Fecal Matter Information - not for the weak of stomach!

[Jeff Lebowski]

I would like to forewarn any of those who are not comfortably talking about the back end of things to back out now. This thread is not a joke but a serious question dealing with serious issues.

Do any of you ever have yellow colored fecal matter? Ive done a lot of research into this and found a few reasons with one having to deal with low levels of bile. Knowing that cannabis can lower acid levels makes me wonder if there is any connection. At this point I am asking this question out of desperation as Im tired of forcing my wife to watch me die. The doctors have no answer to any of my abdominal problems, the tests are clear but my symptoms are not normal. Lost 45 pounds in three weeks, loss my appetite completely, nausea, the list goes on really. My only question is, does anyone else who uses cannabis ever have yellow stools? Thank you.

 

[accessndx]

Listen bro. Yellow stools are considered sometimes an "ominous" sign by doctors. Coloration can mean an awful lot.
If you were in your teens, there is a disorder called "Gilbert's Syndrome". It's an issue with the red blood cells not being broken down. The stool color is influenced by this process.
Absorption problems throughout the digestive system can also cause this....
There was a "fat free" oil I think awhile back called Olestra....made everything like totally fat free for people...but it gave them the explosive runs...and yellow greasy stool. So malabsorption can be an issue for you....but I'd have to know what you're eating...
Since you've lost alot of weight that's not improbable...
I doubt this is the case but there is a protozoal infection called: Giardia...that will yellow your stools big time. But as I said it's a bit more exotic.
The worst and probably most concerning issue is that yellow stools are sometimes pathognomonic of pancreatic cancer. However, there would probably be other symptoms.

In either event, it's nearly impossible to diagnose this issue without at least a stool sample and a more detailed history of your personal (as well as family) history. There are even medications and different foods that may cause yellowing......

The list goes on and on, but what you should know is that of all the colors your stool COULD be, Yellow is a big red flag that needs to be evaluated post haste! Do not waste time in the forums asking questions that may or may not help you. It's irrelevant what other people have in their stool in relation to what you may have.

Don't let someone's good or bad story color your experience hence making you alarmed, or too calm. This is one of those circumstances where common sense should prevail and you should get checked out more thoroughly.

You said that "your tests came out clear". I don't know what tests they ran...but I would want to see a Cat-Scan or at least an MRI....as well as taking stool samples...various other lab workups for the pancreas, liver....etc. Sometimes people are under the impression that doctors have "done everything right" and they've left no stone unturned.
I've found this to be inaccurate, and would encourage you to seek another opinion immediately. Disregardless of the outcome, it's best to know what's actually going on.

Your description of losing that much weight in that short duration of time is worrisome enough. Trust me and get a move on sooner rather than later.

 

[Jeff Lebowski]

Cat-scan, blood work, scoped from both ends, irradiated xray to make sure tract is fine and everything has shown up normal. My insurance ran out a few days ago, I've been to at least seven different doctors including specialists in the last 5 months. They keep telling me everything is completely fine but I know in my heart of hearts that I'm not fine. I'm borrowing money now to get another few months of insurance, while I look forward to more tests. Thanks for the info, really, thank you. could this at all be tied into my thyroid perhaps? I am pulling at any straws at this point because I'm trying to keep up hope but it's hard being so young but so sick. I'm early twenties mind you...

 

[accessndx]

