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Irritable Bowel Syndrome
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Posted 10/3/2006 9:21 PM (GMT 0)
hi everyone, i have posted in here on a previous occasion, and i am always taking a peek in, if just to see how others are coping and in the hope that one day i might find some thing of interest that some one may have posted of what has helped them in the vain hope that may work for me, has any one else had upper pain with their ibs this pain is between the ribs right up above the belly button, feels like some one has just kicked me their and is tender to the touch, and realy aches, this is not like my usuall pains , which i have to say are constant at the moment and have been for weeks now, which are pain in the pelvic area and across the middle stomach, i am due to see the consultant again this week, last time i saw him he prescribed spasmonal which worked a treat untill i went for tests on my bowel, which was so painful and since then the pains have returned, i have had tests on my womb and overies plus a pelvic scan, i have suffered with my bowels for years, but i have always coped before as the attacks have only lasted for a few days , this time i have had constant pain for 6 months, it really is making my life a misery, i never want to go out any were, i find the pain to ease a little when sat still, and very rare am i awoken through the night by pain, but you can always count on it returning with in an hour of getting out of bed, at the moment like i said i am on spasmonal , also drinking pepperment tea, and for the last 4 weeks been taking pyhlason husk tablets,  (don't think i spelt that right) i was looking in my area to see if there was a support group , but have drawn a blank so far, as it is always a comfort to know that you are not on your own and that their are others like your self out there, sorry i am babbling on, i just get so stressed with this pain some times, so back to my question i came in to ask, about the upper stomach pain, if any one else has this could you let me know please, thanking you for any replies.

kind regards

kate

Posted 10/3/2006 10:51 PM (GMT 0)
You need to see someone as soon as you can as being tender is not a symptom of IBS. Sore and achy from cramping, yes, tender to the touch, no (at least I've never seen anyone complain of it in being on the board for over a year). Tenderness could be from a bad gall bladder or a problem with your liver or spleen. You need to have an ultrasound scan of that area to check for enlargement or other organ problems, blood work to check your liver function, and if nothing there, have a hida scan to check your gall bladder. For five years my gall bladder pain radiated out across my diaphram (right along the bottom of my ribs). Multiple doctors told me that "It can't be your gall bladder because that only hurts on the right side." Shows how much they know.

But definitely don't leave the dr's office until he orders some tests, including blood work. There's no rule that says you can only have one thing wrong with you at a time. Just because you've had IBS for years doesn't mean that you can't now have something else wrong with you. Make sure you tell your doctor that if he tries to brush you off. There's no reason to be in constant pain.
Posted 10/4/2006 10:12 AM (GMT 0)
Hi

thanks for the reply, i do know that it cannot be my gall bladder has i had that removed about 8 yrs ago, though i know what you mean , the pain is in the same area, i am due to see a consultant tomorow, so i will have a word with him about what this could be, seems like once you get some thing wrong with you some thing else pops up, just to make your life more misarable then what it is, though i have to say, that pain does seem to have eased off for the moment, though the IBS is really playing up, as usuall, it is so nice to be able to speak to others who understand just how bad the pain is from IBS, as some people just think because they cannot see any thing visual wrong with you , i think they some times think there is nothing wrong with you, i would just like them to have the pain for just a couple of hours just to see what it is like, has i said i was hopng to find a support group in my area, but had no luck at the moment, i was even thinking of starting one my self, desperate messures LOl, thanks again for your reply, hope you are having a good day, with out the pain.

many thanks

kate

Posted 10/4/2006 2:30 PM (GMT 0)
Do you have diarrhea a lot? If you do, when you go to see your doctor, ask for a prescription of Welchol. It's the only thing I can take regularly that takes care of my bile diarrhea. I love it!

I hope they can find what's wrong with you. You might also want to check into a breathalyzer for bacterial overgrowth and an endoscopy for h. pylori. Both of those can cause pain higher up (although I don't know about tenderness). An endoscopy will also show if you have ulcers (which I think do cause tenderness).

