Possible parasites in stool?

Digestive health
1

To give you some background on myself I went to Thailand in 06/05/2018 to 18/05/2018.

I got few mosquitoes bites which lead to my arm swelling which I got some anti inflammatory tablets then few days later they gave me anti biotic which cured the problem but I started getting mucus in my stool during the last week of the holiday.

Soon as I got back to UK I did have weird tingling sensation in my arm and I felt bloated and gained around 8 lbs and really felt it on my stomach with small amount of pain in left side of my body, I visited the doctor and shown them picture of my stool with mucus and they palmed me off saying much off been food or something when I was in Thailand that's upset my stomach but I had unusual bowel movements and different eating patterns.

Few weeks later, I didn't feel hungry and couldn't tell when I needed to go to the toilet as the sensation was different feeling so, I went back to doctors who did stool test and blood samples. My ferritin levels came back as above average but my stool came back as normal but that was one of the few times my stool was normal when I gave it to them. Usually it has been lot of diarrhea. They scheduled another ferritin which same results it was above average. They then did a iron blood levels which came back as normal.

During the last 6-7 weeks I've completely changed my diet to limit gluten and cut out processed sugar and carbs and eating more fruit and veg and going organic when I can which has helped reduce the pain and there is no more bloating and I've lost over a stone (likely due to healthy diet) but I still got a discomfort feeling in my gut and mainly diarrhea and unusual stool.

Doctor are saying they think it's IBS but I think it potential parasite due to unusual things in my stool and just thought nice to have 2nd opinion. I've never had any other bowl movement problems before visit to Thailand.

I've included the photos of the stool here:

I'd much appreciate your views or opinion, thank you.

Moderator comment:I have deleted the links to the images as they went to a site unsuitable for inclusion in the forums. Users can upload images directly to this site by using the icon at the top right of reply boxes.

2

If you think it could be parasites, you should mention this to your doctor and tell them why you think it could be.  The doctor may arrange for you to have an endoscopy to see if this is the case. As you didn’t get any answers from your doctor, you need to go back anyway. Sorry I couldn’t  be of more help.

3

Okay, sorry, didn't realise it was against the rules to upload images on external website.

This is mucus was when I was in Thailand which happened for around 4 days.

[img]https://community.patient.info/uploads/default/upload-sm/upload-sm/1201054-3952b63a-e33c-4898-aefb-7dfc8e5adc36.jpg[/img]

This was all clumpy together and then was greasy only happened the once approx like 2 weeks after Thailand

[img]https://community.patient.info/uploads/default/upload-sm/upload-sm/1201054-9f595a4d-a207-4d75-bb99-661d7a8b6d85.jpg[/img]

[img]https://community.patient.info/uploads/default/upload-sm/upload-sm/1201054-9ce874ed-973a-4068-a618-db9259badfcb.jpg[/img]

I had bean sprouts on the Tuesday which was 31/07/2018 and this picture was on 05/08/2018 so I have my doubts that it would of taken any longer than 48 hours to come out.

[img]https://community.patient.info/uploads/default/upload-sm/upload-sm/1201054-c1834df1-fb72-42ae-b3f3-1ea5088b8ddc.jpg[/img]

I had bean sprouts on Sunday which was 05/08/2018 so this one could be a bean sprout. Maybe.

[img]https://community.patient.info/uploads/default/upload-sm/upload-sm/1201054-8fbe6664-f490-4e14-9b18-f421bb7e799e.jpg[/img]

This is what most of my bowl movements are like, either diarhea or look like this:

[img]https://community.patient.info/uploads/default/upload-sm/upload-sm/1201054-7ff7464a-09aa-4838-9660-01e5bea0aacf.jpg[/img]

 

4

They want me to go back again in 4 weeks for a ferritin blood check then if that comes back high then it's to see a bowl specialist for an endoscopy and colonoscopy I think they said. I'll mention it to them and see what they say. Thanks.

5

Sounds like Post infectious IBS after the mosquito bites.   If your stool samples were normal, I would accept this.   If there were parasites or h pylori,  they would have been detected in the sample and you would have been told about it and given treatment.  IBS doesn’t show on scans.or other tests.