It's extremely hard to diagnose from remote like this. I understand you've probably been through the clinical ringer. Your issues can be the result of disturbances in other bodily systems and manifesting as the symptoms you described in the gastrointestinal tract. It's very hard to find that out without continued workup. Someday I'll have to write a book called: "Anything can cause anything"......
Because it can be that complex sometimes. I don't want to deflate your hopes or inflate your dreams.....I just want to be clear that this is rough trying to see what's what online.
If you have no insurance I'd suggest you apply for "charity care". This takes applications within hospitals to be processed and may take some time, but I've seen patients get expensive advanced imaging along with surgery and rehabilitation at no cost to themselves. It's a big hurdle to overcome, but it is possible.
Honestly, I'd like to see the studies myself. I've heard patients say they've had all kinds of things, and that tests are "normal"...when in fact I've reviewed them and found other things that I consider problematic. It's difficult to describe, but everyone has an opinion....even clinically. Doctors differ in their approaches, opinions and recommendations....
Patients think there's 1 standard, and honestly there's not. I just finished consulting with a patient that gave me the same rap about having everything under the sun done....
When I saw her records...it was filled with clinical holes. It was clear she had been run all over the place...but everyone was not communicating and there was alot of redundancy.
In essence, she was hit with a very generic...not specific regimen of diagnostic and therapeutic modalities.....she's been suffering in pain for years, not months.
Within 2 hours of consulting with her, I was able to isolate what was not previously done. I tested my hypothesis and found I was in fact correct about my assumption.
I don't know where the other people went wrong. I know WHY they went wrong and that's honestly a bundle of complexity that's beyond the scope of this discussion.

Explore your options. I also have another suggestion for you:

Take your medical records....take your personal information off of them. Essentially black them out like the govt. does with UFO reports...(ROFL). Scan them into some format. When that's all done.....create a brand new safe email address. I'll do the same. You can then send that stuff via email to the safe email addy. I'll review it and see if I can find anything meaningful out. I'll tell you my honest opinion through that method.

In this way you can remain safe and sound, and get another opinion that MAY be helpful. I can't guarantee anything, but I can guarantee that I'll TRY to help at no cost or risk to you.

If that sounds reasonable...go ahead and get your ducks in a row. Send me those reports.

If not, I wish you good luck bro.

 

[Chiefsmokingbud]

Other than yellow stools what other symptoms do you have?

 

[jwm]

Go w/ your gut Jeff. If you feel something isn't right, your probably right. Quick story, I had a few stomach problems off and on, nothing big..After a big meal, maybe alittle discomfort from time to time was all. I wouldn't even call them stomach aches, discomfort would fit best. Anyway, got sick one night, thought I had a flu bug. It got worse w/ sharp pain like I'd never experienced. I knew something was terribly wrong. Turns out I had a ruptured colon.....After 5 hours of emergency surgery it was repaired and I'm fine now but, to this day, my surgeon tell's me there was no corrilation between my occasional upset stomach and my colon rupturing....Well, I know that there definately was and nothing a Yale trained surgeon can tell me that will change that. I've had no issues or stomach aches since the surgery 5 yrs ago...Go w/ your gut. Persist until they find out what's what, good luck!

 

[accessndx]