If nothing else, and especially if you have loose stools, try taking some Caltrate 600 w/ vitamin D calcium supplements. I got bad sick last summer with constant diarrhea and pain--I think from an allergic reaction--and as soon as I started taking the calcium, the pain went away. And taking it and upping my dose of Welchol got the diarrhea to stop too. Calcium is supposed to heal minor irritations in the guts; I assume that's what was wrong with me and why I had pain.
Posted 10/4/2006 4:43 PM (GMT 0)
Hi

I do not have diarrhea all the time, but some times i do, i would say mine is more of going to the toilet three four times aday, but not really feeling has if i have been, when i had the bowel camera, i had to take medication to clear the bowel before this, and still the consultant said it was still not cleared very well, so i think i must be saving it LOl, i could do with a good fibre suppliment, as the ones i am taking do not seem to be making any difference, i have the bloated stomach as well were i look like 6 months pregnant, and like i have said pain in the pelvic area and across the belly button, some people say stay of fruit and some say eat plenty of fruit quiet confusing and hard work, trying to see if any thing i am eating is causing it, wish i could wave a magic wand and it all be gone, but no such luck, i will just have to plod on like the rest of the poor people on here, thank you for replying again, nice talking with you and it would be nice if you could keep in touch to see how you are getting on,

bye for now

take care

kate

Posted 10/4/2006 5:55 PM (GMT 0)
Most IBSers have some trouble with fruit and raw veggies. Apples seem to the be the universal fruit to avoid when you have IBS, especially apple juice. But most people can tolerate other types of fruit raw or cooked; it all depends on the individual. I can't tolerate more than a token amount of caffeine. And the other thing to avoid are sugar-free and reduced-sugar foods.
Posted 10/5/2006 1:03 PM (GMT 0)
Hi

went to see the consultant again today, said all the new tests came back ok, i told him the tablets he gave me are not working, he said to take 2, 3 times aday rather then just one 3 times aday, i also asked him about the Hd breath tests for bacterial over growth and Hd fructose breath test, he said there were no need, has the symptoms would have been different to the ISB, and i would have known about it before then, he has asked me to try and cut down on wheat products, but not stop all together, and see how that goes, then he talked about me going to see a dietician, i have to see him again in 6 weeks time, and if the pain has not eased he will try me on a different medication, he has told me to stop taking the fibre tablets has he said it could be making it worse, he said it could help IBS sufferers with just the bloating, but with mine been both pain and bloating it could be making it worse, i also asked if a allergy test would help but again he said no as it might come back that i am allergic to eggs or any thing else but by taking them out of the diet even that would not help, he said lots of people have some allergies to certain things, with out suffering with IBS, i told him i was fed up and depressed of being in pain all the time, and that is why i have been looking on the internet to find help, he said i would find a load of rubbish on the internet, i told him being in pain any help is better then none, if one day i find what works for one person might work for me, so all in all not a very eventful day, so it is just back to putting up with it until i see what he comes up with the next time i see him.

Kate

Posted 10/5/2006 3:20 PM (GMT 0)
I think you need to see a new doctor.

Unless you have some other symptom(s) you haven't listed on here, I think he's full of it when he says that your symptoms can't possibly point to a bacterial overgrowth. There are several people on here who have had bowel problems (can be either C or D) and pain and gas and bloating--in short, your symptoms--and they have taken the test and come back positive for bacterial overgrowth. There's also the chance you may have h. pylori--the leading cause of stomach ulcers. I know stomach ulcers hurt higher up and there are some people on here who have been diagnosed with h. pylori who had a lot of pain, nausea, indigestion, etc.

I think he's also wrong about the fiber. Now, I'll be the first to admit that fiber doesn't help everybody. Fiber supplements managed to make both my constipation and my diarrhea worse--it may indeed be making you worse too. But, again, there are people on here who have gotten some relief from taking fiber--not just from bloating, but from pain as well, in addition to better bowel movements. There are a lot of different types of fiber out there too, so if you haven't seen any benefit from your current brand, you may want to try something else. Pysillum husks seem to be the local favorite. But yes, they can help relieve pain, depending, of course, on what's causing your pain.

Unless you have problems with constipation, try the Caltrate 600 w/ vitamin D; it helped my bowel pain.

