspired by your stories that I've been reading these last few days while trying to cope with my own anxieties. I don't have too many people to talk to about my concerns, because it just gets chalked up to "health anxiety" or that I'm being a hypochondriac, so I was wondering if I could get advice from some of you-just opinions, I know this isn't a medical advice community.
In June of 2017, I started having really bad cramping and diarrhea on a regular basis-up to 5 times a day for a week or more straight, so I went to my doctor. She ordered a stool sample, and it came back positive for something called Ambeonous Hyst. or something (I completely butchered that spelling, but it's a parasite infection). So she said that's probably why I was having my symptoms. So she gave me medications, and then it cleared up. I would have loose stools once or twice here and there, but for the most part, that kind of movement was normal for me. I started having the same kind of symptoms with the diarrhea in August (I guess 3 months after) so I went back to the doctor and did another stool sample, and it came back positive for the parasite yet again, so I went back on stronger medication, which seemed to clear it up.
However, from September to January 2018, I had random bouts of diarrhea-chalked it up to something I ate that did not agree with me, etc., but then at the end of January, it became more regular. I was having diarrhea up to 3 times a week, maybe twice a day. But it's weird because I will be fine for a few days, and then the diarrhea would come back, my stomach would feel weird, and then next day I was fine again.
I went to Mexico for a week earlier this month and literally ate what ever I wanted-anything and everything LOL-and I was fine all week, no diarrhea. Come back home, and the diarrhea has started again. So I went to my doctor two days ago and again she wanted to stool sample, so I just dropped them this morning. She said with this infection, sometimes it could linger, or I may have been reinfected. She also said maybe I development a low tolerance to Lactose and that maybe I should cut out all dairy for a week to see if that helps, because sometimes with intentional infections, your body can't tolerate lactose the same way as it used to, even if the infection goes away. So that test I will be starting tomorrow.
Also, throughout these bouts, in August of 2017, I started gaining weight due to some stresses-in total I've gained 40 pounds-I used to run every single day and exercise and eat healthy, but stopped in August and gained a lot of weight. I'm 33 years old. For one year I was eating healthy and exercising and lost 55 pounds, but then from August until now, I've just been eating a lot of junk food, fast food, not exercising, and gained a lot of weight.
I'm just really worried about it being cancer. I haven't noticed blood in stool, but I've read that sometimes it can be microscopic. I don't know what mucus would look like even if I had it, but I do notice that there is "FOAM" associated with my diarrhea; like it literally looks like soap... sometimes random bubbles or sometimes along the edges, so that kind of worries me. Sometimes I feel tired, but I don't know if it's related. I know the only way to really know if it's cancer or not is to do a colonoscopy, and even though I have good insurance, it will still cost me $1,500 out of pocket, so I started saving up for that just in case my doctor does want to send me for one. I asked her a few days ago if I should have anxiety about cancer, and she said she doesn't think that's what it is and that the symptoms I'm describing doesn't sound like it, but then again she isn't a GI.
Also, a few years back, I had an episode like this but it turned out that I had something called Giardia. But I'm thinking what if this whole time, it's just a coincidence that I had these infections, and really it was just the cancer starting from years ago!? Because I read online with the amber. hyst. parasite that I had, only 10-20% of people show symptoms of it-so maybe it just HAPPENED that I had that infection and my doctor thought all of this was because of that when really it was due to something more sinister happening.
I'm sorry for the long post, I just feel like everyone around me tells me "don't think the worst, don't be negative, etc., etc.," but I can't help but worry about it. If you made it this far, thank you so much for reading...