IBS or a rubber room?

First I wanted to say im brand new here. I’m a 44 year old male; I'll try and keep this as short as possible.
Christmas eve I got a case of cramps and diarrhea, with lots of gas, burping and gurgling. Thought it was a stomach thing and it would pass in a few days, well it did not. I went to my Dr. who gave my some Prilesex Pills to try and ordered a bunch of blood work and abdominal ultra sound. every thing came back good with the exception of elevated bilirubin levels all other liver functions were fine. My history showed my bilirubin has been elevated as far back as 1998 and he told me not to worry it’s what they call Gilbert’s syndrome.
My symptoms now became waking up early very nauseated and sick to my stomach, My first BM is a small amount and hard, followed by multiple softer smellier than normal BMs. After the BM’s my nausea would get much better, (This is not a daily thing, maybe 3 times a week) I was referred to a GI doctor who immediately set up a colonoscopy and the other test that goes down my mouth to see my stomach. Again all negative.
He then ordered a cat scan of my abdomen, again normal. My last visit I told him I was about the same, I told him about some lower right groin pain that seem to have started the same time as every thing else, he had me start taking Citrucel and ordered a pelvic cat scan to rule out trouble with the appendix and to see what else might cause the pain. Another perfect cat scan. He told me to call him in a couple of weeks to give him an update. (He wants to know how im feeling)
I’m a very uptight person that lets everything bother me, I take 2mg xanax 3 times a day to try and relax and spend 8 hrs a day on the computer reading all about the symptoms and trying to figure it out. That’s not good I figure I had 25 different diseases
I was even convinced I have pancreatic cancer even though the doctor assures me I don’t, by both cat scans and symptoms.
Every one tells me it’s IBS, my mom has it.
I’m either going to have a nervous breakdown or give my self a heart attack.
Thanks for listening
Lenny

Thanks for the reply,
Actually the doctor never said it was IBS, maybe he will on my next visit. I have greatly increaced my daily fiber (2 cups raisen bran in the morning, Lunch some kind of sandwich on whole grain bread, Dinners (whatever) and I am taking the fiber suplement Citrisal. What whould be a better choice than Xanax? What is probiotics? and what antidepresents would you recomend me to ask the doctor?
I have a couple more questons, sory to be a pain!
I get heartburn or acid reflux once and awlile also, dr. said everything looked good with the scope, is this an IBS symptom also?
And lastly, My stools are allways different, sometimes normal color and size, and a lot of times thinner and more of a brownish yellower than just brown, IBS also?
Ive tried seaerching that on the web, All I get is more depressed, I find tons of problems that couse yellow stool symptoms that tell me to run to the dr.
One of my dr. told me not to worry about that!
My problem is since everything comes back negitive, I dont believe them and think they missed somthing.
I dont know what to do, Like I said there going to lock me up in a padded cell (JUST AS LONG AS THERE IS A TOYLET) I just cant believe IBS can come on this fast, never had it then the next day bang! and at 44 years old.
Thanks again for listing to me, its hard to find some one to talk to.
Lenny

Check out my post on Gall bladder disease. It is oftentimes confused with IBS (mine was). Yellow stools that burn are usually a good indicator, but there are more symptoms listed in my post.

Be careful with heartburn medicines. There's an older post on here that I put up that has a link to a news article that says that people who take heartburn meds (certain ones causing many more problems than the rest) are more likely to catch a strain of bad bacteria, C. difficile, and this causes severe IBS and is very hard to get rid of. For some reason, I have noticed that doctors like to prescribe heartburn medicines where no heartburn exists. I got, I think, two prescriptions when I was presenting with gall bladder problems, although I never complained of heartburn. I think they think that it will help calm a nauseated stomach, but it never did squat for me. Probably because it wasn't acid upsetting my stomach but an irregular gall bladder. I wouldn't take heartburn medicine unless it definitely helps calm your stomach or you have frequent heartburn. The fact that your endoscopy came back good shows that you have no esopahgial damage (right now) that people with persistent heartburn have. So if you notice it doesn't help, be sure to bring it up with your doctor, because taking it can raise your risk of having other problems and there's no need for that if it's not correcting a problem in the first place.

And while we're not sure about scientific discoveries, we here on the boards have definitely noticed a herditary connection to gut disorders, so if your mother has IBS, then you probably do as well (meaning nothing worse!). My mother and several other family members had bad gall bladders and I ended up with a bad one too. Some people have family members with GERD and they get IBS. It's all related, I think. My G.I.'s nurse said, "sometimes it goes up and sometimes it goes down."

Ok, I already found something.  I think this is wonderful info about feces (ok, that statement sounded weird LOL)...

http://www.medfriendly.com/feces.html

I liked the feces site. I had it totally wrong about cooking food; that cooking makes things harder to digest rather than easier. It just looks like cooking would partially break the foods down and thus make it easier to digest.

And something interesting I heard on a National Geographic program was that human ancestors had smaller brains and heavier jaws because they needed a lot of facial muscle in order to chew food. When we invented fire, meat was suddenly much easier to chew when it was cooked and our jaws became smaller, our facial muscles lessened and we suddenly had room to grow bigger brains. I guess that's why I thought cooked food would be easier on the stomach. But, just because it's easier on the teeth and jaw doesn't mean anything about the stomach.

Thanks everyone!

I will look into Probiotics and if I need advice I will ask.

Im just scared about the yellow stools (which I dont allways have) and the ache in my lower right groan.

If I have Gilberts like they say, I dont remember noticing the yellow stools in the past. But I had no reason to notice.

As for the ache, It was cat scaned and nothing showed so I shouldnt be to concerned Maybe its just part of my intestants thats iritated.

I have to stop! reading and searching the web 12 hrs a day for every symptom I have.

I was and to a point still am very woried that maybe this whole thing is pancriatic cancer. Dr's say no, the cat scan would of showed it and the symptoms are not right.

A year ago I was sure I was having a heart attack and went to the ER.

7LIL you mentioned switching from Xanax to somthing else. What would you think would be better?

Thanks again all

Lenny

 

Thanks,

What about an alternite to Xanax like you mentioned earler and why? Is there pluses with somthing else?

Thw Xanax is morw for my ansyety. I will talk to Dr, about adding a antidepresent also.

As for probiotics, Im way confused now Some one told me that a couple of brands of yogert are the way to go. Again more confuesd.......... 

Thanks

Again

Lenny

Thank you,
If you come up with a one of a kind (better than all) Please pass a long the name.
Thanks again, Its nice to be able to tlk to others about this.
Lenny