JEEEEEZE what's going ON in there?? Anyone up for a bowel/ibs/ibd/wtf thread

[MrsBrady]

Fed up? Stuck in? Off work? Can't eat? Can't play? Can't or don't want to burden your nearest and dearest? Fancy a bit of a vent?

I'm currently on day infinity of partial house arrest

dx with microscopic colitis this time last year- all good

now having a total bastard of a flare that's been going since January and shows no sign of fucking off

I. AM. SO. BORED. OF. THIS

last week I had to take a poo sample to the gps. Again. The receptionist showed me the elaborate way you're supposed to arrange the bag and label, but I said 'ooh don't worry shsowing me love, that's the last one of these you'll be getting from me'

and less than a fucking week later, there I was again this morning, with me warm bottle clutched in my fist. And I STILL didn't know how to fold the label

I'm worried it might be uc instead. The symptoms seem to tally.

I really really don't want uc. I really really really don't want Crohns can't spell it

anyway. Enough about me. How about YOU

[MrsBrady]

Oh Ps

I'm not the poo troll

I've name.changed for obvious reasons

[ShortyShortLegs]

I hear your pain! I've had IBS for years, now GP thinks it might be Coeliacs Disease. I had a negative blood test, and have waited 8 months for gastro clinic....first appointment next week, supposed to be having a camera down to check for symotoms.
I now spend hours stuck on the toilet with stomach cramps, hot and cold sweats and diarrhoea. Worst episodes are after eating fresh white bread or pasta. It got much, much worse after taking Metformin for diabetes two years ago, I used to be constipated most of the time with periods of diarrhoea, now I have constant diarrhoea and feel like I have food poisoning. Also have indigestion and awful heartburn.

[MrsBrady]

dyou know Shorty that really does sound like coeliac disease to me- I had similar symptoms and got diagnosed with it 5 odd years ago- same thing, blood test showed up negative but the camera-down-throat was a poz

I reckon loads of GPs in the past just waved folk off with an IBS 'diagnosis' (where diagnosis='I don't really know what the fuck you've got just get out of my office thanks v much') but now it's supposed to be a Last Resort dx ie they're supposed to check for everything else first before they say IBS

if you do get a coeliac dx and I bet my boots you will my experience is that, when you start eating gf, you'll feel like a new person- honestly, I was a bit about the sort of day to day difficulties of finding gf food options, but that was FAR outweighed by the not-feeling-shit-all-the-time factor

plus- loads of help on here- it's a bit daunting but there are loads of us around for a handy holdy

[igotdemons]

Ahhh, I feel your pain(s)!! 😫

I've been suffering on and off for the last 6 months with a dodgy stomach. At first I thought it was citalopram as I'd just been put on that for low mood so stopped taking that. Then I thought it might be the metformin SR I take for PCOS so stopped taking that. Then I thought it might be my multivitamins so stopped taking those. Only meds left now are my propranolol that I take for anxiety and palpitations (which I took fine for months before this started) but I'm still getting dodgy stomachs! 😫 Now I think it must be food related but I can't see a pattern with any of the foods I eat (fussy veggie). Off to the Docs next week to start the process of trying to solve the issue but what are the chances they'll just tell me it's IBS and down to anxiety and stress?! 😫 Fed up of living on Loperamide and getting fissures if I don't take it 😫

[fireandicecubes]

Please don't allow your GP to fob you off with an IBS diagnosis - as a pp said IBS should only be diagnosed after everything else has been ruled out.

I was relieved when I got my Crohns diagnosis 4 years ago - at last I knew what was wrong with me. I'd had tests in my 20's but they were 'inconclusive' so I was diagnosed with IBS. I spent almost 20 years as a slave to the toilet & I thought it would never get any better. Now I've been in remission for over a year after a fairly major operation in Feb 2015 & I've never been better.

