I apologize for this being long. I have had off and on stomach problems for years, however 2 years ago this coming August, everything hit the fan. One minute I was fine, the next, two hours after eating lunch, I was having severe gas and bloating, which triggered a vasovagal like tachycardia attack. I had daily chronic diarrhea for easily 6 months, as well as daily tachycardia and palpitations, anxiety, loss of appetite and weight loss. I have struggled with my weight my entire life and have never been able to lose, but since this started, I have lost 100lbs. Stool tests were negative for parasites, candida, H. Pylori, etc. Cardiology tests were all negative. Barium upper G.I. Swallow Test was negative, as was also a nuclear emptying test I had. I ended up being diagnosed with Primary Biliary Cholangitis (an autoimmune liver disease of the bile ducts), and Hashimoto’s. I also have chronic EBV, CMV and Lyme. The diarrhea eventually regulated and I would only have it once or so a week. I am down to a handful of foods I can eat without causing a flare in symptoms, but I can even react at times to these safe foods. I never had food intolerances before this. I did avoid things like gluten and dairy for health reasons, but was not allergic to them. I am now completely gluten and Sugar intolerant, carb intolerant (other than veggies), and some dairy gives me issues. I can eat cheese in small amounts, but not for example drink a glass of milk.

The older of my two dog has also had chronic stomach issues for awhile, however this last month, both have been having problems. My husband has stomach/intestinal issues and of course I have the stomach issues. We live with my dad and other than occasional constipation, he is fine. The dogs have been into the vet 3 times this month. Extensive labs were run on both and nothing was found. When I had my younger one back for the second time, I told them something was wrong that they are not finding. They ran a parasite panel on her and though Giardia came back negative, she had a positive Giardia antigen test, meaning she had an infection sometime in the past. The vet believes there could still be an active infection and will be treating both dogs for it. We have had her around three years and she was a year old when we adopted her. We do not know her prior history, other than she was rescued off the streets. Since we have had her, she has not been treated for it, but has been diagnosed with Irritable Bowel Disease. When I read that Giardia can cause IBD, I questioned her specialist and she said it is possible that it aggravated it, but probably didn’t cause it. I am not 100% sure about that. When we adopted our older one 7 years ago, I had her tested as a precaution and she came back positive then. She was treated successfully and through subsequent testing over the years, never had a reoccurance. Ironically when we had her tested for parasites last week, I had mailed in the very same day, a G.I. Map stool test. I am awaiting the results for that now.

Fast forward to this past week. My anxiety lately has been off the charts, along with bouts of tachy and palps. Stomach is making tons of noise, bloating with gas, reflux, etc., which have never gone away since this all started. Saturday I developed loose yellow stool which by Monday night had progressed to, full blown yellow diarrhea. I still have itmtoday, though not as bad, however I am now seeing brownish black bean looking things on the diarrhea, along with red bean looking things and one white corkscrew/spiral shaped thing about 1/2” long. Do the things in the diarrhea I describe sound at all like Giardia cysts, or any other kind of parasite/worm/protozoa? I am desperate for answers, which I hopefully will get soon from my stool test, but just wondering if any of this stands out to anyone here. Thanks.