Help!! My IBS is getting worse!!
#22624 - 10/06/03 11:38 PM
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Lumin
Reged: 10/03/03
Posts: 2
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Hello - I was wondering if i could please get some advice - I have been trying to book an appointment with a Gastrologist for advice about my IBS and hopefully some kind of diagnosis of what could be causeing it, but i cannot get an appointment until late next month and i honastly dont think i can wait that long!! I have recently started the diet recommended by heather, eating lots of soluble fiber like sour dough breads and pasta and a bit of rice (though rice ussually makes me feel bloated), removeing all dairy and replaceing it with soy milk products, and avoiding (at the moment) all fats until my IBS has stabilised. I am also takeing a fiber product twice a day and i have just removed coffee from my diet! But my IBS symtoms of gas, painfull cramps and bloating have gotten alot worse! I have started eating alot of sugar (Jam, Sugar in herbal teas and FF/non dairy but very sugary sweets, cordial in water...) and i was wondering if this may be what the cause of the diet going very wrong may be ?
Yesterday i had some toast and strawberry jam with some Fluff marshmallow spread (i bought this thinking it would be a safe food as it is FF and Dairy free, apart from egg white...) and 2 hot chocolates with lots of sugar, a piece of bread with the same spreads again about 4 hours later, and another hot chocolate and than i had a few FF and Non dairy but very sugary lollies, followed by dinner of a Tofu creamy pasta with mushroom, pumpkin and herbs.
The pains started when i was danceing (exercising!) in the morning an hour or so after breakfast, i ate the bread a few hours later and it went away alot, than came back just before i walked up to the supermarket, and by the time i was makeing dinner i could hardly stand and had to get someone to finish makeing the food for me  I ate dinner (i dont know if that was a good idea..) which felt soothing but the pain was so bad, i couldant move all night and i think it was the worst IBS attack i have ever had! It is still going almost as strong now almost 15 hours later
before i went on this diet i drunk/ate youhgourt and ate fruit all day (which bloated me but i dident have THIS much pain and the gas wasent nearly like this, i hardly got it in comparison!), and i ate grilled/baked fish with a salad with a little flax seed oil and very little soluble fiber (maybe a piece of bread a day, if that!) and only took the fiber supplement once a day and it never caused a real problem, except i suffered awful constipation and when i ate high fat foods or dairy i would be very sick with cramps, gas/bloating.
Does this mean maybe that i am eating too much soluble fiber, or that i could have an intollorance to that ?
I would really appreciate some advice because it is only getting worse and i dont know what to do
Thankyou for your time, Michelle Nielsen.
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Hi Lumin,
Sorry you are having such a bad time. I don't know nearly as much as some on here, but am wondering if the cordial is alcohol which wouldn't be good.
Are you sure the sweets have real sugar? If the sweetener is sorbital or fructose, those are real.......bad.
Also, I think I'd stay off chocolate till I felt better or at least cut way down on it...... I don't think chocolate would be good for your system right now. I sure know I wouldn't touch it in these circumstances. Sure hope that cocoa doesn't have any MILK in it. If you're eating alot of soy products, you might eliminate some or quite a few of them for now.
Try a bland diet: toast, bananas, applesauce, chicken noodle soup, noodles, pasta, (both plain), rice, potatoes, oatmeal. I think oatmeal is real good. Make sure you are getting plenty of liquid.
I've always heard the BRAT diet which is bananas, rice, applesauce and toast is the best thing to do. I'd stick more to the toast, rice, bananas and the plain pastas and maybe some chicken noodle soup for a while. You could even go to broth for a day & see if that helps.
The peppermint tea is supposed to be great, and also cammomille (?SP.). Try a heating pad on your tummy and keep it on as much as possible.......those are terrific & fr. what I've learned on here, actually do relax your tummy spasms. Seems some people swear by them. I know I sure find them soothing. Am using one at night right now!!!
Maybe you shouldn't exercise for awhile until this subsides.
Others can probably give you more & better advice, but hope some of these suggestions will help !!!
Another thing......try relaxing your tummy. Relax in a chair or in bed and just tell it to relax. Close your eyes and just concentrate on relaxing your abdominal muscles.......you could put on some soothing music if you like. I once took a hypnosis course and we told our bodies to relax and go deep asleep......each part.....starting with the feet and working all the way up to your head and arms AND it actually does work. A lot of people fell asleep before finishing the whole body. I've been doing this again lately & it sure helps!!!
Let us know how you are doing. Keep your chin up!!!
Hope you feel better soon!!!!
Marnie
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Hi Michelle
It sounds from your email as though you haven't actually been diagnosed with IBS yet. Is this true? You can't self-diagnose IBS as there are lots of conditions that have similar symptoms and that have to be ruled out before you get an IBS diagnosis.
I would ring up the GI doc's office ASAP and tell them that it's an emergency and so could they fit you in any earlier! Don't play down your symptoms! These people can make you wait for ages!
Also, Heather recommends that for stabilisation, you should ONLY eat soluble fibre foods for a few days. That means NOTHING ELSE! So just plain fresh bread, plain rice, plain pasta etc. However, carrots and avocados are on the list of soluble fibre foods and I had some of these when I was trying to stabilise. Was this ok, Heather?
In sweet foods you really need to watch out for sweeteners as these are bad! They could really make symptoms worse if it is IBS. Also don't go too overboard on changing to a sweet diet as this will provide your GI tract with another stress.
