Been having
diarrhea latterly that’s sudden with no explanation, and it’s kind of watery,
and there are no other symptoms?
Sudden onset
diarrhea, no apparent cause—this may be microscopic colitis. I’ve had this.
Mayoclinic.com says that microscopic colitis can also present with nausea,
dehydration, weight loss and abdominal cramps.
The primary symptom of microscopic colitis
is painless diarrhea. There is no constipation in this disorder. Rarely there’s
abdominal discomfort beyond what you’d normally expect with diarrhea.
My gastroenterologist said that
microscopic colitis can be mild, moderate or severe in nature, and that in
severe cases, one can lose up to 50 pounds.
Microscopic
colitis symptoms can be similar to those of an intestinal infection, which my
doctor suspected was wrong with me. He also suspected stress.
My doctor’s nurse thought it was stress
related or possibly irritable bowel syndrome. The nurse told me that his
divorce gave him diarrhea for two weeks.
However, I knew there was more than
stress involved with my case, because the diarrhea did not look normal. Maybe
stress caused the MC.
My diarrhea was tan to light brown, rather
than the normal chocolate or fudge color, and it also tended to be tinged with
the color of whatever foods I had eaten the day before.
In my stools were food chunks. Sometimes
the diarrhea easily spewed out all over the toilet water. And sometimes it was
in solid pieces, but the pieces instantly dispersed when I poked a cotton swab
to them. I’d see bits of food everywhere in the water.
My gastroenterologist, as well as
Mayoclinic.com, says that NSAID drugs can bring on microscopic colitis. I had
not been taking any of these drugs (e.g., ibuprofen). My doctor also said that sometimes
there’s no known cause. Mayoclinic.com says a bacterium or virus may bring it
on.
The diagnosis can be made only via
microscopic analysis of a tissue sample obtained from the large colon during a
colonoscopy.
Sudden onset diarrhea, especially watery,
may very well be microscopic colitis, if this has been happening to you, particularly
if you don’t have other symptoms. It usually resolves on its own, said my
doctor, though there are patients who’ve had it chronically.
Source:
mayoclinic.org/microscopic-colitis/
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