IBS..... it's shit! I've had the most awful 3 weeks!

[MaidenMotherCrone]

Only three weeks in and the thought of this forever is awful.

The pain has been so bad I ended up in A&E on morphine, blood pressure in my boots, couldn't find veins I was so dehydrated.

IBS was suggested, blood tests showed white cells but that could be from the pain it seems.

All I'm eating is porridge or a banana.

Any help or advice please.

You poor thing! I don't have any personal experience or advice but you have my utmost sympathies.

My Mum had IBS to this extreme a number of years ago and spent a year eating little else than rice crackers and snack-a-jacks as everything else affected her terribly. She has, however, come out the other side. She still has issues but is able to manage them an awful lot better.

I hope you start feeling a little better soon. I'm sure people will be along with their own experiences to share, but take a look at this group in the meantime - www.theibsnetwork.org/

Thank you so much for your kindness and I'll have a look at that site.

When mine was bad I have to say porridge made it worse. Have you tried the rice flake porridge. The hospital told me to go for plain white rice if I couldn't manage anything else. It's very soothing to the gut.

I know how bad it can be ☹️

Did they take a poo sample? I think ibd sounds more likely tbh

@DaanSaaf no sample. I've just looked up IBD and it doesn't fit.

How do people cope with this long term?

I would be asking for a referral to rule out other causes. IBS is normally diagnosed by ruling everything else out.

I have crohn’s and some days I honestly don’t know how I carry on...the pain is excruciating. I have all sorts of pain relief but sometimes it doesn’t touch it.

I’m surprised the didn’t take a stool sample at the hospital, I would see your Gp and get it tested.

It’s so painful

I have ibs. I find stress triggers the symptoms but so does food and not eating is also a big trigger. i found cutting out caffeine and cutting down on alcohol (i tried to cut it out but i can't) really helped. There are ibs diet books that can tell you what foods to avoid. I dont bother taking medications becuase they dont work when i get an attack i use a heat pad and drink mint tea sometimes lying on my back can help. Usually once i get one attack i tend to have loads over the course of a few weeks. I hope your feeling better soon op

I've IBS and it wasn't a diagnosis of exclusion - I was told as I looked fine it couldn't be anything else, eventually they did stool sample and told me as it was full of mucus it couldn't be anything else. My white cell count was over 200 and I was told that's meaningless as so much effects it. I was told to eat lots of fibre every day - made things worse, I was told to take fibogel which helped until they put sweetners in it and now I can't have it, I can't have mints, any mints - another suggestion I was told would cure it. I was refused referral to gastroenterologist as it was obviously just ibs.

It's one of those conditions which effect everyone differently. There's things I find a problem like chillies for example (cant have anything that has paprika in and it's in a lot of foods for flavour or colour) and I can't have anything with seeds in as I'm in agony.

The ibsnetwork is well worth becoming a member of as they've a helpline as well which I've found to be very good.

I've found mebeverine helpful for painful spasms (when bad I can see my spasms in my tummy) - you can get it over the counter in boots.

I've heard many many times ibs is meaningless and doesn't hurt anywhere near like people claim it does - i know of two people who were incapacitated by it (don't know if they still are).

Sorry that's a bit of a messy reply, meant to hit preview not post! Hopefully there's something helpful in there.

only 3 weeks? raised white blood cells? is it that you have had gastroenteritis and now potentially have post infective IBS?

have you had an ovaries scan?

second what romeo suggests - could be a post viral response which will hopefully be short lived.
If not, consider repopulating your healthy gut flora with kefir and or probiotics.
eliminate dairy and sugar and eat only low GI food - go easy on very high fibre though as can make IBS worse
if you fluctuate between diarrhoea and constipation, consider magnesium citrate tablets to keep you regular every day rather than stimulant laxatives whuch can make pain worse - magnesium also good for sleep and stress relief.
consider some form of plant adaotogen herb like ashwagandha as IBS is frequently stress related.

When you’re up to it, I’d recommend doing the Fodmap exclusion diet so you can see if there are any food items that are exacerbating your symptoms. It takes a while to do it fully, and if you have kids you’ll need to largely cook separate meals which I found was a total pain after years of being a one-option evening meal kinda gal, but hubby and I found it very worthwhile.

The Addenbrookes Hospital exclusion diet list might be a start. If this fails the Fodmaps list is more challenging, but worth a go.
Hope you find relief soon, my sympathy