Hey, everyone! Between doctor visits, testing, and lots of rummaging through forums, I’ve decided to throw my story here for both reassurance to others and maybe get a few more answers/advice for myself!
This started after a trip to my girlfriend’s mother in PA ( I’m originally from FL ), and on our final night there, I was smoking a joint whilst eating and perhaps took a hit too harsh that lead to coughing + throwing up. I was fine, it happens to some people, but it was when I saw red at the end of my puking that scared me. I make it home the next day, feeling nausea and mental off, try to relax at home whilst waiting for a friend, and the moment I walk outside I found myself choking on spit which caused a violent gag and a pain in my lower stomach that felt like it was stabbed. I was on my knees for about two minutes before it went away and I was feeling good enough to talk, and for the next eight days I had a horribly small appetite with frequent mucus in my stool. I stopped smoking during these days and finally got to a doctor, who told me the red was possible bile or food from earlier that day since I had eaten something with red sauce. My loss of appetite was chalked up to my sudden halt of smoking and it was written down that I also had IBS symptoms.
Afterwards, as months went by, symptoms went and came like crazy; from feeling nausea, to very mild stomach pain, to random bowl movements. It was eating my emotional and mental health to death because I couldn’t figure out what was going on nor was I told any specific answers to my problem. I eventually was told to try and follow a FODMAP diet + get some basic exercise in ( walking/biking for 30 min to an hour daily ), which did help in many ways, though a small handful of my symptoms linger. I used to just go with a wait and see method for a good bout of my pain, but with IBS, I ended up with health anxiety as I read about cancer and all types of monsters.
Luckily, none of those worse case scenarios seem to be the case, though I’ve yet to get the camera or any testing as any pain/symptoms only ever reach mild ( my biggest battle was the mental health one ).
My stool was all over the place. There would be times it was just mucus, maybe mucus with two extremely small pieces of stool, just small stool, diarrhea, hard constipated stool, and the occasional perfect sausage shape, smooth stool ( which was always a weird sigh of relief ). I’ve so far learned that my triggers are anything fried with oil ( air fried food seems to be a blessing in disguise ), lettuce ( salads gave me diarrhea full of undigested lettuce which terrified me at first ), pork, and mayonnaise.
I have an appointment set up with a GI to discuss my symptoms further and I’m highly considering getting tests done to rule out cancer(s) despite being 22. As of recently, my symptoms are still there, but nothing as bad as it was before, though going from decently normal to having mucus, random pains, and slight nausea just from eating one wrong food still punches at my mental health.
Has anybody had similar experiences or any advice? As I’ve said before, me and my primary doctor are almost certain it’s IBS and I’ve gone back to smoking marijuana two months ago ( it help with my anxiety + symptoms don’t seem to be bothered by doing so ).