To think I can't eat anything?

[ibsishell]

I have IBS. Have been investigated with colonoscopy and endoscopy. It's just IBS.

Since my colonoscopy I have been eating toast, crackers every day. Then either white fish with oven chips or stir fried chicken with broth and noodles. No veg or anything. My symptoms still flared on and off but less painful.

Last night had pasta. With grilled chicken, no sauce, no oil. This morning have been flaring with painful gas, nausea, reflux. So maybe too much gluten or wheat yesterday. And since I eat toast every day, maybe this is the key factor. Although I did try gluten free ten years ago with no change.

I'm open to trying it again, but I don't know what I can eat instead. Here are the other things I can't eat, or recently discovered are triggers. I may have forgotten some.

Eggs
Cheese
Any type of fruit
Nuts and seeds
Yoghurt
Red meat
Most vegetables, particularly tomatoes and peppers
Roast potatoes sometimes
Soya
Rice
Oatmeal

I don't drink alcohol or much caffeine, I have one cup of tea a day. Don't eat chocolate anymore or biscuits, crisps, anything sugary.

Previously when I tried to cut out gluten I couldn't tolerate the GF substitutes either but would literally starve without. I weigh six stone (doctor is aware). If I cut out gluten right now I'll probably die tbh. I can't tolerate meal replacement drinks either.

Doctors aren't really interested and just tell me my anxiety is the worst trigger so I need to lower stress levels and take OTC medication for symptoms. Have had full blood tests recently, nothing came up there.

Not really sure what to do. It was initially so nice to have the pasta as something different so now I feel upset it affected me. DH is also getting tired of eating the same things for dinner (he cooks as I have bad fatigue). I'm hungry now and would normally have toast but I just feel so sick.

Hi OP,
I have similar symptoms and a similarly restricted diet as a result.
They don't know what the reason might be, despite a colonoscopy and a gastroscopy.

What does seem to help is Esomeprazole twice daily (a really strong antacid). I was taking it just once, but the symptoms were getting worse. I still have to watch what I eat very carefully, but things are better now.

I just wanted to add that the doctor has told me to avoid almost everything on the list given above! Fatty, creamy, acidy foods are likely to exacerbate your symptoms, I think.

Good luck!

I second the coeliac test, my only symptom at diagnosis was going to the doctors as I was tired a lot. I also struggle to eat a lot of foods such as dairy, some carbs etc so could be worth having it checked just in case

FODMAP's been the biggest help for mine but I absolutely get that it's tough to do if you know someone the 'good' foods are triggers. I (not the only reason but a factor) stopped being veggie to make it work for me. I still get flare ups but it's much more under control. That said, I still always carry imodium with me every where I go. Sometimes no matter how many of the right things I've done, by tummy can still go haywire.
As you've been on antibiotics recently I'd definitely go for a big hit of probiotics and would recommend Symprove. Not cheap but it helps.
Solidarity.

@twoandcooplease I haven't done enough research to recommend a specific company but if you Google food intolerance test lots of options come up to purchase, my sil did one with boots and found out she was intolerant to lots of things, and they were not the obvious foods either

I've looked at FODMAPS but a lot of the allowed foods I also can't eat or dislike.

Seriously, OP, I'd not dismiss food because you dislike it - If there's something you can eat without it making you ill, get it down.

I started taking peppermint oil capsules an hour before eating. Not a magic bullet but it has helped a LOT - previously I would often wake in the night in pain due to bloating and cramps.

Not sure if it would be suitable, but when I had covid last year I had a really bad time with IBS symptoms. A friend bought me a pack of yFood drinks and they really helped my energy levels and felt very gentle on my poor gut.

Plain potato (aka dairy free mash or chips) also helped as well as fermented stuff in tiny amounts!

I would also push for more investigations - they can't leave you like this!

Do you take an antihistamine? It might be a histamine intolerance.

I was going to suggest gallstones/liver issue too.

So many times women are fobbed off with "IBS", when there's actually something more to it.

Try the Andrea Moritz book and do a series of liver and gallbladder cleanses. I'm doing them at the moment and my health is really improving after each cleanse.

for me cutting out gluten dairy caffeine and alcohol helped alot. I've also found utra processed foods trigger it .

Op, have you had a SEHCAT scan? You mentioned that the high fat foods on the pp’s list can set off your symptoms, so it’s well worth looking into bile acid malabsorption if that hasn’t been ruled out already.

