Hello, my name is Jared Asselin and I am 23 year old male living in Ontario, Canada and this is my medical story. I have no known hereditary issues.
Around early may I got back from the gym one day and after defecating I noticed a tight sensation deep within me that got stronger and stronger until it almost hurt. The sensation started to dissipate after the next 2 or 3 days but from that day on I would be constantly bloated and constipated with many other recurring on and off symptoms. In the beginning it was constipation, bloating, pain during bowel moments and slight bleeding (a small stain on toilet paper). I had no idea what the cause was and waited to see if it would go away on its own as id never had anything like this before and my usual way of dealing with new problems relating to my body that were not severe was to wait and see if it would go away about a week to a week and a half on their own, It did not. I called my family doctor and explained to him what had happened, we thought it was a possible hemorrhoid issue and he prescribed me to take a basic over the counter laxative, senokot constipation medication, two tablets a day. After about a month into the treatment which I followed as well as trying a low FODMAPs diet I noticed the bloating and pain to dissipate, trapped gas was leaving easier and more frequently until one day I woke up and I was symptomless, this was around probably early to mid June.
I thanked my doctor and I went back to eating normal and taking no medication as I thought the problem was solved, however it was short lived as my symptoms came as quickly as they left about 3 weeks to a month later. I immediately started back on my medication and the low FODMAP diet but I did not notify my family doctor right away (which was a mistake) as I thought that it would once again go back to normal. After about a month I noticed something was off, not only were my symptoms not improving as much as they did before but new ones were popping up and leaving. My eyes would start to burn and feel inflamed on random days, I started getting weird immediate fight or flight bowel moments where id have to go within the next 5 minutes, I’d sometimes get night sweats and bad acne that would come and go as well, and then finally more recently I had terrible terrible terrible cramps one night, which induced sleep paralysis 2 days in a row (id never experienced sleep paralysis in my life I googled what had happened as soon as I woke up). After that terrifying experience I came to my senses and called my doctor. I explained to him the basic new symptoms being the eyes and the irregular bowel movements, he had me take an abdominal Xray which would have been around mid August. He called me up again a few days later and told me I had severe constipation from his understanding of the Xray and we came to the conclusion that I may have IBS-C (I should note, due to covid-19 I have never had long talks with my family doctor and have not seen him in person at all during any time frame of this story). He has recently prescribed me a medication which I don’t even know the name of, all I know is that it is IBS-C specific and very expensive at least for me (190$ a month) refillable pills. Since I am not covered or confident in my condition being IBS for sure, I held off on buying them to see if there were any other options but as of this morning September 8th 2020 I have yet another new group of symptoms, lightheadedness and dizziness. I don’t know if its a product of my other symptoms or what could have caused this new one but I realized I need to try the medication even if its not IBS-C because at this point living even just in my house is too difficult. I asked my cousin for some advice and he pointed me to this forum and I thought id try my luck, thanks for reading my story and I hope you can help.
List of all symptoms (on and off symptoms in red, constant symptoms left black text)
-bloating & abdominal pain
-excess trapped gas
-constipation
-slight bleeding during bowel movements
-diarrhea (only during senokot medication)
-eye pain and inflammation
-night sweats
-stress and acne
-joint pain in back and jaw
-sleep paralysis
-difficulty breathing through nose
-fatigue
dizziness, confusion, lightheadedness (as of today)
Any insight is appreciated.