Do my symptoms even sound like IBS?
#372628 - 12/26/15 11:26 AM
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Please tell me if my symptoms do or do not sound like IBS to you? My doc said IBS. But he was pretty useless. I'm going to another doctor soon and hoping she can help me manage my symptoms.
My symptoms all started at a horribly stressful time of my life. I had just had my baby and I was having pelvic organ prolapse symptoms. I can't know if my symptoms are IBS or prolapse.
Low back pain ESPECIALLY when lying down and in the wee hours of the night, and especially when on my side.
Rectal fullness and pressure especially when lying down, and especially when on my side.
Some ab pain and discomfort, though this is not my main symptom. Feels better after a bm.
My low back pain is ALWAYS better after passing stool or gas.
Gas.
Bloating.
Trapped gas (back pain) in my colon and rectum.
Sometimes I have multiple soft, formed bm's a day...and the stools can be small and narrow.
Other times unless I take magnesium I would only have one bm a day...but I would still feel VERY blocked up in my lower back and have pain in my back.
Anxiety about the whole thing. Trying to understand my symptoms and figure it all out.
Depression...I would feel better if I thought this was IBS, but somehow I wonder if it is my internal prolapsing and that scares me very badly. I also just feel trapped by my body. Isolated.
Low Fodmaps diet helps.
Acacia fiber. I've done the whole slow introduction of it. Im up to 4 TB and STILL I have to have magnesium daily to keep from having that "backed up" feeling a lot of times in my lower back.
Some mornings I awake to my back hurting and have to go potty at wee hours (430 AM) in order to relieve myself. That is when I know I'm in for it and will have a bad day.
BAsically I feel constipated but it's NOT normal typical constipation. I do not have hard, packed stools. I do not ever skip a day, even when off magnesium I'll have SOME stool everyday..but I won't feel like I emptied out.
I feel things change a lot and correlate with my hormones, and my stress levels.
I feel confused. I have a hard time drawing conclusions and finding cause and effect because of the constant changing patterns.
The only thing I know if that I can NOT let myself get backed up. I have to keep my bowels moving, with fiber AND magnesium or the pain gets bad and everything gets worse.
Wanted to ADD:
Some days constant urge to defecate. Those are usually the days that I have 3 to 5 stools and some are small stools and very narrow. And I also feel I can't pass gas from my anus on those days and lots of rectal sensations.
The low back pain and rectal stimulation from laying on my side SEEMS to be linked to the fact that lying down on my side brings up gas or puts pressure somewhere that activates my bowel. For some reason these things are the most mentally disturbing to me. I've told this to more than one doctor and they said NOTHING and had nothing to add so of course it only heightens my anxiety.
Edited by newagain (12/26/15 11:36 AM)
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Sounds like typical IBS symptoms - bloating, gas, cramps - and the sensation of incomplete evacuation - all of these are common IBS symptoms.
Incomplete evacuation
Have you tried the clinically proven FODMAP elimination/re-introduction diet shown to improve IBS symptoms in 70-80% of IBS suffers?
Kate Scarlata - a dietitian with IBS - has written an excellent overview article on the FODMAP diet
FODMAP: a road map foribs
--------------------
STABLE: ♂, IBS-D 50+ years - Science of IBS
The FODMAP Approach to Managing IBS Symptoms
Evidence-based Dietary Management of Functional GI Symptoms: The FODMAP Approach
FODMAP Chart & Cheatsheet
The Role of Food & Dietary Intervention in IBS
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Thank you for responding.
Yes, I have done the Fodmap diet with great success. I did it for several weeks and then did slow re-introduction of foods. I did very well with re-introducing certain things and then I just laxed up, then holidays happened, some other stressors as well, some sickness..and then whammo it's like I'm at square one again. I don't really want to go back to being so strict, though, becaause even on the diet very strictly I was symptomatic, though better.
My gas and bloating are far better now and I have never returned to how horrible I was this summer...but the back pain and incompletion sensations, as well as trapped stool and gas feelings are just awful at times.
I probably should go back to square one.
So do you think the back pain and rectal fullness sounds normal? Back pain while lying down and especially on my side? Rectal fullness while on my side? Does THAT sound IBS-ish??
My "incomplete" feelings are hard to pin down, I read that article you linked to. I read lots of articles that spun off of that. Thank you!!
The thing is that I don't have diarhrea, but I feel like my rectum gets into quirk-ing, even with drinking water!!! I feel like I should be having diahrea, but when I get on the toilet again (and again) it's these narrow, soft stools that are small and hard to pass but NOT hard themselves. It's like my anus doesn't want to relax. This isn't really talked about a lot in the incompletion materials I read. I read about hard pellets that are hard to pass and watery diahrea that is hard to pass...but mines in the middle of that.
I like what I read of the links you included about trying to quiet those urges through relaxing. I HAVE noticed that when lying in bed when that rectal fullness/quirking/pressure starts (HATE THAT!!!) then if I try to take lots of deep relaxed breaths it will ease at times. Other times I will get a sure-fire bowel urge and have to get up and go potty if I lay down.
With all of this extra info, do you think it still sounds IBS-ish?
I will consider going back to Low Fodmap. And I think I also need to up my use of the peppermint tabs. Those capsules do seem to quiet my rectum.
I'd love to know if my stuff is due to IBS as opposed to prolapse.
I think I've got some serious anxiety about my prolapse and probably need counseling for that.
Also, and I think this sounds crazy, but I'll be honest, I have some people in my life (extended family ) that makes me SO tense, that when I'm forced to be around them, I WILL have terrible backpain, and inability to go to the toilet and have bm's, until I'm away from them again. I sort of feel like what's the point killing myself to eat all the right things and do everything right when I can get so tense in certain social situations that nothing can stop the blocked up constipated feeling, the gas trapped in my back and rectum, and the terrible low back pain. It's so discouraging. And it all seems so odd that it makes me fear my body is just coming to pieces. It hardly seems believable that getting stressed can cause SO MUCH actual physical trouble and pain.
Edited by newagain (12/26/15 02:40 PM)
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