IBS - What the fuck is WRONG with me?!

[OhLookMoreShit]

My stomach for months now makes the most horrific noises. Farting noises, belching noises, door creaking noises, whale noises, just absolutely awful. For the record I'm not allergic or intolerant to anything and it doesn't matter what I eat or don't eat or cut out or don't cut out. NOTHING makes a difference. I'm just bloated and uncomfortable ALL the time as soon as I've eaten. No other symptoms. Doctor has put it down to stress because I've had a very hard couple of years. I just want it to go away, I'm developing a phobia or being around people because it's so loud and humiliating. It's destroying my working life. Probiotics have done nothing either. I am so, so unhappy 🙁

I dont know how old you are but I have some of those symptoms due to acid reflux. I looked at a sheet from the doctor on food types and much of my diet was on the to avoid diet (onion, garlic, tomato, coffee, alcohol etc). I have removed what i sensibly can but am still struggling. So after 2 years will be looking at the next step.

I would wonder with the bloating though whether you have an intolerance to something. Check out common foods (eg dairy, lactose, gluten). I am vegetarian and many people cant manage Quorn or soya substitutes.

I'm 37 and alcohol has increased enormously this year... I've drank a LOT of booze. It's stopped now but I do wonder if it's caused damage, I've also lost 2 stone due to stress. Not been my year really :-(

Try peppermint tea, peppermint capsules two or three times a day

Have you seen a dietitian and possibly done a FODMAP diet? It aims to pin down specific ingredients that you are allergic or intolerant to.

I think you should push for a Gastro referral. IBS is an exclusion diagnosis and you need to be tested for other issues such as coeliac disease, SIBO, IBD before just saying you have IBS. That’s a significant weight loss.

@ThePontiacBandit

I think you should push for a Gastro referral. IBS is an exclusion diagnosis and you need to be tested for other issues such as coeliac disease, SIBO, IBD before just saying you have IBS. That’s a significant weight loss.

Sorry, to clarify, the weight loss is because my appetite decreased hugely x

The FODMAP diet has really helped me, along with medication like simeticone, mebeverine and omeprazole.

If you've lost weight rapidly it can affect your gall bladder function so moderating your fat intake at any one meal can also help. Get tested if possible for celiac and inflammatory markers, and thyroid issues.

Good luck, it's an absolute bastard tbh having IBS

I feel every inch of your pain, it is soul destroying. I have exactly the same. Even as I sit here typing my guts are growling and gurgling. I have had so many tests, am on the low fodmap diet for IBS, take IBS meds, basically have tried everything recommended for settling IBS and still my digestive system just WILL NOT settle. It drives me insane. It even wakes me in the night sometimes. I am very stressed though and have been for several year and I know that’s a huge contributor to gut disturbances. I am seriously thinking of going on some kind of antidepressants/anti anxiety meds as I feel I have exhausted everything else.

I had this exactly, word for word. It was helicobacter pylori, diagnosed by endoscopy. Heavy duty antibiotics and cured. Look for a gastro referral.

I think you need someone to have a good look at what’s going on. Have they done bloods? If not you need to get some done. Ask for a coeliac screen, and also a CA125. Ovarian cancer is very unlikely at your age, but bloating, loss of appetite, feeling full are all symptoms. And weight loss like that is not good.

Just to add I also did FODMAP, which I liked, but made no difference. I also had IBS.

Look into SIBO and IMO

My DH has had very bad IBS which is now mainly under control. Definitely linked to stress.

Ask for a dietitian appointment and try Fodmap and yoga. The dietitian DH saw sent us a clinical study which concluded yoga was just as effective as Fodmap in the study group. I was punching the air when she said this as I'd been trying to persuade him to do regular yoga (I teach it) to control stress but he'd never pursued it.

He did both - Fodmap and does yoga every other day from a video I recorded for him.

Happy to send anyone who wants it a link to the video - just pm me.

DH had had everything else ruled out btw, as others have said, make sure you've had the full range of tests for other conditions before accepting it's IBS.