This sounds similar to me - I was down to four safe foods and no clear pattern as to what made me ill or not. I was clinically malnourished.and underweight and a feeding tube was next.

With the hospital dietitian I worked on reintroducing food into my diet very slowly and mainly based on the FODMAP system but also egg, dairy and gluten free. Still can't tolerate red meat even though I 'should' be able to. But there are things that used to make me very ill (e.g. white rice) that I can now eat. I think it was a case of exposing myself slowly over many months/years and building up a tolerance..I'm talking increments of half a teaspoon up to gain exposure to new foods.

I can now eat over 70 different foods and have gained weight and am no longer malnourished. It has taken years and tbh has been the hardest thing I've done but 100 per cent worth it.

I have gastroparesis and my non-scientific theory isy body 'forgot' how to digest foods when I was unable to eat for so long and I needed to slowly reintroduce foods and suffer sometimes in the short term for long term gain. I can now differentiate symptoms from something that I really shouldn't be eating to 'normal' symptoms of my conditiomn/day to day life. I also got very afraid of eating so mentally it was very hard. Sometimes it had to get worse to get better.

Wishing you luck.

The fact you seem very sensitive to fat is a vote in favor of getting checked out for gallstones if you can.

Definitely try low FODMAP. We did it for my husband who is now diagnosed with ulcerative colitis but at the time we were told was "just" IBS. We discovered that some of the things we had thought were triggers actually aren't, but are just often served alongside or with other things that are the real triggers. Doing FODMAP is tough when you already feel hugely restricted, but it really helped us to get a grip of what he can and can't eat. The thing is, when your body is in such a constant flare I think some of the feedback you get can be inaccurate eg. You have a terrible flare, you think it must be x you had for dinner but actually it was y from the night before.

Would also recommend avoiding turmeric if you're not already, it's touted as being great for the stomach but a lot of people with IBS react very badly to it.

What kind of IBS is it OP? IBS C, IBS D or both?

Have a watch of these videos about IBS and Fodmaps. It really helped me get an understanding - I found that onions and garlic were a real trigger for me that I hadn't thought about.

NHS IBS Videos

You need to help yourself. I have IBS, major issues with most fodmap foods and a gluten intolerance. I was 90% veggie and very fussy before discovering this. Didn't eat fish, meat, eggs etc. I now eat a wide variety of foods.

You can't have oats as these contain gluten, switch to GF oats. Switch to GF bread, pasta, etc. Cook pasta 5 mins longer than normal. Milk substitutes (GF intolerance typically goes hand in hand with dairy).

Ask for Mintec capsules.

Alot of trial and error but first thing is to eliminate gluten and you will see a drastic improvement in gut health and your mood. It is hard but promise you it will be worth it xx

How are you anxiety levels right now? I thought I had ibs, however my GP said it was due to my stress levels and anxiety which was through the roof. Still have it now due to money stress but I know mine is more psychological than food related.

Link here https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/irritable-bowel-syndrome-study-finds-link-between-ibs-symptoms-and-stress

If you don't mind I'm going to jump on this thread as well, I've been having this problem for years and years. I completely feel your pai. And discomfort.

It can definitely be stress, but it can also definitely be physical, it's hard to say with IBS as it's such a hugely blanket diagnosis.

Whatever you do avoid the dodgy intolerance tests advertised to the public which claim to test for sensitivity to 300 foods for £30 or something - they have no evidence base and are a waste of money for meaningless results. ( their posts on social media are always full of comments about how much the test results have helped people, presumably due to the placebo effect.)

I think everyone it totally different and it took me literally 10 years to figure out a diet that helps me. I was eating pretty similar to you with a long list of foods I thought I couldn't tolerate but I was wrong, it turned out to be the bread, pasta and crackers etc. I'm pretty sure it's basically flour that I have a problem with but also cant eat porridge at all. All I know is cutting those things out really, really helps. I now have lots of meat and fish for protein, fruit, veg, salads and try and get fat mainly from dairy, nuts and avocado.

Also intermittent fasting solved 50% of my issues.

Oh and I did try gluten free, it didn't help

I second FODMAP, it’s changed my life. It shows how you can overload over 3 days. I couldn’t eat more than one wheat based product within 3 days. It also taught me that the triggers were not really triggers just overload.

This was what I was trying to avoid @baklavagoddess I find loads of these coming up when I've searched but looking into it it's only a blood test which can actually tell you what intolerances you have. I didn't know Boots did testing that's great to know your
SIL got one there so I will look into that in my local one thank you! I thought I would need an appointment with a specialist or gp