LMB

I'll try to make this brief. I am a 40 year old female who has suffered with IBS for many (10+) years. It has gotten progressively worse thru the years (ie, more and more gassy and bloated) but recently, I am having symptoms that are scary, frustrating, embarrassing, depressing, etc. My stomach/intestines/bowels - basically my whole digestive tract - make VERY loud, uncontrollable noises. I feel gurgling and movement/vibrations in my stomach/abdomen/bowels almost all the time. I've also been more "burpy" than ever before. I'm extremely gassy and bloated, but whereas I used to be able to fairly easily pass the gas, now it doesn't seem to want to come out! My bowels "vibrate" and move alot. I've tried changing my diet, to no avail. I've tried low carb. I've tried dairy free. I've tried vegetarian. Nothing seems to matter. In addition to having them all during the day, the symptoms are waking me up and keeping me up at night! It doesn't seem to matter what I do - I cannot make the stomach movements/noises go away. I try to push on my stomach where the noises are coming from, hoping to move the gas towards the exit, but this doesn't work. Sometimes I can even "feel" a "bubble" of gas or whatever it is, and when I rub on it back and forth I can actually move it around - as if it's a cyst or something - but since I can do this in several different parts of my stomach at different times, I'm sure it's not that (a cyst or some type of cancer or tumor). I've been having these severe type symptoms for less than 6 months. I am still having regular bowel movements, altho they lean more towards soft than hard. This is fairly new - my stools used to be solid but now almost 100% of the time they're light orangy colored and soft - but I wouldn't classify them as diarhea. It could be my diet in that I don't eat ALOT of meat. The newest symptom is that I'm feeling a little like I have indigestion in addition to the other stuff. I am definitely a "nervous" type person, so I'm sure stress is factoring into this somehow/some way, but even when I try to relax, do deep breathing, etc. it does not lessen the symptoms. I've described some of what I feel as if dropping a small rock into a glass of water - the "ploop" noise and feeling that would make is what happens in my stomach, in addition to all the other noises/movements. Other times my stomach make noises that sound like there's an alien in there! Whizzing and squeaking and bubbling and chirping. The symptoms seem to have a mind of their own and as I said, they are even waking me up at night. This is interfering with my life - I don't want to leave the house or be out in public! The noises are that loud! I'm wondering what the heck is going on with my insides. I feel twisted and nervous stomach and bloated all the time. I still have my appetite, altho my stomach is only able to hold very small amounts of food before I feel very full. I usually eat 4-5 very small meals a day. A "normal" meal for me would be less than half a meal for the average person. I eat a very healthy diet. Breakfast usually consists of fresh fruit (usually pineapple) and pecans with coffee (caffeine), splenda and soymilk. I take vitamins. I try to stay low carb (so I can keep my weight in check - I'm 5'2 and 115) but I'm not super strict or anything. If I eat bread or pasta, I make it whole wheat. I eat lots of veggies. I do eat cheese and other dairy products (sour cream, cream cheese, etc.) but I don't think I go overboard or anything. But again, even when I cut dairy completely out, I still had the symptoms (maybe I didn't stay off dairy long enough). I just want to know what is going on. I want to get my life back. I can't begin to tell you how this is affecting me and my marriage. My husband sees me upset and becoming a hermit because I'm so afraid of someone hearing my stomach. Even when I'm alone and my stomach is "acting up" I'm disgusted with myself. I can't stand to hear it/feel it any more!!!! It's gotten so bad that I've hit myself in the stomach to try to make it stop. It's brought me to tears and I'm at my wit's end. Any information would be so very helpful. I've tried beano but it doesn't seem to help (maybe I'm not taking enough). I've tried taking probiotic pills, also no help (again, maybe I'm not taking enough). I feel totally abnormal and disgusting and it's making me terribly depressed. I have been both to a "regular" doc and to a gastroenterologist and both think there's nothing wrong except for the IBS. I've had my bloodwork done - one test came back with normochromic normositic (I'm sure I spelled that wrong) anemia which no doc has been able to really figure out. I had a gastric empty study which came back normal. The gastroenterologist wants to do an endoscopy & colonoscopy but our insurance doesn't pay for it and we really can't afford it (altho if that's what I need I'll do it but I'd like to avoid it if at all possible). The doc says he's really doing it mainly for my peace of mind because as he said, he'd be "shocked" if anything came back as abnormal in any way. But I sure do feel abnormal! This is NOT normal! I'm hoping to just find out what could possibly be going on and how do I solve it. I appreciate this forum - even if I don't get any answers, it feels good just to have a place to talk about it with people who understand. They say 1 in 4 have IBS but when it's you, it feels like you're the only one on earth! Thanks.....