new, and sick of this...

Hi sunshine,
Welcome to HealingWell! 
It sounds like you may have IBS-A (alternating between C & D).   I too have a phobia of vomiting and I also get a lot of nausea.  Have you tried ginger yet?  The peppermint might be a bit acidic for an upset stomach.  I have to commend you though... I would love to be a nurse but I just don't have the stomach for it.  How do you do it? 

Are you taking any meds to help control your symptoms?  How about probiotics?  Lots of us have found Dannon Activia yogurt to be super beneficial for bloating and regularity.  Many of us also found Digestive Advantage to help with those same symptoms.

Don't worry about complaining on this site - that's what we're here for.  We're here to listen and to help each other.  After all, most of us don't have people who understand what we're going through.  That is why this site is so great... We can gripe all we want and talk poop with people who understand. 

Wow, the NICU... that's awesome.  I bet it will be super rewarding.  I have to admit though, the sadness of innocent baby problems and deaths must be so heartbreaking.

This is the thing with IBS, docs don't know why people get it.  Some people with IBS really have a bacterial overgrowth, a parasite, h. pylori, gallbladder problems, etc.  The list goes on and on because confusing GI problems can just get lumped in with IBS.  Have you read Keri's post about Gall Bladder Disease?  A couple of the main symptoms are nausea, pain and bile diarrhea.  The D is usually green or yellow and it burns your anus on the way out.  You can always ask your doc for an abdominal ultrasound to check for gallstones.  Or, you can ask them to be more specific and go for a HidaScan to check the functionality of your gallbladder.

I agree with Lil that it does sound like you could have gall bladder problems. You mention getting sick at night, which is fairly common with a bad GB. Do you feel less nauseated when you sit up or stand up? Laying down always made my symptoms worse (pain, nausea, etc.), and that too is a fairly common symptom. You also mention getting diarrhea when you have an "attack". Is it ever yellow or green in color and does it burn and burn? If so, then you really need to have your GB checked because that's the symptom of having too much bile in your stools. Some people get that without having a bad GB, but in combination with everything else, it's a pretty good indicator of just GB disease. Other symptoms are feeling full, even after eating only a small amount of food, of having pains along the right side of your body, or in the upper half of your body, including across the diaphram and aches up into the right shoulder, arm and even down to the elbow.

The other thing to look into is acid reflux. Acid reflux can cause you to feel nauseated and it's worse when you lay down (easier to reflux). As Canyon says, peppermint can cause that to be worse, since it relaxes the valve between the stomach and esophagus. Good when you need to let out a burp, bad when you have acid that's prone to come up anyways. You can try some OTC acid reducers to see if this helps, as well as propping yourself up more on pillows when you go to sleep at night. Acid reluf, though, shouldn't cause your D attacks, so look at the GB first. While D is very common with a bad GB, you can have periods of constipation while still having a bad GB (I did because I was naturally a bit constiapted before my GB went bad). Also, in some people, they don't produce enough bile and so end up having constiaption a lot from that. And a low-fat diet can cause constipation, although it can help you have fewer GB attacks (since fat often precipitates them).

Being a nursing student, you are probably a heavy coke and/or coffee drinker. You must give up both immediately, I'm afraid. Coffee--decaf or regular--is highly acidic and is bad for you if you have acid reflux. Cokes too are highly acidic and hard on your stomach, not to mention the carbonation usually contributes to gas problems. Lastly, caffeine can be a trigger "food" for people with IBS or GB disease. In fact, caffeine was much worse on me than anything fried or greasy, and even now, without a GB, I still cannot tolerate caffeine except in trace amounts in chocolates, or a bit in green tea.

Actually, it's come up before that people have acid reflux and don't know it, because most people think acid reflux equals heartburn, when nausea is actually just as common a reaction.  So that may very well be your problem, and may be helped out with some OTC acid reducers and sleeping a bit more upright in bed.

Sinus drainage down the back of the throat can make you feel sort of gaggy-sick like.  I doubt it's the source for your nausea and occasional lower pain, though.  But it certainly won't hurt anything if you can try some OTC Claritin and see if you can't get your drainage to stop.  If you're like me, you are prone to sinus infections anyways, so stopping the drainage now (before everything starts to bloom) can help keep you from getting a full-blown sinus infection later.  Needing antibiotics to get over one of those just makes your guts even worse.