Hope you all feel better soon

[Simmi1]

Hello, can I join. I started experiencing severe IBS symptoms since the birth of my second baby 9 months ago - before that no bowel issues at all and I'm 40. I now haven't had a symptom free day for over 6 months - I get diarrehea, constipation, pain and wind and generally always feeling a bit off. Don't know what to do - colonscopy/bloods all came back clear. A more recent stool test has shown an excess of candida glabrata and a complete lack of the beneficial bifidobacterium but supplements to help these problems have not helped my symptoms! I hate being so ill. As a last resort I'm thinking of looking into a stool transplant

[MrsBrady]

sorry couldn't come on here earlier- couldn't manage the name change

also sorry you're all going through this. It's the waiting for the gastro appointments I find the worst- you know the answer's there somewhere- it's waiting for the right investigation and the right combination of meds etc- such a waste of time

anyway, hope you all have a good weekend, pain free, away from the toilet

[Lydiabelle]

Hi ladies...joining in!
Do you ever get these symptoms but without the abdominal cramps?
X

[Simmi1]

Yes I do - my symptoms vary but there's always something:(

[MrsBrady]

I dont get cramps that often-mine's just chronic everyday unpredictable diarrhoea mostly

UGH

If I had cramps as well I dont think I'd have got thro the last six months. I'd have been sitting outside the gastro bit of local hosp BEGGING anyone with a lanyard on to admit me

[Lydiabelle]

Nice to know we aren't alone! I don't have an official diagnosis but have had some bloods done etc and nothing found so far, might request a colonoscopy to be sure as it is worrying me!
I just find I've gone from once a day to going about 4 times before lunch!! Then for rest of the day I'm fine, I call it the morning urges! Horrible xx

[Dowser]

I put myself on a gf diet, pretty much dairy free and very low sugar.

Much, much better.

If I indulge in the above I will suffer for it.
I don't buy gf breads. I don't trust them to be honest.

Dh does a lovely pizza with gram ( chick pea ) flour. Enough flower and water to make a stiff batter

Make it into a kind of pancake on a hot lightly greased griddle.

Turn and add topping. We had, tomato paste, a bit of strong cheese and chorizo . Bloody lovely and very filling.
nice with my lunchtime green soup as well.

I make my own kefir. That's great for your probiotics . Fermented veg ( peppers are lovely. Look at Donna schwenk) and are a great source of probiotics.

I only take bicarbonate of soda if I have an occasional bit of heartburn.

I was worse . This is quite manageable now.

[Simmi1]

Hi Dowser, what were your symptoms? What do you make your kefir in and where did you get the grains? I take milk kefir but shop bought rather than home made.

[Simmi1]

Hi lydiabelle, are your motions loose or normal? That does sound a bit odd and may be linked to some sort of food intolerance. I would try low fod-Map for a while and see if that helps. It didn't work for me but it works for many. Do you have any pain or discomfort associated with your bowel motions?

[Simmi1]

It does sometimes feel like we are alone. I have been trying everything - including acupuncture. I was chatting to the Chinese lady doing the acupuncture and she was trying to tell me that IBS is common and not that bad! She sees a lot of women for infertility and tried to tell me infertility was worse and I was lucky to have 2 healthy children easily at my age (40). I think until you've experienced bowel problems it's hard to understand how awful they can be

[MrsBrady]

I think until you've experienced bowel problems it's hard to understand how awful they can be

this

plus there's a sort of comical side to it- lolz about piles, lolz about diarrhoea etc- which aren't half as lolzy when they're happening to you

I had an accident today when I DARED to step out to walk the dogs quickly round the block. It's something I never ever get used to

helpful GP has got my meds changed to Budesonide- I expected it to work immediately but nothing's really happened

My attidude every time I see a doc or something different happens is so overwhelmingly positive that, when it doesn't turn out to work, I really do crash

[Simmi1]

Me too Mrs Brady, can you take Imodium for the diarrehea? Imodium doesn't really agree with me (gives me stomach ache) but it works wonders for others. I have had issues for 9 months although to be fair things are setting down a bit now. I think what's helped me is taking 50mg of amitriptyline a night. Hope you get some resolution soon, I sympathise 💐

[TooExtraImmatureCheddar]

