This post is half venting, half hoping that someone can relate to my experience.

I'm basically a lifelong weed smoker. I'm 41 years old, ancient, I know. I started smoking weed at 12 and besides a few breaks over the years have consistently smoked weed anytime I get my hands on it.

About four years ago now, I was sitting at my desk smoking weed and drinking whiskey. I felt this weird sensation, almost a numbing sensation, crawl down from my upper abdomen down into my lower.

I started noticing bowel changes almost immediately. The first thing was an incessant feeling the I need to poop, even when I couldn't.

Shortly after, I started pooping more often. Then the stool started taking odd shapes, colors, sizes, and I began to have mucus.

I continued to smoke/dab several times a day. I was dabbing well over a gram of shatter a day.

Finally, one morning, I started vomiting uncontrollably. It went on for hours, and hurt. Out of desperation, I crawled into my shower and kicked on the hot water with my foot. No idea why. The pain and vomiting instantly stopped.

That's how this all started. I continued to drink a lot for years after, and I went through periods of "smoking myself up to the pain/morning nausea", then cutting back on weed until I felt better, then repeating the cycle.

Aside from morning nausea when I over do it, my main symptoms have been stomach pain and frequent, pancreatitis-like bowel movements. Sometimes ok, but sometimes steatorrhea like stool. Even after quitting for a few weeks, the stool issues don't totally abate. The longest I've quit smoking is about 60 days.

This lead me to seek medical help, and it started four years ago.

The first thing I did was go to the ER after I quit both drinking and smoking(for a few weeks) and continued to experience lower GI issues. They promptly ran a CT scan with contrast. They said everything was fine, and referred me to a gastroenterologist. They looked at the CT, did a colonoscopy, and called it IBS.

I trusted that and went on with my now poop filled life. I was pooping so many times a day I would lose count.

Fast forward a few years to more recently. If I smoke, I continue to have occasional steatorrhea. In March I decided to quit weed for a few months, and I had already not been drinking for over six months at that point. My stool frequency and odd shapes/sizes drastically changed for the better, but didn't totally do away. I still had occasional issues with what appears to be steatorrhea.

So I smoked myself into another prodromal episode, which for me is easily detectable. I have stomach pain/discomfort, morning nausea if I overdo it, and a reduced appetite. If I smoke a little bit, everything totally goes away and my appetite returns. I got tired of it, and decided to go through another round of tests. I've never had anything like the pain described in pancreatitis sufferers.

In total, I've had:

• Abdominal CT scan with contrast (3 years ago, normal)
• 2x Colonoscopies in three years (one recent, both normal)
• Two stool tests, fecal fat and elastase (recent, both normal)
• A MRCP plus MRI with contrast (last Thursday, normal)
• Asked for and received Creon prior my MRI and fecal fat tests. Taking it made absolutely no difference.
• Tried going gluten free for months, no difference
• Have no problems with weight gain/weight loss etc
• No pain really besides when I'm "prodromal" and when I went on my vomit spree. The pain is diffuse abdominal pain, with occasional stabbing pains that seem super random, and tend to get worse when I quit weed for a while

I had my follow-up with my doctor yesterday on the MRCP/MRI imaging and fecal fat test. He said I definitely don't have pancreatitis, that my gallbladder looks fine, that my liver is fine. He even said it could be lactose intolerance. So first it was IBS, then another doctor says lactose intolerance.

So now I'm several thousand dollars lighter, with no answers as to why I have persistent lower GI symptoms. When I stop smoking, the symptoms diminish, but my bowels have never returned to normal in four years. When I'm nauseated in the morning and my stomach hurts, I back off on weed and feel better within days. When I take a hot bath, everything goes away entirely.

Can anyone else relate to this? Has CHS wreaked havoc on anyone else's lower GI, poop habits, poop colors, shapes and frequency? Is there anything I can do to help it? Am I not quitting weed long enough? Is it really possible to have CHS masquerade as biliary problems?

I just don't know what to think anymore. I know I should quit smoking, but it's basically a part of who I am, and I don't find life very fun during my periods of abstinence.