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can you have ISB without constipation/diarrhea

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Irritable Bowel Syndrome
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Posted 6/7/2006 4:50 PM (GMT 0)
Hello everyone,

My daughter who is 15 has been sick since December.  Last week her GI tells us that she has IBS(spastic colon).  Her major complaints are fatigue, abdominal swelling, and severe pain that begins on lower left side that radiates into the back and stomach.  She has daily bowel movements which appear to be normal.  She has had xrays, an ultrasound, and a small bowel follow-through.  All came back normal.  She was taking 3 belladonna/phenobarb tablets daily, doctor has increased it to six because there has been little relief.  The pain is so severe at times that it wakes her up in the middle of the night.  Everything I have read on IBS suggests that most people has some type of bowel movement problem like constipation or diarrhea.  She has neither.  Any information would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Beth

Posted 6/7/2006 7:03 PM (GMT 0)
Have you taken her to a gyno? Various female problems can look like IBS and visa versa. Sometimes people with IBS have normal bowel movements, but I can't actually recall anyone on this board having a normal bowel movement regularly, especially not with that much pain. I'd definitely have someone look her over for endometreosis, fibroid tumors, ovarian cysts and that whole lot. I would suggest getting her tested for food allergies, but even that is, as far as I know, accompanied by diarrhea. Might be worth trying, though, if you keep coming up blank; people react differently to allergens.

Godo luck finding out what's wrong.
Posted 6/7/2006 11:34 PM (GMT 0)

We asked her GI about endometreosis and he said her pain would be located in the pelvic area if it was that.  However, I don't agree with him that it is IBS because of her regular bowel movements.  Everything I have read or heard about IBS show signs of irregular bowel habits.  I will see about getting her an appt with a gyno in the next couple of days!  Thanks for your input.

Beth

Posted 6/8/2006 6:51 AM (GMT 0)
I think you need to find another Dr. What is a small bowel follow thru? Is this a CT scan. Has she had a pelvic/abdominal CT scan with contrast. If not she should. It doesnt sound like IbS to me and that is WAY too much belladona and pheno without really knowing what is going on. I think the allergy testing is good but I also would eliminate all dairy for a few days and see if that helps. Does she have a lot of gas? And if so does she take something for it. It may be very severe gas pain so that is worth a try. Something like Phazme, Pepto or Maalax Max but No, it doesn't sound like IBS and needs more searching for a reason. She is too young to go thru this. There has to be an answer other than something as heavy duty as what she is taking. That can me her really groggy also.
Posted 6/8/2006 2:14 PM (GMT 0)
A small bowel follow-through is like a ct scan. She had to drink the barium, then they watched how it progressed through the small bowels. She had a abdominal ct without contrast in January, it came back normal. The pharmacist said the 6 tablets of the belladonna was the max dosage that could be given. I also think it is way to much, 3 tablets made her sleepy, six tablets will problem put her out most of the time. We tried the non-dairy diet for about four weeks, but it didn't change anything. She doesn't seem to have any type of gas, we have tried pepto for the upset stomach. I think we should look for another doctor as well, but we had a hard time finding this one since she is only 15. It took our pediatrician over a month to find a doctor willing to take her. I will make her an appt with a gyno to see if maybe that is the problem.
Posted 6/8/2006 2:37 PM (GMT 0)
<<We asked her GI about endometreosis and he said her pain would be located in the pelvic area if it was that.>>

Bah! Bah, I say! I've had too many periods that make my back hurt to not know that pain radiates. And I was once plagued with a long list of stupid doctors who all said, "Hm, if your gall bladder was bad, you would hurt on your right side only; you must have IBS." Guess what? I had a bad gall bladder. Guess where it hurt? All along my diaphram. Don't tell me that pain stays in only one location! I suffered for five years with a bad gall bladder in part because all of my doctors couldn't come to grips with the fact that your gall bladder can hurt you in places other than your right side right up under the rib cage.

Your daughter's pain is low down and goes through to the back, so I don't see any reason why that couldn't be female problems.

