Brief Answer:
Please read below about irritable bowel syndrome, etc.

Detailed Answer:
Hello and welcome to HCM.

Thank you for writing to us.

I have gone through your query with diligence and would like you to know that I am here to help. Based on your brief history, a bleed should be ruled out, and a capsule endoscopic procedure should help.

A more simple procedure called 'stool for occult blood' would also be helpful, although not always accurate, if repeated 2-3 times, it does help in providing information on possible bleeds.

But changing the perspective here for just a minute, I would also light to pay a little emphasis to certain intestinal conditions that can present with most of your symptoms, like irritable bowel syndrome or inflammatory bowel disease (to name a few).

Both these conditions present with symptoms like:

+Diarrhea
+Abdominal boating
+Increased urge to pass your bowels soon after consuming certain types of food or drink
+Sometimes bleeding
+Mal-absorption
+Weight loss (not always, but can be seen especially due to a diet rich in trigger foods or drink)
+Nutritional deficiencies (mainly due to absorption issues as the intestine can be inflamed; specific deficiencies seen are with iron, folate, bile salts and vitamin B-12) and a few others.

In such a scenario, clinical presentation and patient history play important roles. If you have experienced an increased urge to pass your bowels after eating certain meals then we should suspect such conditions. If you experience symptoms like mucus with stools, difficulty with tolerating specific types of foods (e.g. caffeine, fried food, fatty food, certain types of fruits and/or vegetables, etc.); diarrhoea in response to food, stress, etc.

So, in order to have a more broad spectrum I would request you to discuss such a perspective and go ahead with a few blood investigations like ESR, p-ANCA, c-ANCA, etc.

I hope you find my response helpful and informative. Please feel free to write back to me for any further information or clarifications, I am always here to help.

Best wishes.

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Brief Answer:
A little information, not much while we await the results

Detailed Answer:
Hello once again XXXX.

I am glad those conditions were ruled out, and yes of course, I completely understand how the wait can be, it is rather torturous.

Information wise, my job is to make sure you are being well investigated in order to reach a more accurate diagnosis. And it does seem like your doctors are taking the right path, the extreme weight loss does raise suspicion for cancer, but I am sure we can soon rule it out with your doctors help.

If a bleed is found, then we should be able to help you better, so the results should soon provide you with relief (hoping and praying it isn't cancer). I would also like to ask if a PET scan was conducted (although a little on the pricey side, it can provide us information on the cancer location and its progression, if present, which can save us time and energy).

Anemia can also be related to a woman's menstrual cycle, but I am sure that must have been one of the first few conditions ruled out, just making sure it was.

A painful abdomen does point towards an issue with the GIT, mainly with ulcers or colon cancer (CEA and/or CA125 are markers used to confirm/rule out colon cancer and should be checked while we wait for the capsule endoscopy results).

Unfortunately, for now all we can do is wait for the results, and hope and pray (as I am also doing) for the best. Please do not hesitate at any point to write to me, even if it is for the simplest of clarifications, I am here to help and shall do so to my best.

Best wishes.

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