Hi everyone

I have been diagnosed with IBS, which seems to be the "bucket" diagnosis for problems that doctors cannot get to the bottom of (excuse the pun). I would be interested to hear if anyone has the same sort of symptoms as me as I have found little information on the kind of problem I have.

First and foremost I suffer from terrible flatulence, which I realise is a common IBS symptom. I've had this for as long as I can remember, and the problems aren't just in the volume of wind but also how horrendous they smell. Thankfully my wife can (just about) put up with it, but it can be a problem at work where I constantly have to leave my desk to go outside, or just bottle it up and get more bloated as the day goes on. By evening my stomach looks like I have swallowed a football (and I have a slim build, so it looks worse on me!).

My second symptom is diarrhoea, which again is common amongst IBS sufferers, but I wonder how many of you get the kind of pain with it that I do? Thankfully I get this infrequently - maybe once every couple of months - but the pain is unbelievable. I have to say it must be one of the most painful experiences a person can go through.
It always happens in the evening, about 20 minutes after finishing my evening meal. It comes on very quickly - the waves of pain and bubbling inside, when you know diarrhoea is on the way. From the start of these feelings it's usually just 15-20 minutes before I'm on the toilet in agony.
Once there the pain gets worse and worse, I break into a cold sweat and go deathly white. My clothes are soaked, and I get ringing in my ears and feel really faint (all symptoms of low BP?). I often also puke as well. The waves of pain in my bowels comes and go, but it is excrutiating - I just can't describe how bad it is. I'm slumped on the toilet leaning against the wall trying my hardest not to either faint, or collapse from the pain. I have no energy at all, and find myself "grunting" each time the waves of pain hit me. It's like I'm not in control of my body. I don't even have the energy to "push", even though that's what I really need. After about 20 minutes the diarrhoea has reached freedom and it literally just runs out of me like water, without the need to push at all.
I must apologise for the graphic nature of this thread, but we're all friends right?!
After around 45 minutes on the toilet the symptoms fade away and before you know it i'm fine again, almost as though nothing happened. No more episodes of diarrhoea, just a bit sore and even more full of wind than usual, as my bowels have been completely emptied. The next day is spent listening to my insides bubbling and growling as they are so empty.

Doctors did a gastroscopy and endoscopy but found nothing. I have never found any pattern between what I've eaten and when it happens. I have a very slight suspicion that it may be when my trouser belt is too tight, or have been eating leaning forwards, but unlikely. It's also possibly stress related but not convinced on that either. This has been going on as long as I can remember - certainly back to teenage years (I'm 36 now). What worries me is that the pain seems to be worse than back then.

Can anyone else sympathise? Is this level of pain unusual, or is it the norm for diarrhoea?

Thanks in advance

Andy

Yep. I used to have horrible bouts like that, and often they would keep me in the bathroom for up to four or even six hours. Same things. Waves of pain and bloating, sweats, weakness, sometimes passing out for a time. I rarely vomit, but often feel like I'm close to it. Eventually everything would start coming out and I'd slowly start feeling better. Though I always have a slight stomach ache after, and am so weak that I generally have to take a nap or at least lie down.

My sister used to have this too, and we both came up with a nickname for it: "Bargain with God". As kids when either of us had this, we'd sit there in pain, praying, "Please God, just take this away and I promise I'll never do X again, or I'll make sure to do Y better, etc.". Silly I know, but we still use the term now to describe it and no one else knows what we're talking about. ;)

I rarely get bouts that bad anymore, though I still have regular ongoing problems. A few things that helped me over the years: Drink lots and lots of water all day, every day. Always have a water bottle with you when you go out anywhere. Try cutting out all dairy, egg, and citrus from your diet (sucks, I know, but it can often help). Eat lots of fruit and veggies. (If they still cause problems, make sure to cook them first). Whenever possible, replace white starches with whole wheat. Avoid sugar and preservatives. Stick to the "whole foods", basically the stuff you make from scratch at home. Make sure you get some healthy oils in your diet regularly, like olive oil, flax seed oil, or sesame oil. If you like tea, mint tea can be soothing.

I've just started drinking aloe vera juice daily and I think it may be helpful. Too soon to say what the long term benefits will be though.

Anyway, hang in there. You're not alone!

Hi Andy,

I had many of the symptoms you describe, but also including spasms & searing pain that would cut from the back door up through my gut. In my case the episodes would last MANY hours, and I would be bedridden, weak for a day each time; but not every day.

My IBS problems started in infancy (so I'm told; called spastic colon back then) & lasted for 5 decades. I was hospitalized 3 times over the years, to no avail. Scoped, x-rayed, proded, tested, with the only finding being "medication-resistant IBS."

Over the yrs. I developed a routine that seemed to help me "manage" my symptoms -- a bit. However, the problem interfered hugely with employment, social life, and family. It was difficult to plan things when I knew I could not predict whether I'd be around to follow through.

When my second child (as well as another, yrs. earlier) was diagnosed with severe gluten intolerance, I decided the whole family would eat gluten-free -- easier to shop & cook once rather than twice. Within a month, my lifelong pain DISAPPEARED. It has only recurred one time, when I did purposely try "just a little" cheat. While my kids have medically defined food allergies (and one also is a latent celiac), I share none of their positive test results. Yet gluten free diet has been my miracle. No more pain. No more doctor consults. I have my life back. Only wish I'd discovered this decades ago.

My son had severe gas issues until his gluten allergy was diagnosed & treated with GFD.

I'm not saying that gluten is your problem, but a subset of IBS sufferers does respond beautifully to GFD. The most definitive way to discover whether you are one of them, is to do a dietary elimination of gluten. GFD is unlike any other diet that ordinary mortals undertake ... A great book on the subject is Gluten-Free Living for Dummies, by Danna Korn. It's important to be knowledgeable; GFD must be done scrupulously if it is to be helpful -- going halfway or even 95% of the way can still result in symptoms.

Having spent decades hobnobbing with other IBS sufferers, I can say quite confidently that most people struggle on in silence. Doctors in the past have had little to offer that was truly effective, however recently there have been a few new meds to try: one an antibiotic, the other category of med sort of gut SSRIs.

IME there are more people who conquer IBS with self-help than with medical management. There are other/different food intolerances or allergies that can trigger IBS. Dairy is a very common culprit. If you would consider working with a naturopath or holistic doc, sometimes a stool analysis will yield info on a nasty bug that is causing the problem, and this sort of thing is usually treatable.

Your hunches about stress and/or tight clothing/belt are not too far off the mark. These things commonly worsen IBS symptoms. The clothing has an easy fix; the stress a less easy fix, but something all of us in our modern world benefit from addressing.

The pain of IBS varies a lot from person to person. For some people the pain is merely annoying & distracting, for others it's bad enough to seek medical advice, and for people like myself, severe enough that narcotics were prescribed (unhelpful). The pain can change in nature and/or severity over time, like everything else about us.

Best wishes.