HealingWell
Search Close Search
☰

IBS?? or something else??

Support Forums
>
Irritable Bowel Syndrome
✚ New Topic ✚ Reply
❬ ❬ Previous Thread |Next Thread ❭ ❭
Posted 3/29/2006 2:20 AM (GMT 0)
Hi Everyone-

I have an eating disorder for 16 yrs now and recently decided i was ready for recovery. Back in Oct. i started a meal plan with my nutritionist and have lost 20 pounds. Since then (and could have been a little before) after i eat, i get gas, bloating, pain, and diarrhea, really bad. It is not lactose intolerant and i am not allergic to anything. My doctor gave me an antibotic incase of an infection and prevecid. I startred to take them both and with in a day, i felt so much better. A week later I saw a GI specialist, and he said it sounds like an infection and the anti-B helped it and told me to stop taking the prevecid. A week later the pain came back. I have no idea what this can be and I do not get by colonscopy until 4-13. Does this sounds like IBS or something else? Does anyone else have the same problems??

Any feed back would be helpful, I feel so lost not knowing what this can be.

Thanks for listening,

Mish

Posted 3/29/2006 8:11 AM (GMT 0)
Hey there Mish.  Good to hear you have a colonoscopy scheduled - that should give you some answers.  Your symptoms of gas, bloating, pain, and diarrhea are hallmark symptoms of IBS, but they can also be attributed to other disorders.  Where exactly is your pain?  How often are you having diarrhea?  You can be as descriptive as you want...we've heard it ALL before.

And congratulations on your decision to embark on recovery for your eating disorder.  That's a huge thing!  Can I ask what kind of eating disorder you've been dealing with?  That could give some clues about what's going on in your digestive system.  I assume your weight loss was purposeful, and if you had the help of a nutritionist, it was probably done healthfully. 

There are some great peeps on this board who can give you loads of info.  Some advice you might hear: start keeping a meticulous food and symptoms diary.  Also list any medications that you take and the effects they have.  This will be very beneficial for your GI doc.

Diagnosing GI problems can take a LOT of time and can be a frustrating process...we sympathize completely.

 

Posted 3/29/2006 5:33 PM (GMT 0)
The general refrain you'll hear from people on here is that when you take antibiotics, you need to take probiotics too. Those are the good bacterias found in yogurt cultures, acidophilus milk, etc. Sometimes you just get too much bad bacteria in your stomach and you can get gas and diarrhea and cramping from this. The antibiotics will kill the bad bacteria off, but they unfortunately kill the good bacteria off as well. So after a run of antibioitcs you have a nice, clean, mostly empty intestinal lining. Which means whatever did survive will multiply and reoccupy your guts (you also consume them from vegetables and other things). If more bad bacteria survived than good, they'll reoccupy your guts and you'll be back to square one. Which is what sounds like happened to you. This is known to happen with c. difficile, but that's only one particular nasty strain of bad bactiera and you could have that or some other kind(s). They usually treat c. difficile by giving additional rounds of antibiotics until it stops coming back. But if you don't repopulate your gut with good bacteria, it's a bit of a craps shoot as to whether good bacteria or bad will come back.

So mention this to your doctor and see if he wants to 1) put you on another round of antibiotics and 2) have him tell you how much probioitics you need to take. I read one dr.'s webstie (wish I could find it again!) and he recommended something like three or four times the normal dose of probioitics while on antibiotics and about twice the normal dose for a couple of weeks afterwards. If your doctor pooh-poohs the notion of probiotics, then ask your nutritionist or find an herbal or holistic practioner to guide you. Worse comes to worse, look up info on probiotics on the web. The worse you can do with them is give yoruself gas from taking too many at once. None of us here has ever found any info about overdosing on them; if you have too much bacteria, you'll just flush it out of your system. There's only so much room for them to attach and live in there.
Posted 3/29/2006 10:10 PM (GMT 0)
Hi Sarita,

Thank you on the congrats! I am trying so hard to put my ed behind me and become healthy. I have mostly been bulimic, but compulsive over eater and anorexic also. The pain usually comes on with the gas and bloating and is my whole lower stomach. And a weird feeling when i release by bowels also. I go about 5-10 times a day. It is either diarrhea or very soft and thin.

I have been working with a nutritionist to get my weight down a healthy way. Last year i took a medicationthat put 25 lbs on me in 2 months and caused me to relapse. So i have a whole team working with me to get me healthy and lose my extra weight the right way. Since Oct.I have lost 20-25 lbs.and i feel healthier except for this stomach issue. Oh and i have not purges since oct 21st!!

I kept the food diary, dropped the lactose, then the wheat, then the soy... and it still happened. So we figured it was none of that. Then i was taking some kind of primadophilis?? vitamin that i stopped taking.. and it wasnt that either.

I am glad my colonoscopy is soon, just a couple more weeks.

