Can someone help me understand this "craziness" going on in my body???

I usually post on the Arthritis section but I think I need some help and advice from you all.  I've not been officially diagnosed with Crohn's.  The doctor suspects I have it.  I just have to set up the tests.  Irritable bowel with diarhhea is always with me.  I have started back to school this week.  I'm not a teacher of students.  I teach the teachers and take care of testing, at-risk programs, pull-out groups, and thing like that.  It's a fun and interesting part of education.  The good news is that I am not stuck in a classroom all day.  The bad news is the way my body is reacting.  Daily, I am having between 6 and 1- or 12 BMs a day.  They start out soft and become very runny by the end of the day.   The pain, cramping, and even nausea is getting so much worse.  I take Immodium, Gas X, just OTC stuff but I became so incredibly sick early today at school that I also went  out of my mind!!!  The pain was so bad, the nausea was severe, ad finally going to the bathroom took everything out of me.  I was literally exhausted whe that whole ordeal was over!!!

 

Has anyone experienced anything like this?  Does anyone has any suggestions as to what I should do next?  What direction, doctor  next?  I was in the ER last month and had a CT scan that showed a hiatal hernia and a spot on my right breast.  I have been okayas long as it was jus the diarrhea. It wasn't pleasant but it really wasn'tpainful either.  These other thigs are painful and are becoming motr painful.  For me, school is just now starting and I don't want to br off work just yet. Any thoughts o what I need to do?  Anything that made it good for you/  My next Remicade infusion is August 29th.

Thanks so much!!!

I used to have a lot of pain and get very sick when I was having gall bladder problems. Make sure they do a hida scan on you just in case. Unforunately your symptoms could be a bad gall bladder, IBS, IBD (indlucing Crohn's) or even female problems like endometreosis, ovarian cysts and fybroid tumors. Also, unfortunately, ovarian cancer symptoms are the same as IBS symptoms; make sure you get checked out by your gyno and that you get that spot on your breast examined. Then get your appendix looked at and your gall bladder and then get a colonoscopy to check your intestines. Also get checked for celiac's disease and food allergies and bacterial overgrowth and--if you travel out of the country, live on a farm, or camp/hike and have drunk from a natural water source--check for parasites. If you get all of that done and come back as being normal, then you have IBS, which is a functional problem that they really don't have a cure for, but there are some things that might help, like calcium supplements and anti-depressants.

Deejane,
Do you keep a food diary? It might be helpful for you in targeting exactly what bothers you most. Like you mentioned, I get trouble with salad too. If I eat a small salad accompanied by other food, I am OK. If I eat only a salad it gives me problems. Gas, cramps and D. I've been told that raw foods are very difficult for the gut to break down - especially people with GI issues. You should maybe think about eating salad/leafy greens in smaller quantities.
Good luck and I hope you feel better.

A lot of people have problems with salad, but even more people have problems with bag-o-salad or salad from a salad bar. Salads that are chopped up well ahead of being served are often washed in chemicals (my mother said bleach, but I haven't confirmed that) and the residue from those chemicals can give people diarrhea. I developed daily diarrhea soon after getting to college and couldn't figure out why. My mother quizzed me on what I was eating and pinned my problems on our salad bar. When I quit eating salads, I quit having diarrhea. And this was before I had any other stomach problems, so it wasn't an IBS thing. My fiance has found out that he too can't tolerate bag-o-salads for the exact same reason and there's nothing wrong with his guts either. We both can tolerate salads made from a head of lettuce that we cut up ourselves at home. So if you are a regular salad eater, you might look at that connection with your diarrhea; even if it's not the source of it, it will make it worse.

Also, you never eat any sugar-free or reduced sugar candies, mints or gums, do you? Sugar alcohols give everybody diarrhea and some people--like me--get it really, really bad with just a trace amount. They're a big no-no for anyone who has bowel problems. And a few people who have come on here have even managed to get rid of their "IBS" by cutting out the diabetic/low carb candies.

I don't know what they are using in bagged salads, but it's only been a couple of months ago that Stuart had to give them up. He hasn't had any more problems since.

It's my unerstanding that they put nitrate in hot dogs, but that has never bothered me, and I'll get on a kick where I eat a couple every day.