Irritable Bowel Syndrome Message Boards

Hello. I am new to this group, but not to IBS. I've had constipation-predominant IBS for more than half of my almost-thirty years.

Aside from constipation, I experience:
abdominal bloating and distension, especially by the end of the day (I hate being a "thin person" with what feels like a huge belly; I don't know if others generally notice),
intestinal cramping and spasms,
and occasional (but severe) aches in my side and lower back after sleeping (sometimes I wake up to the pain, and sometimes the pain wakes ME up).

Many foods trigger my symptoms;
premenstrual and menstrual periods make them worse (and vice versa -- when my IBS is flaring, my periods are more painful);
anxiety can make my symptoms disabling (I developed chronic anxiety disorders before I was twelve, and developed severe Panic Disorder when I was eighteen and began a five-year abusive relationship);
... but what I hate most about my IBS is that it's an EVERY-DAY struggle, and often an obsession.

I didn't ask my family doctor for help until about seven(?) years ago (at which point I had already done enough research to know what I had, though not how to fix it). I was at the end of my abusive relationship, I had become "officially" (through Social Security) disabled by Major Depression, and my panic attacks (and therefore my IBS symptoms) were at their worst. My doctor (who knew how much anxiety I was experiencing because he had given the initial diagnoses for Depression and Panic) suggested I try to reduce my stress and to avoid dairy and gas-producing foods (He didn't talk to me about fat or fiber).

I was already vegetarian and usually vegan, so cutting dairy from my diet totally wasn't an issue (I was used to scanning ingredient labels for whey and casein, etc.), and it then became obvious, whenever I "strayed" and ate dairy, that this was a painful trigger for me.

I also made it a priority to eliminate gassy foods from my diet after I learned that the muscles of the intestinal walls move length-wise only and can't expand in width without the sharp pains that accompany gas and bloating -- and I dearly wanted these pains to stop. The "classic" gassy foods that seemed obvious to me to eliminate included:
beans,
broccoli, cauliflower, and brussel sprouts,
raisins and prunes,
and onions.
(It was especially difficult for me to cut out legumes --beans, peanuts and peanut butter, and all soy products -- soy really affects me -- because they were the protein sources in my vegetarian diet. I followed the suggestion to compromise my strict vegetarian diet by adding eggs for vitamin B12, but after all these years, I don't know if this is even enough, so I just got a referral to see a nutritionist.)

It wasn't until this past month, many years later, that I saw my first GI specialist and was handed a pre-printed list of gas-producing foods, and realized why my bloating (though it was better) never stopped.

Among the "FOODS WHICH CAUSE A LARGE AMOUNT OF GAS" were the above-listed old eliminations (including dairy), but also some STAPLES of mine, like wheat products (they listed "wheat germ," "pretzels," and "bagels," and the doctor explained that wheat ferments in the digestive system, causing gas to be blocked in a "slow" system like my own) and bananas, as well as celery, carrots, and apricots.

Among the "FOODS WHICH CAUSE A MODERATE AMOUNT OF GAS" were MORE STAPLES of mine, like (again) wheat-flour products (they listed "bread" and "pastries"), potatoes, citrus fruits (I recently tried Citrucel and discovered that I don't tolerate this well, either), and apples, plus eggplant.

I asked if these were foods that produced excessive gas in *everyone's*, including "normal" (un-constipated), digestive systems. The answer I got was "yes" -- but they don't necessarily bother those without constipation.

Avoiding all of the listed foods has been difficult, though helpful in lessening my bloating. I also went on a strict soluble-fiber-based diet, tried Citrucel powder (which made me bloated) and Benefiber powder (I hated the slimy beverages it created), and have settled on Fibercon tablets (4 a day). In the three weeks before my follow-up with the GI doctor, I felt some relief of both the constipation and bloating, but then I suffered some anxiety attacks (I'm undergoing a slow taper of a physically-addictive major tranquilizer and have some situational stressors as well), and my IBS (especially the constipation) got worse again. So, when I returned, the doctor gave me MiraLax.

Question: If the listed side-effects of MiraLax are gas/bloating and cramping (which are already among my IBS symptoms), as well as nausea and diarrhea (which I don't want to add to the list), why would he give it to me? Has anyone had really bad side-effects from MiraLax? I finally took my first dose tonight, but I'm afraid of how it will affect me if I continue.

I have always battled my constipation by overdoing my insoluble fiber intake; this often "worked" but irritated my colon, so that I still experienced chronic discomfort. Is a prescribed laxative my only other choice?

Thanks for reading,
Alisha

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