IBS vs Crohn's questions

gumby - I take my own gluten-free breakfast cereal with me now, pack a couple of gluten-free KIND bars in my bag and eat sparingly from challenging menus like the ones you talked about. I'm sorry that your niece's wedding menu was so yuck - surely these days we don't need to eat carnival food at a wedding???

Do you think that an anti-spasmodic would have helped with that pain on your travel day?

I recently ran out of my psyllium capsules and it really set me back. It's taken a couple of days to get back to feeling good - but yeah, all of this was due to not moving my bowels often enough.

The actual wedding had a four course sit down dinner...the other food was from the rehearsal dinner and the restaurant the night before. But even at the fancy dinner, there seemed to be limited things I felt comfortable eating. I did a good job avoiding foods that I knew would be trouble, but then I ate potatoes and rolls and things like that. I forget how picky of an eater I have now become until I go away and notice it. I guess my question is whether just slight constipation can really cause that much discomfort??? Or does Crohn's disease in remission still cause trouble, or is this all slow transit IBS? At any rate, I'm very happy to be home:)

My daughter has severe IBS and no inflammatory bowel disease and yes gumby, she actually suffers a lot more than what you've described...she is often on the toilet crying in pain for 2 hours or more, at a time.

Some believe that it's not possible for an IBDer to also suffer with IBS and some of us that do, know better lol....

From the CCFC;

"You may have heard of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and wondered if it is the same as IBD. While often confused because their names are similar and their symptoms can seem comparable, the two are not the same.

Yes, both diseases affect the digestive tract. However, with inflammatory bowel disease, inflammation is the key characteristic. In irritable bowel syndrome it is thought that problems arise because of changes to bowel function or the way the brain senses what is going on in the bowel; inflammation does not play a role. It is possible to have IBS if you have been diagnosed with IBD. It is also possible to have just one or the other."

When it comes to certain gut symptoms, I have always found it impossible to tell whether it was the Crohn's or Crohn's-induced IBS causing them - gas or bloating, for example, are incredibly general. With BMs, watery, as opposed to loose stools, tend to indicate organic rather than functional disease. But with constipation it's harder to tell. I feel your pain though. I have been through bouts of constipation and it is a miserable thing: would far rather have diarrhoea in many ways. My experience has been that pre-Crohn's and early on in my disease, I could go a few days without having a BM without feeling pain. But at some point that gradually changed. Not going for just one day would lead to pain, discomfort and misery the next day. I even began to become paranoid about not going, to the point of making sure I always had Miralax and one or two other laxatives in stock.

I have also found that any change to my routine, food, etc. would often make it harder for me to go. It was sometimes as though my bowels went into sulk mode, much like their owner :p

I don't really have a lot of advice to offer, unfortunately. Try to remain regular (I found drinking hot water helped, if you can stomach that; if not, drink other clear hot liquids). And by all means try an antispasmodic: it can't do any harm to try IBS meds. Hopefully your GI will prove more helpful tomorrow!