# Need Advice -- Permanent Diarrhea



## RunnyRuns (Jun 16, 2011)

I grew up in one of the two counties in the United States where you could catch amoebic dysentary, which with my luck i managed to catch twice. Both times i had to go to mexico for a prescription since nothing was made in the US at the time for this.. and the prescription was a time release arsenic. My doctor at the time told me my bowels would probably never be normal, and sadly, he couldn't have been more right. In my late teens through mid twenties, this problem mostly showed itself during times of high stress, mental or physical.. If i was worried about something i got diarrhea, if i stayed awake for 2 days i got diarrhea, if i drank too much alcohol, etc. In my late twenties, early thirties, it got continually worse.. finally about 9 years ago i had about $5000 in tests run, only to have the doctor basicly shrug his shoulders at me and say, IBS?Now, add to this, I am absolutely insomniac.So 6-7 years ago, i had started using oxycontin on occasion when i wanted to have a good meal.. which led to addiction. When i realized I was addicted, I quit.. which was rather painful, but i did it, and I stayed clean for 1 year. During that year, I lost 75 pounds, NOT because i wanted to, I slept 2-3 hours a day, always waking up with diarrhea, 4 hours was a really good day.About 9 or 10 months into this, I was so miserable i was quite ready to blow my brains out.So i returned to illegally obtaining powerful opiates(which solve both the diarrhea and insomnia).. and I am much healthier.(I also have about 5 other more minor health problems that disappear when I use opiates, I think largely because my immune system actually functions when i get 8 hours of sleep every day) Every day i get up, go to the bathroom like a normal person, use a little all day, go to bed and sleep like a normal person, and so on.. and I really, really do not want to have to go back to absolute misery.. but i do not like having to be illegal, I dont like having to spend the money i spend, and what I really, really want is a doctor who will work with me and not just automatically count out opiates as a solution.I have been thinking about trying various doctors, laying out the scenario, agreeing that i will get clean(hopefully with the help of methadone or something), I will try every test/drug solution they want to try.. but if nothing works, I just want the doctor to agree that opiates are a viable solution in the end. But my experience with doctors so far has told me this is a waste of time, and i cannot afford to just keep trying doctor after doctor.I could really, really use some helpful advice.. I want my life back to some resemblance of normal.I had done research before and never found that drugs such as oxycontin can be used to control permanent diarrhea, but i must have finally worded the search correctly tonight because i found that it can.. which gives me a little hope.. but whatever the case, i cannot sustain what i am doing now forever, and i really need some help.Thank You.Other points i should mention--I have of course gained a serious opiate tolerance.. that last year i was taking 10-15 immodium per night when eating a simple diet of like, bread, turkey, and crackers.. and as little food as possible.. I would take 20+ when i ate a more normal meal.. and this only helped the problem marginally.I still occasionally get some loose stools in the mornings, usually not quite diarrhea, but sometimes it is.. but about 6 of 7 days i would say my stool is pretty normal at the moment.My friends and girlfriend think i am just a crazy junkie.. nobody seems to understand the pain i was in.. my girlfriend has threatened to leave me.. she thinks a doctor will just magically fix the problem even though I have tried the legitamate medical route.. people that have not experience the kind of debilitating pain i have gone through just cannot seem to understand, even though they watched my depression and rapid weight loss.. This absolutely boggles me.


----------



## Kathleen M. (Nov 16, 1999)

I know the UNC-Chapel Hill Functional GI clinic has some experience of getting people off the narcotics and onto other treatments for IBS. I don't know that they'd prescribe powerful narcotics if you proved everything else failed. The problem is the addiction history and some people get Narcotic Bowel Syndrome where the pain nerves in the gut become more sensitive over time so you have more pain than you would have had as the narcotics wear off.Have you had a colonoscopy with biopsies? It may just be IBS, but there are things like microscopic colitis which tend to be more likely to cause the severe diarrhea.I don't know if your doctors tried everything. Did you ever take a bile binding agent like Questran as well as tricyclic antidepressants for the pain and possibly adding in a mind/body therapy like CBT or self hypnosis as those can help to calm those pain nerves down. They have figured some things out since 9 years ago.







It may be worth going to a specialty clinic like the one in Chapel Hill where they are up-to-date (even 9 years ago there should have been something tried more than a shrug and sent off with nothing) and have experience with difficult cases.


----------



## jmc09 (Oct 5, 2009)

You mentioned a tolerance to imodium,10-20 a day and called them opiates. I believe they are opiates but very,very mild and not addictive because you can take as many as you need,according to the professor I see.I currently take codeine,up to 6 a day but I'm not addicted its down purely to my IBS,I used to take 20 plus a day way back because of my IBS and stopped overnight without any problems apart from the obvious diarrhoea.What I'm saying is that you may not be addicted but just doing everything you can to manage your IBS symptoms.I was originally diagnosed with colitis due to symptoms like yours and I think as Kathleen said,a colonoscopy is a must to get a more accurate diagnosis,I had about 2 or 3 before I was diagnosed with colitis about 18 years ago so hang in there.Good luck.


----------

