IBS Sorry if TMI

[Prettyfull]

Hi, I have IBS have been suffering for the past 9 months. When i first had it i had most of the symptoms, diarhoera (sp) bloated tum, major back ache, cramps, tiredness. Diarhoera is my main problem.

I have been to the doctors and have been given meds for bloated tum, cramps and back ache.

I know u can take Imodium for diarhoera but i cant take this on a daily basis. I am finding it impossible to eat anything and its really getting me down! I know my body is already suffering, i can only manage to eat cereal, so three bowls a day for me and thats it. Im not getting enough calories and not enough vitamins, minerals etc

I was advised to keep a diary to see what triggers it but ANYTHING i eat does!!

Just be nice to hear from anyone else suffering with IBS and any ideas/advise?

Thanks

Ask for a sedative before they do the colonoscopy. Makes the whole expereince a lot better.

Have you had this done ? I also been thinking cieliac D .
Gastro man said to do this camera thing first , and then see diet expert who can advise me on diet , did say about having the test that goes down into stomach but said depends how unhappy i am living with ym Bm ,hes also going to take biopsy from bowel will this tell me about cieliac ?Hes also taken blood for various tests and said will disscuss results of everything at the same time , sorry for such bad spelling typing whilst doing tea ,

I'm suffering from a sudden flare up today - haven't had an attack for months.

For me, it's a combination of the wrong foods and stress. In my case it's a diet that's too high in carbohydrate - so cereal would be a definite no no.

When I was first being diagnosed, I was told to eat more fibre but that made it worse. Helpful doctor's response to that was 'oh yes, that happens with some people'!

Peppermint tea helps and as far as the cramping (my main concern) a hot water bottle and going to bed is really the only thing.

As far as the diarrhoea is concerned, take the Immodium and get it under control, then you will be less stressed about it. And deal with your stress levels as well. Yoga and pilates are both good ways to do this.

Hope you're feeling better soon!

I had a sigmoidoscopy last year, which would have been a lot less uncomfortable had I been in less agonising pain anyway! That one is to look at the lower part of the bowel. Anyway, they diagnosed Ulcerative Colitis, a close relative of Crohn's. I can eat what I like, but too much alcohol doesn't do me much good!

I hope your appointment goes well. It's so miserable having a tummy not working well.

Thanks , have been quite stressed , mainly about this and my DH not been to well found out he has a enlarged heart ! waiting to see if he was born with it or something going on with it now .
Just want to get to the bottom of my problems to, takes so long and in the mean time keep googling symptoms [shook] not always a good thing to do .......

coeliac biopsy needs to be done from the gut, so down the throat. they will probably do that next if the colonoscopy is OK. Mine was done as an aside; I got a referral to a private gastro through work scheme after eight weeks of constant diahorrea four years ago. He scheduled me in for a colonoscopy and asked if my GP had tested for coeliac? I hadn't even heard of it. Anyway blood test came back positive so he did colonoscopy and gastroscopy at the same time (think spit roast ) and the gut biopsy came back positive.

I was told I had IBS fifteen years ago when I was 24, after suffering gut problems since I was about 13 or 14.

have you tried avoiding wheat/gluten?

Thanks lacka, havent tried changing anything as gastro man said not to and wait to do properly so as to slowly rule things out , do you know can you get cieliac D or is it something your born with ? i was fine till i had such bad time with bug bought home by ds over a year ago now , had diahrea and vomiting at same time gastr man did say that after this things can be a trigger for IBS .....maybe trigger cieliac to ? wil have to ask .
Do you have cieliac?

Only read a few of the first posts but this has helped me so much.

Thank you.

, does hep to talk iv been going crazy and do find feel alot better talking to others with similar problems

I do, but mine was kind of in the background until I had a sickness bug four years ago, and the symptoms just never went away. Looking back things got worse after I had my DS, and I've since read that pregnancy can be a trigger.

from what I've read since diagnosis, it's something you have all your life. Unfortunately my mum and dad have both passed away, so I can't ask what I was like after I was weaned (although I do know I was weaned onto rusks when I was 10 weeks old!). I do know that I never used to eat bread and pastry stuff out of choice when I was little, so maybe I was instinctively steering away from them? I never felt the need to stay away from cake though

I hope you can get some answers soon. I was lucky in that I had BUPA cover at work, so was only really ill for about four months (I would have waited at least eight months for a gastro referral on the NHS and that's before they would even start testing)). They were a miserable four months though as there is nothing quite like nasty bottom symtoms to make you feel unattractive, uncomfortable, unclean and just bloody miserable

I saw your thread NotABanana I hope you can get some answers too.

Thats weird you saying that about tummy bugs Daisy, my IBS has been 100 times worse since I had a sickness bug at xmas.

Infact, before then i'd not have even classed myself as having IBS because the symptoms were infrequent, normally only at the time of my period.

Since the bug, I feel ill with it pretty much all the time.

