I am 20 years old, female, and have recently been going through a difficult time with a whole mess of symptoms. About eight months ago I began to wake with heavy stomach cramping and being a busy college student I dismissed them as being related to my menstrual cycle and attempted to put the discomfort on the backburner. The stomach cramping eventually went away, but then about a month later it reappeared. Month after month it came and went, until I finally decided a visit to the doctor was necessary after a few other symptoms began to appear... including: constipation, weakness, sharp pain in my foot, fatigue, and more. After being referred to a GI specialist he ran blood tests for celiac and chron's. When those came back negative he decided to perform a colonoscopy and endoscopy (both with fine results). I was sent home after the procedure with medication for what he considered to be a Irritable Bowel Syndrome and Lactose Intolerance. I was comforted to finally have some form of a diagnosis, but I'm reluctant to accept it. Days later I began to keep a food diary to try to relate certain foods with my heavy cramping. After a week I stopped, as it seems all foods triggered them the same. The IBS medication is doing nothing for me, and recently I have been having even more symptoms. I wake up in the middle of the night sweating, small red bumps are appearing on my skin, recurrent headaches, fatigue (after plenty of sleep), a lot of mucus in my stool, and lately small amounts of blood in the toilet bowl. My eyes are bloodshot, I go back and forth between chills and sweating, and I have had three occurrences of what feels like my insides shaking beyond my control. Lastly, the cramping I feel appears seven-eight hours after eating, and I often wake up with the pain (another reason why I am not quick to accept IBS.) I am aware many of these symptoms could be mere coincidences... but I know my body, and that something isn't right. Please help... any advice would be very much appreciated!!! Thank you!

The symptoms that stand out in your list as being inconsistent with IBS are:
"weakness, sharp pain in my foot,night sweating, small red bumps are appearing on my skin, recurrent headaches, eyes are bloodshot, I go back and forth between chills and sweating." While all these (except the foot pain and rash) can occur while one is in the middle of a particularly brutal bout of C or D, they are not typical of the everyday symptoms which define IBS.

I had two thoughts reading your post. One: perhaps some type of bacterial infection. Were you tested for this? Was a stool sample taken? Did your doctor suggest the possibility of parasites?

And Two: Gallbladder. Do you still have yours and if so, did your doctor check it?

There are some excellent threads here on how to distinguish gall bladder attacks (which famously occur during the night) and IBS symptoms.

Good luck!

Hi there bellyblues and thanks for the advice! To answer your questions... yes, my doctor did test me for a whole mess of bacterial infections and parasites, all came back negative. However, thanks to your mentioning of the gallbladder I began to look into it. I appear to fit many of the symptoms, however, for someone of my age, size, and diet, I don't necessarily fit the label so I was a bit hesitant. Yesterday, was my doctor's appointment to discuss all my newest symptoms. After describing them yet again, my doctor decided the following... since I have already had the colonoscopy and endoscopy with no results he wants to look further. As a result he feels there could be a problem wiht my GALLBLADDER (just as you had mentioned), my liver, pancreas, or signs of Chron's disease in the middle portion of my colon (the part he can not see with either the colonoscopy or endoscopy). I go back in two weeks for an abdominal ultrasound to check my organs. I had blood taken to check my CBC as well. If he ultrasound shows nothing, the next steps he said are as follows: a small bowel series (barium x-ray), and then a capsule endoscopy. I am really lost as to were this is all going, as it has taken so long to diagnose and now my doctor has revoked on the diagnosis of Irritable Bowel Syndrome. Any other advice that anyone had would be much appreciated. But for now, thanks so much BellyBlues for your help!

Well the latest and greatest... all the previous symptoms I listed are still present however... today I have woken with bruises on my shins. Not a lot three, on one two on the other... but none the less... I never bruise and didn't hit them, and BOOM there they were. I had my CBC checked last week before the bruises and my blood cell count and platelts were all normal. Any ideas? I feel like symptoms are popping up everywhere!

I feel so bad with you having these extreme symptoms. Hang in there! They will find out what is wrong by process of elimination. It is so frustrating I know, test after test trying to figure out what is going on and in the meantime you suffer. I am going through some tests too, but it has to do with my thyroid and some other issues. However I wanted to mention that I have had IBS most of my life. Certainly from my 20's into my 40's. What you have does not sound like IBS. IBS for me is alot due to me being allergic to dairy. I can't even have Dairy queen or I have stabbing pains in my intestines then I have diarrea for about 2 hours after I have digested that. UGH! Mine is directly correlated to the food I have eaten and I can time it from 2 to 4 hours after the given food is eaten. You can bead up with sweat from the pain you are in until it all gets out. Man in hurts!! But then it is gone, pretty much just like that. There isn't a rash or foot cramps or bruising.
IBS also comes with my anxiety issues and hypothryodism. When you have a slow inactive thyroid you can get heartburn and diarrea or constipation because your plumbing just isn't working smoothly. Once I get my thyroid running smoothly again then the IBS seems to straighten out again.

So all this to say...you could have a touch of it if you are allergic to dairy or certain foods. Keep a food and med journal. I do! It's so helpful. But keep track of anything you may be doing that may cause the symptoms. It sounds like some other internal thing going on. Obviously I am not a doctor, but autoimmune disorders do funky things to the body. But DON"T PANIC! They will get it figured out! All the best to you sweetie! Let us know how you are!:)

Hi there TEdwards!
I really appreciate your post! It was certainly nice to hear all the kind words you had to say. I certainly hope they figure out what is going on with your thyroid so that you can start feeling better and your IBS can get more under control for you.

You are correct my symptoms certainly do sound like IBS, and this is what my Dr. had originally thought after my colonoscopy and endoscopy turned up inconclusive. He thought I was lactose intolerant (so gave me lactacid to take) and also put me on an anti-spasming pill (the name of it currently escapes me). However, even though I stayed true to the meds and ways of eating, the pain didn't subside, even in the slightest. In fact after having a bowel movement I feel no relief. And if I do feel any, it is only for a matter of a minute, and then the constant pain continues. I wake with the pain (after not eating for 8+ hours). I will eat and be fine, then not eat for several hours, and have the effects then. I also had blood in my stool (which Dr. says could be from an internal hemrroid (sp?), but he is now revoking his diagnosis of IBS (actually this has happened only days ago, after I had listed this initial post). I am now going in for further testing in a week to check my small intestine and an ultrasound on my organs... he thinks my gallbladder may be acting up. So, you could still be correct with the whole IBS thing, but then again who knows-I just want an answer (but who doesn't... right?) haha.

I really appreciate your post, and look forward to talking to you in the future in regards to a hopeful good news about your thyroid complications.

Best of Luck!

I'm not super familiar with ALL of the digestion issues that I hear about on these posts. But from what I've read IBS is often confused with Chron's or celiac. Especially since someone mentioned the thyroid issue b/c I believe all of these are actually autoimmune issues. Just wanted to "put a bug in your ear" so you're aware of as many possibilities when you talk to your doc.

Thank you much LadyItalian-
Yes, I have actually been quite aware about the celiac, IBS, and chrons. I have had my blood drawn twice as well as a biopsy of my intestine done to test for celiac... the results were negative. In regards to IBS, that was my initial diagnosis but then he revoked that, so now he is thinking IBD. I certainly agree with you though, I feel as though so many of these things sound the same... then as to make it worse... the tests are not 100% effective. What a struggle. I really want to thank you though for your response!