jwm: Sounds like you had a condition called "Diverticulitis". Think about it like "appendicitis" or inflammation of the appendix. Everyone knows what that is. Your appendix is a part of your immune system (doctors didn't know that for a long time and just removed them like they used to arbitrarily remove tonsils which are ANOTHER portion of your immune system). Anyway, the "diverticula" are little nooks and crannies in your intestine. Sometimes food and other debris can get trapped in one of these little crevices, it can become infected and inflamed...resulting in a number of things...including but not limited to a breach of the walls of the gatstrointestinal system.
It's potentially life threatening like an an acute appendicitis.
Your doctor's comments about your stomach issues not correlating well with the rupture is a blanket statement. There's absolutely no way you can have inflammatory changes such as this and not notice ANYTHING. The problem is alot of issues such as this get blown off because at a basic level alot of doctors believe patients are hypochondriacal. Parents rush their children into see the pediatrician when they've got a little fever, or the sniffles...or whatever. It's rather mundane...so doctors see the "normal" stuff all the time and become a bit emotionally and physically separated from their patients because it's all old hat.
I asked a close colleague and friend who is a pediatrician about the prevalence of certain brain tumors. He was in practice for let's say about 30 years. He said he never encountered 1. A pediatrician that was in practice for 30 years stated he HAD NEVER SEEN 1 BRAIN TUMOR in a child.
What's the likelihood of that!!?1?!!?! It's not my specialty, but I've seen a handful in a third of that time.
If you aren't finding things like this, you aren't looking really hard.
It's very seductive and easy for a doctor to just hand you a piece of paper with some medicine to get you out of their face. When you waltz into a GP's office, they're making like $30 from the insurance company plus whatever you fork over in co-payments.
They're struggling to make money.
So let me put it in a better light: How many people would you have to see to make a "decent" living at $30 a pop. Especially when these people probably only come in 1 or 2x a year?
Well, with those prices...which are representative of what your primary care physician gets on average.....your doctor would need to see 3,333 patient visits to make $100,000.00 a year. And that comes with all the bullshit, paperwork, nonsense and problems with the insurance companies. Awesome!
Now you see why they're so excited to see you (insert massive dose of sarcasm here).
The people making the big money and big prizes are your Orthopedic Surgeons...Pain Management specialists and other surgeons.
Everyone else is having a hard time, disregardless of what the public thinks.
If a doctor decides they're going to go outside the system and not work for the insurance company or hospital...they've got an entirely new set of problems finding patients and then working with the increased monetary responsibilities those patients have going to see an out of network doctor.
So, the way I see it: there's a massive disincentive to see and work with patients....decreasing ability to get paid....increased burdens for paperwork and oversight....etc.
Patients don't think this is a reality. They think their doctor is driving around in a Lamborghini from office to office...maybe taking a private jet to their private island.....all the while being fed grapes and caviar by their naked penthouse pet secretary.
Nothing can be further from the truth.

So....this conversation devolved into something different. But it underscores the problems with health care in general. The insurance companies don't want to pay, so the doctors find a way to screw them....and the insurance company screws the doctors back. The patient gets caught in the middle. This effect spreads into the very basic dynamics of doctors and their patients when they want to order or perform tests (which may take like a virtual miracle to pre-certify or authorize).
I've always maitained that insurance in general is stacked in the favor of the insurance carriers, not unlike what happens in Las Vegas or Atlantic City....the house always wins.
You may get a few bucks out of a slot machine or playing cards....but the dealer always wins more than you do.
Insurance companies want your premium money, but when it comes time to kick off reimbursement for your benefits...they kick, scream, bitch and moan. They want to hold off on paying as long as possible because they can retain that cash in their coffers and make interest on it.
If they can delay 10 million dollars in reimbursements for even a month....imagine what kind of interest that makes for them!
Doctors can be sons of bitches too.....it's literally like a mafia war, with opposing families. The carriers put out a hit on the doctors, and they rally to find a way to strike back.
Overall it's extremely juvenile...and the entire system can suck balls at times.

So I can appreciate your frustration, concerns and the things you need to do to stay healthy and happy. Maybe you've gained some insight as to what it's like behind the white lab coat and prescription pad.

 

[Jeff Lebowski]

Severe nausea, occasional vomiting, ocasional diarheea with spastic colon attacks. Some of this may be my genetics as my mother has a spastic colon but she doesn't have nearly the symptoms that I exhibit. For the last year or so I've had yellow stool off and on with most of it being on the non-solid side. There is a sharp pain under my rib cage on my right side sometimes, sometimes it's lower toward my hip and occasionally it kills on both sides of my abdomen. In addition, I have muscle pain all around my belly button and have asked the doctor if this could be it. Years back he said I had a umbilical hernia, but the pain feels very similar to that pain in the past. The worst part about the whole experience is I have severe anxiety that until this issue arose, I was controlling. Now, I wake up every day in fear, shear panic honestly. I sweat bullets at night and my hands are sweaty which I've never had in my life. In addition, I am hypoglycemic but have not seen the doctor for this. I am questioning if I have a hyperthyroid issue but am not sure either. I've always been morbidly underweight for my extreme height but have felt fine until a few months back. The thing is, the doctors have no clue because the tests are normal, they know I have anxiety so they chalk it up to that. Which, I would be okay with had I experienced these issues previously but I've had severe anxiety since about four or five years old. I feel like a nut case who nobody believes when all I want is some quality of life back. I've lost nearly all but one friend due my illness as they do not want to be involved with this enduring process. My wife is supportive but at our young age is depressed with having to deal with a twenty something who has the body of a 70 something year old. I try to work out, walk frequently and have cut out all fatty food, dairy and nuts. At first my school thought I had diverticulitis, but that was quickly squashed.

