Can anyone relate? - Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) Message Board

cabins513 · 11-12-2003, 09:56 AM

I was diagnosed w/ IBS about 5 years ago, and about 6 months ago I was diagnosed w/ acid reflux. I'm not sure If this anything to do w/ either. I also have extreme anxiety and panic attacks. The past 6 months my anxiety has been through the roof..so much that I lost my job from not being able to work...when my anxiety gets real bad, my IBS gets real bad too. Anyway, For the past couple months I have been constantly bloated. I don't mean bloated a lot. I mean it does not go away. This is not the kind of bloated we females get prior to our monthly cycle....and this isn't the kind of gassy bloated. I have felt bloated w/ gas before. This is different. This feels kind of like bloated w/ a big fat greasy meal. It makes me feel very heavy in my upper abdomen and sometimes in my chest. It's like I always feel full, even when I havn't eaten. As a matter of fact...eating helps. It goes away right after I eat temporarily. Whenever I get the diarreah associated w/ the IBS..and i'm in the bathroom all day....this bloated, heavy feeling will get so bad that it feels like I can't get a deep breath, and will actually make me short of breath, and have to sit down a lot, b/c I just feel too heavy to walk and breathe. It's kind of like when you have eaten WAY too much and you just gotta sit down. I'ts like that, only I didn't eat anything. So basically, the more empty my stomach gets, the worse it gets. It seems to me that this would be an acid thing. Like a lot of acid in my stomach, and it gets better when I eat b/c the food neutralizes the acid temporarily, and the reason it gets worse when I have diarreah is b/c I'm emptying my stomach and there is nothing there to absorb the acid. I've experienced this before, but not to the point that it lasted all day every day for a month or two. I'm starting to freak out. I'm afraid that I have stomach cancer. I got an upper GI (the barium swallow test) and they did xrays of my digestive system and didn't see anything other than the acid reflux...but the GI doctor wanted to do a scope down my throat to see if I had any ulcers, and I wouldn't let them b/c I'm afraid to be sedated, and they have to drug you to do it. My question is....does anyone else experience this, or as often? Is this just the IBS? Sorry for such a long post, but I'm scared.

6th_sense · 11-13-2003, 02:03 AM

Hi Cabins,

I'd like to let you know that the people on this board are very supportive of you. Your symptoms do sound like IBS/Gerd, however, I can't be sure. I'm not sure why you are afraid of being sedated, but getting a scope test may be the best way to find out what really is going on. I've been sedated myself for tooth extractions, and the truth be told, I was on some kind of gas that just put me to sleep - it was great - I didn't have to feel a bit of the pain of the doctor putting his tools in my mouth, and there were no side effects.

I've also had a colonoscopy done (scope up the rear end) and I had a local aneasthetic applied. It would have been nicer I guess to have had the sedation in retrospect - but it wasn't all that bad. -> In fact, because the lab technician made an error she prepped me for an upper GI scope, when I asked her why she was getting my throat ready - my throat was pretty numb - and given the kind of nervous personality I have - it would be better to sedate me if I had to have something pushed around/through my mouth.

Well, I hope you work up the courage to get the scope done. It would help the doctor get a better look at things and that will relieve you afterwards - perhaps more so than the trouble of having a sedation. If the sedation is anything like the one I had, you won't feel anything. He would then be able to rule out problems that he wasn't able to find on your upper GI barium swallow or the X-rays - I would be more frightened of X-rays - those things are more invasive and problematic than anything else.

In reality you would know better if there was cancer, or if there was something that the doctor could have easily cured. (I doubt its cancer - they usually show up on X-rays -although the smaller the cancer, the harder it is to detect with X-rays). Either way let us know what happens - and focus on the outcome to help with the fear - worry more about knowing the solution (ie cancer etc...), than a simple sedation - that'll help you much.

Cheers, Raju.