Try this - it worked for me. Increase your “bulk” food for you large intestine. So oats, grains, veg, salads and fruit. Increase nuts and seeds (flax etc).
Decrease refined, white carbohydrates.
Increase fish (frozen can work too), decrease meat.
Try and see. Takes a little while but it does work.
Your body is starting hormonal changes now too.

@Yogateacherherehello

My DH has had very bad IBS which is now mainly under control. Definitely linked to stress.

Ask for a dietitian appointment and try Fodmap and yoga. The dietitian DH saw sent us a clinical study which concluded yoga was just as effective as Fodmap in the study group. I was punching the air when she said this as I'd been trying to persuade him to do regular yoga (I teach it) to control stress but he'd never pursued it.

He did both - Fodmap and does yoga every other day from a video I recorded for him.

Happy to send anyone who wants it a link to the video - just pm me.

Yes please!

Aerophagia. You subconsciously swallow too much air. The crazy noises are extreme gas. Look it up.

Just had my third massive poo explosion of the day. Happy fucking new year

Have you had your gallbladder checked?
H.pylori and gallbladder issues share many characteristics, (I had h.pylori, now I have gallstones)
You need to have some tests done by a doctor, h. pylori is very common, usually gives you gastritis and indigestion pain though. Gallbladder issues can go right down into your intestines and out the other end (literally) H. Pylori more upper digestive tract.

Doc told me to cut down dairy, wheat, sugar, alcohol, fizzy drinks. I know onions garlic and broccoli are my nemesis.
I also take an immodium every night.
I now go to the loo once in the morning ( instead of 7 or 8 times before dinner) and have almost got my life back!

I'm the same. I have no answers but lots of sympathy. It puts me off going to other people's houses.

My coeliac disease was triggered by epic stress. It had some very... audible... moments. Recovery can take months so an exclusion diet may not identify this quickly. You've probably had the test but I echo PP's advice to get screened if not.

I have/had terrible terrible IBS.

I had particular difficulty pinning mine down because it was both caused by terrible stress and also by a very small number of FODMAP foods so FODMAP didn't fix it if I was stressed, and almost everything was fine if I wasn't stressed.

What did I do? I left my job and got a new one with an organisation that values me as a human. I'm still regularly super stressed by work but it doesn't impact me at all in the same way as it did in an organisation where I had no value except as a cog in a machine. My current organisation recognises my contributions as valuable and views my humanity as a benefit with consequential human things like illness that come with it - my previous job would have far preferred to employ a robot if a suitable one were available.

I know you've mentioned diet but I would consider rethinking it - I thought for absolutely ages that mine wasn't diet related as I looked at the lists of different FODMAPs and was fine with lactose, fine with gluten, fine with frustose etc etc. Then I spotted a little group called galacto-oligosaccharides (sp?) for which everything listed was also in another group of FODMAPs pretty much so I had dismissed it as being a problem - but it was things like e.g. soy, lentils and beans. They can all make me unwell enough I can't go to work and keeping them cut out my life entirely is (as long as I don't go vegan/vegetarian) a very easy and worthwhile sacrifice.

That plus then a raft of medication options: omeprazole for stomach acid (symptom nausea generally), mebeverine for churning, simethicone for wind and loperimide for if everything is going wrong, plus a radar key off Amazon, means I live a basically normal life now.

To start with I had to take at least 2 medications absolutely religiously, it was frustrating and annoying but it got me to a point of stability and now I just take as and when required (less than once a week).

I recognise not everyone gets as good a result as that, but I lost 2.5 stone in 10 weeks when first diagnosed, sitting crying with pain while I worked, having to leave the room to be sick with the nausea and when a doctor told me my life might never improve I genuinely wouldn't have minded if I had never woken up again. It took 3 years to get to a point of semi stability, a further 3 and the acceptance that I needed to leave my job to stabilise it properly and I've now been reasonably fine for another 3.

Sorry about the total essay!

PS @Yogateacherherehello I would also love the link if you didn't mind!

Please get checked out further. My DF was diagnosed with suspected IBS 26 years ago. Turned out they were wrong and it was something much more serious that killed him shortly thereafter.

Do you use a lot of artificial sweeteners?

These can have laxative effects.