need advice...please

I am new to this board b ut it looks like it could be helpful..I just started taking Metamucial 2 days ago..reason being is that I am trying to get some bulk in my stool and cut down the # of times a day that I go. I have not been officially diagnosed with IBS but have been struggling with this problem for years. Everytime I go my stool is never bulky it is always like diarreha or just real soft and all in little pieces.My triggers are foods...seems like everytime I eat I need to go to the bathroom and anxiety....if I know there is no bathroom around just the anxiety makes me NEED to go. I am starting a new job on Monday and it is on the road where there is no bathroom onsite..need to go find one when you feel the urge.My question is..do you think that the Metamucial will help me out..seems like the last 2 days my 1st 2 BM's were more solid than normal but then later in the day just real loose and small piesces again.Im hoping that taking Metamucial in the morning and then maybe at lunchtime will help out. I have been prescribed Lomotil tablets and use them as needed over the last few years..they work awwsome..always get me thru the day when I take one of those babies! but I dont want to become dependent on them....any advice will be greatly appreciated!!

I think all fiber products help both constipated people and people with diarrhea, although I think it's better to have more insoluable fiber than soluable fiber when you have diarrhea. The insoluable stuff is what adds bulk. Too much soluable, I have read, can actually make diarrhea worse. Tough vegetables have a lot of insoluable fiber--bell peppers, carrots, broccoli. They also all have soluable fiber, but more the former than the latter, which is good for you. I think each brand of fiber mix has different levels of soluable to insoluable fiber, so you may want to look for one that has a higher percentage of insoluable. But if you are getting help from the Metamucil, then, by all means, continue to take it.

Have you read our posts about calcium pills for diarrhea? Try a Caltrate 600 w/ vitamin D pill or two every day and see if that helps any. Doesn't help everyone, but it does help a lot (has helped me). You may need to time them based on when your diarrhea is worst. If I'm going to have stomach problems, they're going to be in the morning, so I take my medicine first thing when I get up, then I don't eat breakfast for at least 30 minutes afterwards, to give it time to get in there and be ready. If I need a second regular dose, I usually take it right before I go to bed so that it's in there when I wake up and get cranked in the morning.

And this may sound really radical, but I have read on another site about a woman whose diarrhea was so bad, she got a little portable toilet--like you can get for camping--and put it in her SUV so when she needed to go, she'd pull off the road, get in the back and go. That was just what she needed to do in order to be able to get out and do things. Knowing you had a way of going might lessen your need to go.

oh..by the way im 35 years old. Shelly how has that diet worked for you? Has it actually cut down on the amount of times per day you go? I think I am just a little worked up now because I start my new job on Monday and I have been trying to get this job for like 4 years now! Im thinking once I get started and ease the tension and anxiety I will be ok I hope and just find a bathroom at lunchtime everyday.If I take a lomotil tablet in the morning I am usually good to go for the day or at least 8-10 hrs but I really cant stuff myself as far as eating goes..I will need to wait untill after work for that.Has anyone ever h eard of a supplement called "Digestrol"? It claims to work great for IBS but IM not really sure about it...there is a website on it but what they say and what it actually does could be 2 different things. And by the way the more I read about other people with problems like me the more I realize I amnot so bad off...even when I am at my worst its only like 4-5 times per day and its not a real watery "D" its more like just my stool is in a bunch of little pieces but I still need to try and control it for my job.
Shelly thanks for being so friendly!

I think I will try your diet out and see what happens...I am already on my 1st weel of Metamucial so i will just keep it going. Seems like whenI take the Metamucial my stomach starts to gurgle and stuff....may just be the gas they say some get when 1st starting it.I tried a experiment this morning....I took my Metamucial and then 1 lomotil tablet and I went once at  around noon(not normal but alot better than usual) and then once immediatly after I at supper at around 6:00, so in my eyes that is a very good day for myself.No I havent officially been DX with IBS yet but I do have a doctors appoint. tomorrow morning and I will ask more about it. Although a few years ago I saw my doc about this same problem and they said everything looked ok....I even got the "scope" form a specialist.Will hopefully know more tomorrow!!!