If you have a wheat allergy like Celiac's disease (my cousin's husband had his GB out because he had all the symptoms of a bad one, only his symptoms didn't go away afterwards and they finally diagnosed him with Celiac's and he's much better now without gluten), just reducing wheat probably won't help you much, if any. If he suspects you may have a wheat/gluten allergy, you should try going off all gluten for a couple of weeks and see if you improve. Some people find they just can't digest wheat/gluten even if they never test positive for any allergy. Other things you can try eliminating (but not all at once, or you won't know what the real culprit is) are artificial sweetners, dairy (some people are only intolerant to the lactose, but some are intolerant to the milk proteins, including casein, a common ingredient in a lot of pre-packaged foods), real sugars (honey, cane sugar, fruits and fruit sugars in general) and meat, starting with red. If none of that helps, and you can afford it, try going totally organic. Some people are hypersensitive to pesticide residue, growth hormones and antibiotics in meats and/or preservatives and dyes. My mother's doctor recommended organic for her after she was diagnosed with fibromyalgia because they have found that the chemicals in food can spark a pain episode in fibro patients.

You doctor sounds very unsympathetic and dissmissive. I bet he wouldn't tell someone who is presenting with chest pains just to up his dose of aspirin to get rid of the pain. You are hurting for a reason; your body is trying to tell you that something is wrong. He needs to be exhaustive in his attempts to figure out what's wrong. Only after he's tested for everything he can think of and it's all come back perfectly normal should he give you medicine to try and override the pain. Sometimes our bodies do go haywire and hurt without cause, and sometimes we have something wrong with us that modern medical tests can't detect, but more often than not there is a cause and we are able to find it. Unfortunately a lot of bowel problems are hard to treat, but knowing what's wrong and at least making some progress towards making it better helps.

Doctors generally don't like the internet because patients who are chronic worriers will look up their symptoms and find they match some rare, deadly disease and get themselves worked up into a tizzy when the real disease is something common and simple. But that doesn't mean the information out there is false. It's best not to try and diagnose yourself, but I don't see a problem with looking for a treatment for a known problem if my doctor can't supply one. My first rule of thumb for reading medical information is "does it make sense?" If it doesn't make sense, then it's probably bunk. Another indicator of bunk is a disease or symptoms that can only be cured by this vitamin/medicine/herb/tea that only we sell. But there are a lot reputable websites out there--the most prestigous of which are by known medical institutions (like the Mayo Clinic) or known medical publications (like JAMA).

Talking to people on this forum and trying their recommendation of calcium is what got me over my bad pain and diarrhea spell last summer. I don't think positive results are rubbish! If you can, you may want to try a different type of doctor all together. I'm thinking the term is homeopathic; Sarita would know because she's looking into becoming one. But basically they try to treat the whole person, not just the symptoms. So rather than dosing you up with meds, they try to figure out what's causing your problems in the first place and eliminate that. And they may help you make lifestyle changes to help your problem or to keep it from coming back. They're real medical doctors, so hopefully your insurance covers one. There's also the holistic route of acupuncture, meditation, yoga, tai chi, organic foods, etc. I won't say that they are the options of last resort, but I do think it's important that you are properly looked at first. Acupuncture won't do a thing if you have an enlarged liver.
Posted 10/5/2006 4:30 PM (GMT 0)
Hi

thanks for the reply, much appreciated, nice to know there is some one out there who understands what i am going through, i agree with you about the consultant i some times think that when they do these tests and they cannot find any thing which could be causing these symptoms, they just dismiss it, i say all the tests but like i said he would not do the HD breath tests for bacterial overgrowth,  and just give you extra tablets to take in the vain hope this time it will do the trick, but like you say you do not have pain for nothing and your body is telling you some thing is not right, i would like them to have the pain and distress we have to go through every day just for a few hours and see how there reaction would be then, i think like you say i am going to try the full gluten free for a couple of weeks, i too thought just cutting down on wheat would not make any difference, i have been taking the fibre supplemant pysillum husks already and they have not made any difference, so i will try a different tpye of them, also i will have a word with the doctor to see if homeopathic is available at my surgery, also you mention that you tried calcium which was reccomended and worked for you, was this taken in tablet form, i would try any thing at this time, any thing to to get rid of the pain, aches and bloated  tummy,