Thanks for your help:-)

Posted 4/13/2006 4:32 AM (GMT 0)
hi- i did try something cleld primadopholis?? and i still have the problems. i am kind of thinking it is just nerves- that seems to trigger my stomach alot lately.

thank you both for your replies. tomorrow i go for the colonoscopy- yes the prep was hell :-(

Posted 4/13/2006 5:56 AM (GMT 0)
nerves can trigger IBS. IBS is not a physical problem with the intestines it is a functional so it is not something they find when they do tests. It is a rule out proceedure. It sounds to me since the Prevacid worked that it could also be acid reflux. Have you had an endoscopy as you may very well have a bacteria in the stomach like h. pylori. When they do an endo they check for different kinds of bacteria and gastritis, etc. You might talk with the Doctors about this as it may be something an endo would show. Good luck. Let us know what they say. Yeah, the prep is the pits. Test is easier or should be.
Posted 4/16/2006 6:58 PM (GMT 0)
Mish,
How did the scope go????
Posted 4/17/2006 2:45 PM (GMT 0)
Hey Guys,   What is the prep for the endo..  I had one and don't remember a prep..  I think I need another one..  I have always had lower abd pain now I wake up in the middle of the night with bad middle of the tummy pain..  Burning and aching pain..  Nothing helps..  I feel really hungry sometimes..  I don't get heartburn..  What could this be??  Maybe hpylrori??  Has anyone had the small bowel endoscopy??  With the little camera??  I might ask for that test..  It is bad enough with the IBS now this crap!!!!  Any help would be great..  Thanks... sad
Posted 4/17/2006 2:58 PM (GMT 0)
Hi ryleigh,
They will be able to test for H.Pylori using the regular endoscope and they will take a biopsy of the stomach to test for this. The problem with the camera pill is that it can't take biopsies and even though tissue looks "healthy", there could be a problem that can only be identified through a biopsy. I think I read on the Crohn's board not too long ago that a small bowel endoscopy was coming or in the works or something like that... now that is a huge milestone.
Posted 4/18/2006 1:08 PM (GMT 0)
I'm new to this site but asked to be checked for c diff (clostridium difficile) specially since you were on antibiotics prior to this. I was given Clindamycin (a big time antibiotic) within 2 weeks i got extremely crampy, gassy, diarrhea and chills. I had to battle c diff for 2 months, the sooner you take care of it the less the damage. It has left me with mild IBS but i'm always wary that c diff will return (20% people diagnosed with c diff will keep relapsing) but i hope it's nothing major going on with you, good luck!
Posted 4/18/2006 7:47 PM (GMT 0)
thank you both for your posts.

i just had a colonoscopy on Thursday and the doctor took a biopsy of a couple different places of my intestines. He said everything came back normal. I still have this problem and dont know what to do. He suggested that i try the prevecid for 2 weeks and see if that works. but i am also taking a homeopathic remedy that the doc thinks will help this problem. i started that saturday so i will wait two weeks and if no change go on the prevecid and go from there. Could this just be my nerves? I am starting to think maybe it is:-(

Posted 4/19/2006 3:14 AM (GMT 0)
if it persists ask about having a stool test done for c diff although it usually shows in the colonoscopy. Good luck, no two doctors will agree on the same thing so if any questions, get a second opinion.
Posted 4/19/2006 3:53 AM (GMT 0)
i know- now i am going back and forth with the gi md and my homeopathic dr. anyone here do homeopathic? i am trying to find out the ingredients of what i take and my dr wont give me a straight answer- i am getting so mad!! i feel like the yo-yo going back and forth between doctors and getting no relief.
Posted 4/19/2006 2:33 PM (GMT 0)
The ingredients of what you take? Do you mean the chemical composition of prescription medicines? You should be able to get that from a pharmacist or even a book like The Drug Guide or Physican's Desk Reference to Drugs (can't remember the title(s) exactly, but you probably can find one at the drug store).
Posted 4/19/2006 3:00 PM (GMT 0)
it is homeopathic, you dont get this at the pharmacy. it is all natural

Is there a test for IBS to see if you have it??

Posted 4/19/2006 3:26 PM (GMT 0)
No, there is no test because IBS isn't a disease; it's a term used to describe a condition with, generally, no known cause. Basically they test you for everything else first and if you look to be perfectly healthy, they say, oh, you have IBS and then shoo you out the door.

If you think you have a bad bacteria, such as C. difficile, or a parasite, then you can get a stool sample tested. There is also a new test where you breathe into a machine and it analyzes your breath to see if you have a bacteira overgrowth. Both of these are treated with antibiotics, and, if your doctor doesn't have his head in the sand, some probiotics as well. If you have bowel problems after having your gall bladder removed, you can be put on Questran or Welchol for excess bile (diarrhea) or you can get some bile salts if you are constipated. If you are prone to vaginal yeast infections or thrush (yeast infection of the mouth) or even urinary tract infections, then you may have a yeast overgrowth of the intestinal tract too. I don't know if they can find that out by the breath test or not, but I think yeast overgrowth is also treated with antibiotics (and hopefully probiotics).

Then there are the people who have no known cause for their bowel problems, so the theory is that they have some sort of muscles or nerve issues at play in their intestinal tract--usually referred to as a motility issue. Either your intestines push things through too fast or they do it too slow. There are some strong prescription drugs for both problems, but they have a lot of side affects and are only employed for really bad cases. Everyone else just tries to make do with Imodiums or laxatives. There are some new anti-depressant drugs out now, though, that are supposed to help some people with their bowel function; something about the anti-depressant affects the motility of the bowel and makes it function better. I don't know if anyone here is on one of those drugs, but back when I first got on, there were some people trying them. Maybe they got cured and left the forum (one can hope!).
✚ New Topic ✚ Reply