Hey guys,
Just had an endoscophy (I think it is spelt), I walked in to 2 pretty hot nurses and a middle aged doctor who said right can you please tell me your symptoms? I had written them all down as follows:
1. Going to toilet 3-5 times a day
2. Constantly feeling sick / nausia
3. Bleeding on and off for at least a year, maybe 2
4. Low iron - which has caused shallow breathing, headaches and diziness
5. Mass in anus when straining
6. Pain in right side of stomach sometimes (I have broken the ribs on this side previously)
* I have taken 2 x iron tablets a day for 6 weeks and am feeling better
* I have taken hemroid treatment twice but it didn't help
He was really happy I'd wrote things down and kept the paper and added it to his file.
He said please follow my two nurses and they'll help you get ready for the prep. I said ok and they got my to take my trousers off and pull down my boxers to expose my ass... strangely I didn't feel at all nervous... just nervous as I spotted the size of the scope thing!!! So I was laying there with one nurse holding my head on a pillow and the doctor approaching with his scope before I felt the immense pain of the scope... I didn't actually expect any pain... but there was... a lot. Which afterwards I was told was a good thing. Then he said he was gonna pump air in me and again I felt pain and like I REALLY needed to go to the toilet... he spent a few minutes and then said ok, took it out and told me I could get dressed now.
He sat me down and said you deffinetly have piles which if they flare up and flare down would cause your stomach aches, multiple toilet trips and even your pain because if they stop you going or you resist the urge to go it will back up almost. I had heard all this before however so was a little worried he'd say "Nice meeting you, goodbye" at this point.
However he said, "I'm a little concerned you are anaemic because looking at you, you look a fit and in shape lad." He asked about my diet and said it seemed OK (I don't eat red meat though) and said what ever is causing it he wants to know why. He said it might be as simple as an inability to extract it from food, but he wants to rule out any kind of internal bleeding whether it's stomach related or not and he'd book me "a load of tests including a colonoscophy and if that is clear dietry related tests" to find out exactly what is going on...
I left the room and thought... oh crap... I need to go to the toilet, so I ran to toilet and went and got rid of all the gel stuff and saw it was mixed in with blood... I quickly went back and asked the doctor and he said that's good because the blood is coming from the area that he saw (because it was mixed with gel stuff) and that would mean that the blood I am seeing is from the piles he saw. I asked if that was why I was anaemic and he said no, it's blood, but not enough to make you anaemic.
So... I'm happy(ish)... my thoughts are I've only ever seen bright red blood... he saw where the bright red blood was coming from and that really does help me mentally feel better. I was worried the mass was a cancer and it obviously wasn't therefore I can stop freaking out about that... I'd say that is my two main symptoms gone (rectal bleeding and a protruding mass) so now it's just anaemia to find out and then I'm clear I guess.
I just want to say a big thank you to people here, you've really helped me with this. If it wasn't for you guys I would have never found out I was anaemic and I can't describe how bad I felt during my lowest times... like literally fainting on a few occasions... I'm only 6 weeks into iron treatment, but I'm feeling so much stronger already... hopefully I will get the rest of my tests done and then I'll be cleared