I have had IBS type issues for years. Had endless tests but all come back negative so always told it’s IBS.
Have tried literally everything to help conquer this. I have tried various diets, avoiding ‘trigger’ foods/additives/sweetners etc (including dairy and wheat) and all drinks, to the point I am now on a strict low fodmap diet (been on it far too long which is not ideal) and drink only water so all very boring.
I feel that I have tried most of the off the shelf medications and remedies for IBS as well as most of the prescribed ones too.
I exercise, sleep 8 hours a day. I listen to all the gut directed IBS stuff/meditation etc.
Yet none of these things even reduce the symptoms by a little.
I have had so many gastro appointments and so many horrid tests and I feel they now just shrug their shoulders at me because they just don’t know what to do.
Yet I am still having daily symptoms.
But I am starting to wonder if my issues originate from my actual stomach?
I do have all the classic lower gut issues/IBS symptoms like mixed diarrhoea and/or sometimes constipation. Lots of gas, bloating and pain in certain areas and a general uncomfortable and unpredictable bowel but I also have upper issues too and it feels as though this is where it’s all generated from and then works it’s way down to my intestines and bowels?
I will get such a nasty queasy/ nausea feeling and acid like sensation which sometimes radiates to my back and lots of bubbling/popping (I am sitting here in a quiet room and my stomach sounds like a bubbling science experiment!). I can burp quite a bit too. Yet no test has ever picked up gastritis or any other stomach issue.
When I eat I often feel full quite quick, queasy and burpy and as though the food is fermenting in my actual stomach, several hours later it travels down to my intestinal and bowel area and that is when I bloat something crazy (I look 8 months pregnant) and the pain from that bloat can have me rolling on the floor. It can literally take hours to come out the other end as gas.
I had a gastroscope 3 years ago and biopsies for h pylori and coeliac, they were clear. I have also swallowed a pill camera which came back fine apart from a small erosion in my stomach, the gastro said this was nothing of concern and may have been caused by the prep I had to take beforehand. I have had a colonoscopy recently which was clear (still waiting on results from the microscopic colitis biopsies). A few months ago I had a us scan on my upper digestive issues, no gall stones etc. Also had a pelvic scan earlier this year, I do have some gynae issues but that scan was clear.
I am just getting nowhere with my GP I have googled so many things and fallen down lots of rabbit holes but am now wondering if I may have something like low stomach acid and due to that I may not be digesting my food efficiently enough (I do sometimes get a bad smell on my breath and funny taste)?
I know that I am grasping at straws but desperate to feel well again. I feel like I am having to be my own health detective as the gastro has now discharged me even though I still have all these symptoms and I’m on my own trying to find a cause to all of this.
Has anyone else had anything like this?