And I wonder why are you having a hard time finding a doctor, or is it only finding a G.I.? I stopped seeing a pediatrician when I was 5 or 6; I saw the same GP that my mother saw while I was growing up. I've always thought that pediatricians were for babies and toddlers and once you were past the vaccination stage, you saw a regular doctor. Of course, that may just be because I grew up in a semi-rural area and I don't think we even had a pediatrician that worked there; mine was in the city and that was a bit of a drive, so I guess that's why my mother switched me. But I have heard there is such a thing as a pediatric G.I.
Posted 6/9/2006 2:46 AM (GMT 0)
I happen to agree with you on the pain issue - I was having back pain so they said it was my appendix (which they removed) come to find out two weeks later that it was my gall bladder(which they had to remove).  We live in a small town and I don't trust any of the doctors here!  Her pediatrician is about 40 minutes away, and the GI doctor is about 1 1/2  hours away.  She will continue to see the pediatrician until she turns 16, then we can move her over to our family physician which only takes patients 16 and over. I am taking her to a gyno next week for a check up just in case the GI doc is wrong.  We are only having trouble finding a GI doctor - the pediatrician says the  the pediatric GI's which he talked to say that because of her size (5'9") she really isn't consider a "child" anymore, the adult GI's claim because of her age she isn't really classified as an adult.  He said it all has something to do with the type of tools they could have to use for different tests.  It all sounds like a bunch of bull to me! 

Posted 6/9/2006 6:19 PM (GMT 0)
Make sure you keep an eye out with her for gall bladder issues, espeically since yours had unusal symptoms; they run in families. My mother said the old adage was "fair, female, fat and forty." I hit all but three of those. My surgeon said that people with Native American ancestry also had a much higher chance of getting gall bladder disease; I had that as well. Not that this sounds like gall bladder, but yours hurt down in your back, so odd symptoms may run in your family. And of course, there's always later; mine started in college.

I agree with you--5'9" is more than big enough to be treated like an adult. That's a lot taller than most adult women! I can see the issue with tools--needing smaller ones for children--but I don't see why she wouldn't be okay with an adult G.I. Hopefully you can find someone good to look at her if the GYN can't discover anything.
Posted 6/11/2006 7:30 AM (GMT 0)
It is just possible that the gynocologist can help in finding the right Dr. I hope they are more cooperative than the others seem to be. I think it is outrageous that you are being shoved around like this. How far are you from a teaching hospital? They cannot expect your daughter to go on like this. There has to be an answer. Has she been checked for parasites, etc. My grandaughter had similar symptoms and was diagnosed finally with giardia which they think she got cleaning the lizard tank. Any Dr. can order these tests. I really hope you can find some answers soon as this should be fun time in her life and that has been going on too long. There are other parasites and things that any Dr. can check for. Keep us informed. I really have never heard of pediatricians around here taking teenagers. When I was growing up we didn't get our periods till we were about 13 or 14, Now girls get them at 11 and 12. Kids bodies have changed.
Posted 6/12/2006 3:10 PM (GMT 0)
In your day, Canyon, they didn't give milk cows hormones, either. They're seeing girls as young as 8 and 9 getting periods now, especially if they are overweight. I recently read that in the U.S. rates of twins are something like twice the rates of twins in the U.K., where bovine hormones are outlawed. The hormones make cows have more twins, so scientists are starting to say, hmm, I wonder if it's the hormones? The more I read about what's in our food, the more I can't help but think that going organic might not be a quarky thing to do. Shame it's so expensive. Maybe in a few years, when my fiance and I have us a nice piece of land, we can raise our own vegetables, cows and chickens and eat organic and have it be cheap.

If your daughter does end up having a female problem, I would see about going hormone-free with your meat and dairy because those extra hormones surely won't help her any. A friend of mine was in the vet program in college and she said they studied hormones in cattle and that their textbooks said very clearly that the hormones don't come out in the meat or milk, but I just can't buy that. When you start messing around with nature, there will be consequences. Maybe our tests aren't up to snuff, because something is behind girls maturing too quickly.
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