I have a few questions about medical weed now. In my mid teens I used recreationally which helped me pass all my AP classes and really focus. In the last few years, I started using it medicinally and brought a doctor on board to monitor my health and intake. I only use indicas and I only vaporize. I find that when I smoke, my anxiety is fucking intense, my stomach hurts and I feel like I'm going to poop instantly. Does the pancreas have anything to do with metabolizing cannabis? I've been off of all medicine for a week including cannabis and have noticed a lot of inflammation in my abdomen, in addition to my anxiety taking me for a ride. At this point, Im willing to abandon all medicine or take anything to just get my life back on track, weed included. That's all for now until next time. Thank you so much for your help and I will be getting my records on Monday sent to me so I can go over them. I'd hate to believe the doctors this time and find out years down the road that it was something more serious I could have stopped. I think my anxiety has been higher than normal due to my fears about what might be wrong, Idk though.

On a side note, my doc drives a pontiac sunfire. He is NOT rolling in dough, but he seems indifferent towards me even though I've been seeing him for nearly ten years.


Thank you for your compassion and love~

 

[robbiedublu]

You need to go see a gastroenterologist at a teaching hospital. Don't f*** around, go do it now.

 

[Jeff Lebowski]

I've been to a gastro already, no help there.

What about sharp pains in the groin?

 

[accessndx]

Gonna throw something odd out here: 10+ years ago, I made the acquaintence of a female patient that described a very complex history not unlike yours.
The long and the short of it was she was eating, and it wasn't being digested appropriately....resulting in less bowel movements. She had abdominal pain, so she had the abdomen scanned, had all the routine tests......was scoped up and down......nothing was found....NADA.
Then some smart clinician decided to get her an MRI of the thoracic and lumbar spine on a hunch.
What was found was that the spinal nerve roots that link up to the large and small intestine were being crushed from a compression fracture and a herniated disc. The SURPRISING thing was that she had no pain in the back whatsoever. This is why nobody ever looked further.
The compression was causing the intestines to not digest the food, resulting in gastric dysbiosis. The net result was that her intestines were slowy dying off. It was suggested that the area of the intestine that was becoming necrotic be removed, and then the two healthy ends re-attached together. Additionally, she was also required to have surgery to fix the spinal damage. They jacked up and fused the segments of spine together to remove nerve and spinal cord compression.
By the time she arrived at our facility she was complaining of unrelated things and was treated for them.
The story always stuck with me. We're not always capable of discerning what's going on inside of us.
In this case, all the routine stuff was done because it was the most logical. In her case, something more elusive and esoteric was going on. It was affecting her digestion, but the problem didn't arise from within that system. In this case, the trophic function of the nervous system was interrupted, thereby resulting in her symptoms. It was clearly a neurosurgical issue.
True story, happy ending...and it underscores the myriad of possibilities that can contribute to patient symptoms and conditions.
You always try to follow Ockham's razor when making a diagnosis, but sometimes that's just not the best option. You need to look for the LESS likely causes when the most likely ones have been ruled out.
I'm not suggesting this is what's occurring with you, but I wanted to share the types of complexities that may be involved for a proper assessment.

 

[Jeff Lebowski]

I occasionally have a lot of bloating too. I hunch over quite often and frequently pick my legs up to my chest. It's a nervous habit since childhood. Could this put pressure on my abdomen or affect the nerves? Im ordering my records on monday and calling the doctor when my insurance starts again.

What do you recommend I say to the doctor? It seems they don't listen and I've been to so many since October.

 

[headiez247]

Jeff-

I'm so sorry for what your going through.