many thanks again

kate

Posted 10/5/2006 6:15 PM (GMT 0)
Get the Caltrate 600 w/ vitamin D. You can find it in any pharmacy or grocery-store pharmacy section in the US. It's a fairly large pink pill that can be cut in half. Walgreens, I happen to know, carries a generic version which costs less. Try taking one in the morning around breakfast time and one in the evening. Some people find that it sets better if they take it wil a meal, but it doesn't bother me one way or the other. Like I said, it can be constipating if you have normal bowel movements most of the time, so be careful of that and cut back or cut it out if it starts to constipate you. You can always try a different kind that has more magnesium and is less constipating; the Caltrate 600 is what we D people take. But calcium has been shown to reduce some inflammation and irritation (I don't know if it helps Crohn's or UC-based inflammation) in the intestinal tract and that in turn can reduce your pain and improve your function. I think when I got sick last year I ended up with an irritated colon from an allergic reaction to sugar alcohol and/or irritation from too much excess bile. Whatever it was, just starting on a daily dose of yogurt helped. When I cut that out in favor of probiotic pills, the D came back, even if the pain didn't. When I went on calcium pills, they fixed me right up all around.
Posted 10/8/2006 8:26 PM (GMT 0)
just to let you know i am going to have a try at what you have suggested, i will let you know the resullts, i stopped taking the fibre husks, on friday, and come saturday, my stomach was 4 times bigger, and as well as the pain it felt as if my poor stomach was falling out, so i have decided to go against the doctors advice and have started taking them again, if it feels to make my symptoms just a little better i will continue to take them, thanks again.

kate

Posted 10/9/2006 2:41 PM (GMT 0)
Unfortunately a lot of people have to take a combination of things--probiotics, fiber, calcium, prescription meds--in order to get something close to normal; one thing alone oftentimes won't be enough. I guess you've found out the hard way that yes, the fiber was helping after all. I did the same thing some months back, trying to see if I could stop my Welchol and take only calcium--the answer to that was "no"; it took a week or two for me to get back to normal. It may take you some time to recover from stopping the fiber too.
Posted 10/9/2006 3:26 PM (GMT 0)
Hi
looking on the internet it does seem to come up quiet a few times, that wheat can cause IBS, so starting today, i am trying to cut out wheat, i have been looking on the internet to see if i can find any good sites , were i am able to see common everyday foods which contain wheat and which don't, not having much luck at the momment, but i will keep looking, when you do start looking it is really suprising what foods do contain wheat, things that i would never have thought off that do, so now it is trial and error again. and checking every label

thanks for your reply
kate
Posted 10/9/2006 4:58 PM (GMT 0)
Try avoiding everything containing "gluten". If I remember correctly, that's the name of the bit of wheat that people can't tolerate. It may also be present in other grasses, like corn and rice, so you'll have to look that up.

Health-food stores are the best bet to find gluten-free things that you may want to continue eating, like pasta and pizza. Pre-packaged foods are the worst for containing gluten and caesin--a milk protein--where you wouldn't think they would exist. Both are used as a thickener for sauces.

Luckily most food labels today--especially from big-name brands--put under the nutrition information an allergy alert in plain english, such as "This product contains soy, wheat and shellfish and is pacakaged in a plant where nuts are used". I think there's a federal law that is going to require that sort of statement on every package, but I don't think it's gone into effect yet. Once it does, it will make avoiding the most common allergens so much easier.
Posted 10/10/2006 11:50 PM (GMT 0)
Hey Kassy I just found out I have the H ployri bacteria in my stomach , I had my gallbladder out 3 weeks ago everyone said that my sick stomach, nausea , tenderness in the upper middle and to the left side under my ribs and on my left side kinda low , belching alot

kinda of a burning feeling in my stomach too specialy in morning,would all go away well it DIDNT had a scope of my stomach last thursday and the biopsy came back positive for this bacteria  you sorta sound like me so persist on it and by the way I had a bad bout with diearreha too it all started in july  but now I know what is going on thank g !  good luck!

 

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