Believe it or not my appoint. was for 9:45 am and the doc's recepionist called me at 8:00am and said that the doc wasnt going to be in today...shes sick....thats funny..lol. So I had to reschedule for next week. I had a so so morning..I woke up and took a lomotil tablet but it was weird I usually go at least once after I take it but I went like 3 times within the next 3 hrs or so...then I took my Metamucial around 11:00am and have been fine so far for the rest of the day..not even a urge to go...so I need to do what works for me in the morning before I go to work that way I will be good for the day anymore.tomorrow I am going to try and skip the lomotil and just take the Metamucial and see what happens.
Thanks for thinking about me though Shelly!!

The Caltarte 600-D like other people have talked about in here?? THat I can just pick up at a local drug store?? I can take that along with Metamucial...they wont affect each other?

OK so I picked some up tonight...when do you think is the best time to take this...when symptoms are at their worse or just take it in the morning when I get up?

Sometimes it's good to take the calcium at night before bed. That way it gives your guts overnite to settle and do its job. Maybe in the morning the D won't be so bad. I don't know though, I'm not on calcium. This is just what I've read on here. Do some experimenting.

Good luck! And please keep us posted.

I used to try eating bland foods no fiber (veggies and fruit and the like made me cramp worse) because I thought this would help with the diarrhea attacks. Well, needless to say it did not work. Mostly going without eating anything when I had to work or go some place I could not get out of. Then I had to know about it a day or two before so I would plan not to eat.

I started the calcium and for 3 months I told no one because I did not think this could help. But it did from the very first day. Over the past 7 years I have fined tuned the info from my own experience and the emails and posting of others to get it down to a very good program to try if you are suffering from diarrhea.

For 23 years doctors never help putting you through testing to try to find the problem and never finding anything and making you feel like you are crazy and telling you to just live with it and this is no way to live. The meds I took were fiber, lomotil, bentyl, levsin, sulfa drugs, vocodin for pain mylanta for gas and indigestion and others I can not recall I am sure, and I used imodium liquid and tabs like I owned stock in the company. I took vitamins thinking I was not eating right and not getting the proper nourishment and this for sure made things worse. I found out that Vitamin A, C and E and magnesium contained in multi vitamins will only add to the stomach upset and diarrhea.

You need to make sure you have no other serious problems first. Then stop all over the counter meds you can because everything has some sort of side effects just as the calcium carbonate has a side effect of constipation but if you does it right and time it right it can not cure but control the diarrhea. We are all different and I can say it will not work for every one but it has helped a great number of people.

You must start with 1/2 pill at your 3 meals a day for the first 3 days. If you do not you will have gas and indigestion and most likely will give up to soon and think it will not work for you. You can use simethicone if you get gas and this seems to work pretty well for the first adjustment period. You can also use imodium if you are having diarrhea and need to take it. After the first 3 days of that you adjust the dose or the timing as to what is going on with you. If you are still having attacks the increase the amount. If your attacks are at a certain time of day the I can offer help as to how to change your timing of the dose. You can then add back slowly foods you thought you could not eat and see what happens. In most cases you are able to eat normally. The only thing I have found to bother most is iceberg lettuces and a large amount of tomato sauce because of the acid. If you eat the tomato sauce and I do just do it in small amounts. Everything else if fair game for me.

If you should have a diarrhea problem while you are on the calcium it is usually short lived one episode and over and no pain like before.. But this can be from food not prepared properly or stored properly and this will effect even normal people from time to time.

It is not a cure just a control and you must take it at regular intervals every day with your food to keep it working. Calcium is something we most likely do not get enough of and it also helps the bones and teeth even if you are a man or a woman.

I am always glad to help when I can I am no doctor but I know what has helped me and many others and anyone who needs some encouragement or help in sorting out how to get the calcium to work for you I am here.

Linda

I'm glad to know I'm not crazy, Linda; I took a vitamin C pill back in the winter when I felt like I was coming down with something and I swear it gave me diarrhea. I couldn't ever find anything that listed that as a possible side affect, though.