I have no medical knowledge regarding your condition but can comment on the anxiety side.

I've been dealing with panic disorder and generalized anxiety disorder since I was 11.

You say that you have anxiety but up until this point you have had it in check. I know exactly what it feels like to be fine for a while and then it kicks up hardcore when something serious in life happens.

I'm sure you've already heard a lot of this but sometimes it helps to re-read things you already know.

Support System- You mentioned that you have lost most of your friends due to your sickness. Clearly they weren't really friends. You need to turn to your wife and anyone else that cares about you (online included) for support. Most people have no ability to comprehend what it is like to be going through this extreme of anxiety. You need to explain to them that the best way for them to help is to be around you as much as possible, and to support you and be positive. Being alone is generally a bad idea, stay with people.

Breathing- For when its at its worst and you are actually panicking with physical symptoms, focus breathing can help and its usually the first thing I do. Take a deep 5 second breath in through your nose, hold it in for 5 seconds, and slowly blow out your mouth. I try to visualize something calm and relaxing. I realize this is hard when your at your worst. Sometimes I'll have to try it a few times before it is affective.

Outlook- I know its very hard but you have to try to have at least a neutral outlook. Obviously something is going on with your body, but your doing all you can to take control of the situation. Anxiety only makes things worse so I always try to remind myself how much it will help if I can control it. Also, try to focus on one day at a time only. Don't think about tomorrow, or next week, think about today, and what you are going to do today.

Keep us updated, and try to breathe.

 

[Yes4Prop215]

just trying to help out, i smoke weed like a madman and have never had yellow poops. sometimes when i eat too many eggs or fast food is gets "sloppy" haha but never yellow.

 

[Jeff Lebowski]

Headie,

I love your advice and will take it to heart. Thankfully I was gifted some medicine from a new friend and have been doing a lot better. I am still hassling with the doctors, but I'll get it figured out. Thanks`

 

[Jeff Lebowski]

My insurance application was denied today. It's getting better all the time.

 

[texsativa]

Cat-scan, blood work, scoped from both ends, irradiated xray to make sure tract is fine and everything has shown up normal. My insurance ran out a few days ago, I've been to at least seven different doctors including specialists in the last 5 months. They keep telling me everything is completely fine but I know in my heart of hearts that I'm not fine. I'm borrowing money now to get another few months of insurance, while I look forward to more tests. Thanks for the info, really, thank you. could this at all be tied into my thyroid perhaps? I am pulling at any straws at this point because I'm trying to keep up hope but it's hard being so young but so sick. I'm early twenties mind you...

Can you explain a little bit more about your condition? When did it start, have you ever experienced this before? how often do you notice yellow stools, any other colors noticed? Is it bright yellow, pale yellow, etc.? Do you notice yellow urine or yellow skin? Did the docs check bilirubin levels? Any recent antibiotic use? What is a normal color for you and how often do you feel your bowel movements are normal or abnormal? Anything make it better or worse? Associated with any foods or stress/anxiety? Are the stools loose/solid, how many per day, how much per day, do they stink, do they float or sink? Do you have cramping that is relieved after a bowel movement? Do you have a history of recent travels, hepatitis infection, HIV, abdominal surgeries?

Feel free to pm me.

Edit - Any fatigue, abdominal pain, weight loss, yellow eyes, yellow underneath your tongue?

 

[jwm]

Jeff, sharp pains in the groin is exactly what finally sent me to the hospital w/ my ruptured colon....man I ever get those kinds of pain again and I'm at the emergency room pronto...good luck bro!

 

[Hash Zeppelin]

I hope you get better dude. I have IBS, and have to deal with stomach pains and low weight issues. but if you have lost 45 pounds that quickly then you need to as many second opinions as possible. multiple doctor heads are better than 1.

University hospitals are a good way to go.

 

[mazzakush]

ever try going to an herbalist? they excel at intestinal problems I find...

try a little kombucha... maybe even cannakombucha....

does wonders...