Stomach Issues and Gluten Sensitivity

by Brittney
(Gastonia, NC, USA)

I was reading around your site and thought you might be able to give me some advice on all the stomach issues I am having. Some of the details are yucky but thanks for reading.

I have been somewhat lactose intolerant for the majority of my life. I was on soy formula as a baby and either didn't use milk products or consumed them very sparingly throughout elementary and middle school. In high school and early college years I could not have ice cream or milk without having lots of gas and sometimes diarrhea. I was able to avoid ice cream or eat non-diary products that were similar and use organic milk. This helped a great deal and stomach issues were rare.


Fast forward to later college years and this no longer helped so I started using lactaid products and taking lactose pills when I couldn't avoid dairy. This still only applied to milk and ice cream. I was fine with yogurt, processed cheeses, butter, etc. Then earlier this year (March) I began to have so many stomach problems. I went to a more bland diet and cut out all dairy except the lactaid milk.

I still had lots of diarrhea. I went to the doctor she said it was either IBS or a rare strain of a virus. After taking the antibiotics it continued on but at an odd pace. Somedays I would feel bloated, some days I would be fine and other days I would have nasty diarrhea and/or constipation followed by the opposite stomach issue the next day.

She said well then it's IBS just stay away from dairy and eat bland foods. I am very stubborn and said well I will eat what I want and just suffer. But it got to be too much so I started watching what I eat very closely. I don't eat fast food other than salads and subway. I only use lactaid milk. I do not use any other products with lactose in them. I rarely fry anything at home. I cook at home a lot to avoid foods out in restaurants. I still find myself with almost daily stomach problems and not eating or taking pepto/immodium several times a week. In the last six weeks I have been very frustrated. I have a lot of mucus in the stool.

Almost every time I go to the bathroom to urinate I have to have a bm too but a vast majority is this mucus. It has a foul smell and is jelly like and yellowish or brownish in color. My bms are almost all liquid and the mucus. I have also begun to have some accidents. I can feel the urge to go BM and cannot make it across the house in time.

I also frequently pass the mucus when passing gas. Today for example from 12:35 am until now (9:02 pm) I have been BM approximately 12-15 times. And it no longer matters what I eat. It all does the same things to me. Do you have any ideas where I should begin? Do you think it's something to do with gluten?

With not having health insurance it's nice to be able to rule things out before starting a large bill at the doctors office.
Thanks so much,

Brittney