Hello,

Thanks for posting,

If you have been having diarrhea for over 3 weeks then that is persistent diarrhea which could be as a result of one of a good number of causes. The origin of your persistent diarrhea might be due to:
- Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS)= it occurs when there is alteration between diarrhea and constipation (what you might be describing as charging back and forth) and it is confirmed only exclusion of other bowel disorders. The hurting chest pain might be an associated gastric ulcer. Have you been starving yourself lately?
- Malabsorption syndrome: persistent or chronic diarrhea may result if you suffer from fructose malabsorption.
- Lactose intolerance: you might need to check if the diarrhea comes shortly after you ingest a lactose diet.
- Enterocolitis and/or intestinal parasitosis: invasion of the intestines by microbes virus, bacteria, parasites, protozoa, fungi/yeast etc could result to you having diarrhea. There will be a need for stool exams (maybe culture) to determine the exact cause of infection so that appropriate treatment be started. Antibiotics, antifungal agents and antiparasitic agents will be indicate in case any of them are the cause.
- Inflammatory bowel diseases: Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis could also be excluded by doing a colonoscopy and/or endoscopy.
- Celiac diseases: when gluten XXXXXXX food is ingested, you might develop diarrhea. So keeping away from gluten-rich meals and observing for diarrhea might be able to rule out or rule in that possibility.
- Other possibilities are diseases of other GIT organs or other systemic diseases (but for your age, most of them are excluded).

Now, lets get to what you have to do now. You will need to begin oral rehydration therapy now (normally that includes a special salt solution, which i doubt if you can have hold of now). Just start drinking as much water as you can. Feeling faint, dizzy and weak signifies you are already dehydrated and there is a need to start rehydration immediately. The next thing is go to the ER at ones. Some laboratory tests (blood test, stool exams, colonoscopy) might be required in order to determine the cause so as to provide you with adequate treatment.

Hope I was helpful and let me know if you wish for any more info.
Dr. Bernard

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Thanks for updating,

Then that drives us more towards an infectious cause. You might be having dysentery (bloody gastroenteritis). You might require antibiotics such as ciprofloxacin or metronidazole to treat your infection.

Hope this helps
Dr. Bernard

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Hello,

Thanks for posting back,

Let me try by explaining to you how migraine presents and see if that is how yours presents (this so because there are three forms of headaches-migraine, tension-type and organic). Migraine headaches are usually unilateral, and the acute attack typically lasts from 4 to 24 hours. Migraine headaches can occur with an XXXXXXX or without an XXXXXXX The XXXXXXX may consist of focal neurologic symptoms starting 5 to 30 minutes before onset of an acute headache attack. The most common XXXXXXX symptoms associated with migraine include scotomata (blind spots), teichopsia (fortification spectra, or the sensation of a luminous appearance before the eyes), photopsia (flashing lights), and paresthesias, as well as visual and auditory hallucinations, diplopia, ataxia, vertigo, syncope, and hyperosmia and or gastrointestinal symptoms (probaby such as the ones you have been experiencing). Let me know if you have been experiencing any of these symptoms for the past 4 weeks. If yes, you are probably having migraine. Tension-type headache is characterized by steady, aching pain of mild to moderate intensity, often as a band-like pain around the head. Gastrointestinal and neurologic signs and symptoms usually do not occur in this type of headache.
Organic headache is one that is caused by serious underlying disease. Occurs before puberty or after 50. Usually arises due to an intracranial disorder such as hemorrhage, tumor, abscess, infections etc.
For migraine headache and tension-type headache, your laboratory findings will all be normal while organic your lab tests will be abnormal showing mostly signs of inflammation.
What to do now? Consult with a doctor for proper examination.
You will probably be asked to do a CT scan or MRI, run some blood tests and provided treatments such as analgesia (paracetamol, tylenol, tramadol etc), 5-HT1D receptor agonists/triptans such as Sumatriptan (Imitrex)-comes in oral, injection or nasal spray and others such as NSAID (e.g ibuprofen, naproxen sodium), ergot alkaloids (e.g Ergotamine) etc. Other drugs to prevent migraine maybe given by your doctor.

Hope this information helps.

Best wishes
Dr. Nsah

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