Thanks , can i ask were your symptoms same as mine ?
Floating Bm ,undigested food, oily at times , shreedy looking ?

erm, I didn't ever look too closely , but definately undigested food, stools often very pale and mucousy (if that's what you mean by oily).

well undigested food , fluffy and with a kind of oil look on the water,gross i know to talk bout these sort of things ,but it does help to understand what may be going on .....so thanks

Mine was triggered by a tummy bug too. I will ditto the basically undigested, chicken soup like stool that squirted out sometimes. NIghtmare.

Think when i see gastro man again will mention this , think this is what may be going on ,i didnt realise so many people had similar problem as me......
Dont fancy having camera down the throat though and as i understand this is the only way to get correct diagnoses .
Interesting that things can be triggered by bad bug ....
How are things with you now smug if your there?
thanks

Hi Iworryalot

My raging diarrhoea resolved itself when exp was removed from my house. It cleared up spookily quickly, like within a week.

Now, I get the odd flare up, and this is usually triggered by a too-large meal, a very high roughage meal (think peas, sweetcorn, beansprouts), a very high fat meal (rare now!), coffee (but not really tea except when I alreadt HAVE a flair up) and sometimes beer (but not other alcohol).

So a rice and pasta and white bread based diet (all white at first) might go some way to slowing your digestion down, and steer clear of peas, sweetcorn, crisps, stirfry and lighly cooked vegetables. Cook all your5 veg until soft for a couple of weeks, eat low fat meats, go easy on cheese and eggs, peel all your veg (including potatoes) and avoid fruit for a week.

See what happens./ It might make it worse, but it did help me. I still get the urgency sometimes, especially when I have had a busy morning, but the diarrhoea is much eased

I have done a bit of reading about IBS and have discovered that it's linked with gastro-intestinal bugs as well as candida. The latter can also be associated with antibiotics usage. I had ongoing acne during my teens and was constantly taking antibiotics, so I wonder if that did it for me?

I also suffer from thrush occasionally and when I was reading about candida came up with the link to IBS.

Yes i had heard about the connection between candida infection and i to had it on and off last year , i had a coil then and kept coming back took 3 lots of thrush canisten pills , decided to have coil out as became so bad and heavy periods , symptoms better now but like you say maybe is still in my system , dont know ......

Hi, im posting again after quite a while. I have been to this hospital and doctors and have def been diagnosed with IBS before i kinda just assumed it was. Anyway,...

I need some advise, this is getting ridiculous,..im living on these imodium tabs alomst every day i have tablets for back pain which i get with it, tabs for heartburn and tabs for the bloated tummy. I dont wana be on these tablets everyday, but most of all the imodium ones as they r really messing with my body.

If u take them for more then 2-3 days you end up constipated in major pain and if i dont take them i feel i cant go out incase i get the side effects, or i just dont eat even when im starving.

Im still trying to work out what actually triggers my IBS i believe its stress as i have the side effects everyday!
I just wondered how everyone else copes with it (as from starting this thread i realised how common it is!!)

Thanks xx

What painkillers are you on ?? My GP gave me codine, as a side effect of it is that it can bung you up a bit, and so it would then also help with stopping the dioreah.

Only thing is, they make me a bit woozy.

When you take the immodium, how many do you take ?? I have found that taking one is just about right. It stops the dioreah, but doesn't stop me actually going to the loo all together iyswim. Taking two makes me constipated.

Hi ya, yea codine which they said would make me bunged up, but i dont take them everyday as i dont always have the back pain. I hate taking tablets so i try to take a little as possible. I only take one imodium capsule which is fine for one day, but if i do this 2-3 days or more in a row i get really constipated with so much pain in my tummy.

I really hate this cos i cant see a way of over coming it, the docs said you can grow out of it???? I believe stress is my trigger and also im a very anxious person,but theres no way right now of improving the things that stress me out if that makes sence,...so its going to be an on going thing.

I dont want to be on these tablets everyday of my life, worrying if i eat over my new partners house am i gona have the side effects for example.

Grrrrr lol

You sound exactly like me. Stress and anxiety is also my trigger.

Have you tried having 1 immodium every other day, or would that not work ??

It probably would work, but the days i dont take the tablets i usuall dont eat, or just have breakfast which in turn is having an effect on my body and my moods! Im contsantly tired and my body feels like im about 60 ha ha im only 24!!! Also, most days i see my new fella he he and i really dont fancy having diahroea round his place lol so i usually feel better taking them especially if he offers to cook, i take the now before i even have the diahreoa!

Its really p*sses me off that there is no alternate way of dealing with IBS,...or is there?? lol It bugs my how the docs just think shove her on these tablets and it'l be fine,...but its not!

God i could go on moaning about it all day long ha ha it really gets me down as you have prob noticed lol

So how do you deal with yours? Do you eat ok or find yourself not eating etc??

I sometimes wonder how the hell im going to go back to work when DD start full time school cos of this dam IBS