Posted 5/16/2011 9:23 PM (GMT 0)
I'm wondering if I'm slowly becoming a victim of IBS or IBD, and I'm hoping the kind people here can help me figure it out.
I occasionally get bouts of suddenly needing to make a bowel movement. "Occasionally" seems to be happening more frequently as time goes on though. It used to be that only after a night of drinking, this might happen. More recently, it is a certainty that it will happen after a night of drinking. I also know this will happen any morning before something important. Recently I've been to job interviews, and I learned to only schedule them in the afternoon. If I have one in the morning, it is a certainty that the closer I get to the interview, the more my insides will twist and turn. Most troubling though, was a trip I went on recently. It seems that now whenever I'm on a long car trip and I'm not the one driving, this sudden diarrhea will occur. I then proceeded to have stomach and bowel issues for the entirety of the 5 day trip, and only a day after returning did I feel better.
I know these symptoms pale in comparison to what most of you are dealing with currently, and I feel bad even bringing it up. But since it's getting worse, I've been getting more worried about it. That's why I'm wondering how things started with other people. Am I starting ibs or ibd in the face right now? Is it only a matter of time?
My biggest concern is that I'm in the "prodromal" period of Chron's disease, which can last 7 years apparently. The joints in my hands are starting to hurt more, and I'm only in my 20's, and Chrones has joint pain as a symptom. But then again I'm on the computer all the time, so it could be something else.
Because these sudden diarrhea symptoms are the only reliable symptom, I'm putting this in the IBS forum. I'm hoping someone here can provide some insight. Thanks.