Sometimes people get undigested food or mucus in their stools with IBS.

6

Also, if food looks undigested in your stools, it may be a food intolerance, as it makes the food go too quickly through your digestive tract. This is where following a low FODMAP diet can be helpful. It could be that following your trip to Thailand you became sensitive to certain foods. Look on line, there’s plenty on info on low FODMAP. 

7

I'll give the low FODMAP a try and see how it goes. Only things I've noticed (briefly skimming over FODMAP) is I do have garlic, onions and peas in my diet on regular basis which is considered a high FODMAP food. I guess be hard to remove with flavourings and sauces etc but needs to be done. I'm going to log down everything I eat and drink over next week, see if I can work out a pattern and trace it back. Thanks for the suggestion.

8

Hey Spinks, sorry you have to go through this.....Well if they have done stool tests properly and if it didn't show any abnormality then possibly you don't have parasites.....Another possibility.... well, I am just suggesting, as you have travel history, there might be possibility of infection with Tropheryma whipelli...just a thought ......But with this disease you also have joint pains...If you don't have those then less likely you have....well, it is common in tropical countries...They can diagnose it with intestinal biopsy....So anyway if they are going to check your ferritin level and if they may proceed to endoscopy they can do biopsy.....But again your doctor is a best judge here...

And it is very common to have upset stomach even after some viral infection of our stomach...and you can't find it in stool samples...So don't worry and discuss your options and your worries with your doctor...He/She will definitely help you 

9

Another thing is, antibiotics can also upset your stomach...disturb our already disturbed healthy gut bacteria so they can't find any abnormalities in any tests if that is the case....so we have to look into this also...And let us know what your doctor has suggested

10

I'll give low FODMAP a try like suggested by FA54321. It can't hurt to give it a try. It's just hard to accept that potentially I have IBS for rest of my life when I've always healthy in person and active going thai boxing 3 times a week and eating mostly health foods with odd occasional junk food.

I've seen cotton like stringy things in my stool for about 2 months which are 0.5 to 3cm which occurs every few weeks or so. The doctor told me it's just probably undigested food. I've read that parasites don't always get detected in a single stool sample. This is why I created the thread in the first place.

I've taken this from a website about IBS:

Upper abdomen pain: This is often associated with bloating and may worsen after meals.

Midabdominal pain: Cramping can occur around the area of the belly button.

Lower abdomen pain: This type of pain is more likely to be eased by a bowel movement.

I included a photo to show my area of pain (Forget the text on the picture). Red line been always there. Orange line been sometimes come and goes. My pain doesn't ease with bowel movements or time of day. It's been constant small-medium pain.

I've taken this from a website about IBS:

While people with IBS on average experience pain at least one day per week, the overall frequency of that pain can vary from person to person. For some, the abdominal pain of IBS is chronic and unrelenting whereas, for others, it is intermittent. For those with intermittent pain, the pain can come in spurts, meaning a person may experience pain-free days, or mild-pain days, or days in which they are highly symptomatic.

My pain is definitely not chronic but it never goes away.

Don't get me wrong, I know most of my symptoms do tick the boxes for IBS, it just doesn't seem to tick 100% of boxes or I'm been to naive towards the situation as I don't want it to be true.

11

By the way, the onions, garlic and peas was something I was reluctant to give up, but when I got to the stage of reintroding them, garlic and peas were ones that caused problems. If you have a problem with onion, you can substitute it in some dishes with chives instead. Hope all goes well.

12

Believe what your doctor is telling you and trust your test results and don’t rely on IBS websites which are very general and don’t take account of individual caes.  Everyone experiences it differently and doesn’t neatly fit 100% into all the boxes.  My IBS is different from what my brother experienced, so I doubted I had It.  However, i was still diagnosed with it and this cured my health anxiety and doubts and I felt so much better.  IBS is very unpleasant but it is not sinister and can be managed.  I live a full and normal life with my IBS so long as I avoid stress and keep meds handy.