Can I join? I'm on the waiting list to see a GI consultant - have just gone on the list and there's a 12 week wait. In the meantime the GP gave me mebeverine to try, which I have been taking for 5 days and in that time I have been much better. She didn't think it was IBS as my dad has Crohn's and my twin sister has been diagnosed as lactose intolerant but has been off lactose for 8 months and still has problems, although she says they aren't as bad as they were, but not better either. I've had frequent diarrhoea every few days for as long as I can remember, which is something I can deal with, but every couple of weeks it flares up and I have it constantly. 3 weeks ago I had it 7 times in the course of one evening. So I'm starting the journey of diagnosis, I guess. I've had blood tests that showed nothing - not coeliac and no IBD markers.

[TooExtraImmatureCheddar]

Just to add to the general internal mayhem, I've got labyrinthitis and am on pills 3 times a day, plus the mebeverine x 3, plus the mini-pill, plus my hips have gone out and I'm going to start necking ibuprofen as soon as DH gets back from the shop with some. I'm only 32 and I feel like a wreck!

[MissSmiley]

Hi everyone! I was diagnosed with coeliac disease nearly 4 years ago after no end of problems. Neg blood test positive biopsy. I can completely sympathise with how unfunny poo accidents are. Having said that I'm so much better than I was before dx.

I was lactose intolerant when dx and I still have problems with normal milk now but can tolerate other things ok most of the time. My brother is lactose intolerant but not coeliac. My sister is gluten free but not officially dx. My dad was probably undiagnosed coeliac (he had another auto immune disease called sarcoidosis as I did before dx) and two of my kids are "wheat and gluten intolerant with a risk of coeliac disease" ie they can't have gluten snd have the gene for coeliac but haven't developed gut damage yet.
It's a family affair with us! I found the anaemia one of the hardest things to deal with but having had several iron infusions even that is getting better now.

It's such a long road to diagnosis for most people.

[Naughtytummy]

Recently I was referred back to the same GI consultant that diagnosed IBS twenty years ago. I have now been diagnosed with BAM - bile Acid malabsorption, it's a relatively new diagnosis for people with diarrhoea. Medication is helping to absorb all the bile salts that cause the diarrhoea and I've never been better.
I'm waiting to see a dietician but I've started to eat a little gluten and dairy just to see what happens.
Don't give up with its "just IBS", I wish I had gone back earlier.

[MrsBrady]

Simmi 50 mg of amitriptyline a night? You must sleep like a brick! I'm on 20mg (for unrelated condition) and you'd have to throw a bucket of cold water over me if you wanted me between 1-4 am

Cheddar that sounds shitty, all that at once. And labrynthitis is eeeeevil. Just a thought- if your bloods came back ok, did they do a stool test (calprotectin?)

Smiley I felt like I could fell a man with one punch a few weeks after coeliac dx. I had been v wispy, lie-on-the-sofa Victorian lady type pre dx. It was wonderful and yet here I fucking am again

BAM is a new one on me tummy- I'll have a google

[Simmi1]

Mrs Brady I've always slept well and even though 50mg is a high dose I've not noticed a massive difference in my sleep, anxiety or IBS. I must just be immune to medication.

[MrsBrady]

Simmi I came off loperamide to see if the Budesonide could do it on its own (I'm totally feeling my way on this/will try LITerally ANYthing)

it doesn't seem like it can, though (just had to rush upstairs in middle of that sentence- third time this morning )

Am feeling particularly sorry for self this morning. Mornings worst, that seems to be peak poo time. Yesterday I walked to school to meet DD (12)- I said how crap this must be for her because I haven't been able to take the dcs out properly since January. She said 'oh I was thinking about that this morning, then I thought oh, well, it's ok because you've taken us to so many places over the years that we're sort of in credit'

this is making me sniffle a bit today. I'm a SAHM and was planning to look for work now the youngest is in Y7. Now I can't work and am a pretty fucking useless/boring mum to boot. The kids/dh are really good about it. But.

[MrsBrady]

god you must be a medical phenomenon

honestly if I take 20 at 7,by 10 I'm doing that thing where you wake yourself up with your head flopping