Irritable Bowel Syndrome Message Boards

Hi there,

This is a long post, but I'm hoping there are more people out there that can help me with some questions I have at the end as well as educate others on this *annoying* condition. I just hope I'm not the only one with these dilemmas!

A little bit about myself first. I'm 28 and was diagnosed with C-IBS a few months ago after a year of abdominal pain, having to go to the bathroom all the time and constipation which really started in the second half of the year. It was a long process before they finally diagnosed it which I'm sure many of you know! :'

First MANY visits to my GP who kept diagnosing me with UTI. I get the meds and I'm fine only to have it return a few days later. After 4 times something just doesn't seem right...

Then to a urologist since the pains seemed to be by the bladder and kidneys who didn't find anything except a slightly misplaced ureter on my right kidney. I underwent a bladder scan and kidney test and everything worked fine in that department so I was referred to a GI. (My urologist told me that problems in the colon can mimic many bladder problems which I find interesting and true since it seems like when I get a little constipated now I have to go more). Weird!

With the GI, I was put on MiraLax which made everything worse. Citrucel also worsened my symptoms. I found out later that orange juice also wasn't friendly to me either- no wonder I had problems with the Citrucel!! Talk about a puzzled GI! :) Eat plenty of fruits was the next agenda which also didn't help believe it or not! By then I was at my wits end as you can imagine... Colonoscopy was the next step. Everything showed up fine- clean colon (I'm not surprised with that Prep the night before! :) as well as a very healthy colon which was good news. So, what now?!

Colon Transmit Study- Bingo! A week after ingesting those pellets the xrays showed them still at the beginning of my large intestine all in a row. I was placed on Zelnorm which I have taken for a few months now. They seem to help since I'm going every 1-4 days at the most instead of 1.5-2 weeks...

Now my questions:

1>I had a scary episode a few days after my bladder and kidney tests. I was hurting on and off most of the day, so I just associated it to the condition I had only I didn't know what it was at the time. All of a sudden, I got the worst pain I ever felt in my life in the back right side under my ribcage. I could barely walk or breathe since it hurt that bad. I went to the ER where they did an MRI and saw that my kidney and ureter was spasming as far as they could tell, but they couldn't find anything otherwise. I had no clots or anything else signalling complications from the bladder and kidney tests so after 5 hours I was sent home pain free after 2 bags of the saline solution. My GI is convinced that I had an slight intestinal blockage and that my colon was "panicking" at the time to try to move that obstruction. I was wondering of anyone else has had that experience? I'm scared to death that it could happen again, but I have no idea how to prevent it since I still am not sure what triggered it in the first place. For now, I'm hoping the Zelnorm will keep that from happening again...

2>About the Zelnorm. It seems to help me alot, but I get "constipated diarrihea". Anyone else have this?

3>Also about Zelnorm- I had diarrihea in the beginning with Zelnorm which went away for a few weeks and then returned. I had to cut the dose to 1/2! a tablet about 2 months ago. It was fine for awhile and now I have pretty bad diarrihea and am wondering what's up? I was thinking about it and realized that I haven't been eating a lot the last few days. Is it possible that I get all this buildup of water
which has nothing to pass so to speak so I get the Niagara Falls effect? ;) BTW: Why can't you have diarrihea with Zelnorm- I mean after all you want to get all the stuff out right? I've been drinking a lot of water because of the heat too which I'm sure isn't helping either..

4>Here are some foods I seem to have trouble with:
-Rice
-Pasta
-Bacon-Grease?
-Applesauce-Maybe the fiber in it?!
-Milk-Reg and Non-Lactose. Now using low fat 2% which *seems* OK, but am now wondering of that could actually be worsening the diarrhea?
-Subway sandwiches/Deli breads- Too much/wrong dough?
-Restaurant Pizzas- Again wrong dough? I have been eating small regular pizzas which I buy in the store and that seems fine (1/2 a day).

As you can imagine I'm almost afraid to eat anything since one minute it's fine and the next minute it isn't. I'm wondering of there is a "liquid diet" of sorts. It seems like everything I really like I can't have anymore... The only thing that seem fine is:

Fruit Loops :)
The small pizza you buy in stores
Store brand bread- not deli
Cold cuts

Hope this was an enlightenment as well as informative.

Again, sorry for the long post, but I hope I helped someone out there!

Marlies

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