Have you tried some herbal teas. Everyone on the boards (including me) swear by herbals teas and heat therapy for attacks, so maybe these could help till you get to the doc? Peppermint is good, but NOT if you have upper GI tract problems (like heartburn). I love Chamomile and Fennel is good for bloating.
Hope this helps! Best of luck.
Linz
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Hi Lumin,
Sorry you are feeling so bad.
Where is your pain located? Are you C or having D? Also have you been offically been diagnosed with IBS?
My other suggestion is with having so much pain that isn't going away don't wait until next month to see your Gastro. Either go to Urgent Care or see your Primary Doctor. Much quicker way to find out what is going on.
Hope this helps.
Barb
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Hi Michelle and welcome to the boards.
When I first had to get stabile I stuck with chicken breasts and rice only. You can do a search for breaking the cycle and follow those directions. I would stay away from the sugars and chocolate type items.
I never was able to implement any chocolate of any kind into my diet until just recently. Also - I hardly have any sugars because they are filled with false calories. They give you highs and los of energy and never really fill you up.
Really stick with the breaking of the cycle and see if that helps. And I have to agree with Linz - call your doctor back and demand an appointment. If your doctor can't see you - you may wish to find another doctor - you need to be diagnosed.
Good luck and keep us posted and your progress,
--------------------
Lana_Marie
Proud Mommy to Bentley Taylor
Born May 12, 2004 9lbs, 3oz
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I would be careful about using an urgent care or ER facility, unless you are really in a bad way. My experience has been that they know even less about IBS than my primary dr did. I had my worst attack ever while I was at the hair salon (I passed out in their bathroom after having D and vomiting for an hour) and ended up at the ER, where I sat for 6 hours (spent mostly in the ER's bathroom) before they saw me because I wasn't 'critical.' When they finally did see me, they said I had a virus, gave me some meds for nausea, and sent me home. The only good thing to come of this was the meds, that was the only thing that saved me while I waited a month to see the GI dr. And you can call and ask the GI to get you in sooner - tell them how much pain you are in and keep calling them if they put you off. They may schedule you in just to get you to quit calling - hey, sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do.
And I would follow the adivce given you by the others...go to a very bland diet for a while, it worked for me. It's not fun, but its so much better than being so ill. Once you get things calmed down, you will feel better and then can work on introducing other foods back into your diet. Good luck and keep after the GI dr or try your primary care dr again...I ended up going back to my primary care dr as my GI was a huge jerk who would make me wait weeks for follow up appts. Remember that you are not alone and that the people here care for you. I hope you feel better soon. ((HUGS))
Shari
ps - just thought of one more thing. You also might consider getting allergy testing done too at some point. I had started Heather's eating program and felt alot better but was still feeling bad...part of my problem was a new allergy to yeast and vinegar (something that had never bothered me before). When I quit eating bread and anything with vinegar (and you would be surprised at just how many things have vinegar in them) I felt better right away. You might consider keeping a food diary of what you eat and how it makes you feel. You don't always react right away to a food allergy - sometimes it takes up to 6 - 8 hours before you react to something.
Edited by howiesbuttercup (10/07/03 08:58 AM)
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--------------------
Heather is the Administrator of the IBS Message Boards. She is the author of Eating for IBS and The First Year: IBS, and the CEO of Heather's Tummy Care. Join her IBS Newsletter. Meet Heather on Facebook!
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On the other hand, an urgent care center (NOT an ER) can be a real help--when I went in with abdominal pain, the doc I saw knew more about IBS than either of the GI docs I've seen  . He gave me sample meds (it's prolly an ulcer, not IBS-related), referred me for ultrasounds (I got in the next day), and made an appointment for me with a gastroenterologist. (He was one of the two clueless jerks, but whatever.) And for that matter, my new and wonderful nurse-practitioner knows a lot about IBS, too. So, I guess you never know what someone has read up on in their spare time.
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Hey Howie'sbuttercup,
I like that ideas of KEEP BUGGING THEM!!!!!!!!! MIGHT JUST WORK!!!! In fact I think it does. When couldn't get thru to ANYONE cept receptionist (S)......after 9 prompts, I hit 3 for EMERGENCY problems after colonoscopy and got action fr. PA who incidentally is the only l you REALLY see!
NOW I GOTTA call re the Levbid that's STILL making me sick. Wellllll, it did till I stoped taking it Fri nite and went back on the promenthazine!
Like u said " Ya gotta do what you gotta do" !!!!!!!  
Marnie
Marnie
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I agree with Tess too about Urgent Care. It was an Urgent Care doc who referred me to a GI and before I walked out of Urgent Care I had a Colonscopy set up.
There is hope for finding a good doctor.
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Excuse me for changing the thread but I'm brand new and am confused about using these message boards. Don't know what the UBB code is, or how to post one of those little icons (not that I need to). Mainly, I have two questions I'd love to know the answers to: Do any of you have back pain when you have abdominal pain? and Is it possible to keep taking vitamins, especially CALCIUM? This site is awesome, thanks for being here :-)
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Hi and welcome to the boards!
If you go to the page where you are viewing a list of all the posts, you can hit the 'Post' button and start your own brand new thread!
Anyway, sometimes if I have abdominal pain, I will have lower back pain, but it's really not strong and this hardly ever happens to me, so I can't really help you much there.
But, I do take One a Day for Women and generic form of Caltrate plus D, but that is because I'm IBS-D. If you are C, you'd want to take a combo calcium/magnesium supplement. I always take both at different meals, at the end of my meal. NEVER on an empty stomach.
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Yes, I have back pain with my abdominal pain. This is an IBS symptom. Heating pad helps alot!
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