Irritable Bowel Syndrome Message Boards | Pain and symptom managment during a flare up.

I have IBS and am diabetic and the two work against each other in terms of diet, where the foods that provide me the least IBS problems are simple carbohydrates that have to be eaten moderately with diabetes.

My symptoms are almost always the same, fat and red meat will lead to diarrhea. Vegetables and fiber can lead to bloating and awful gut spasms, especially when coupled with stress factors.

I have been trying to incorporate more vegetables and fiber into my diet and yesterday I overdid it. Then some things happened to really send my stress level up and I had one of the worst attacks I have ever experienced. It began around 7pm with a 'twitchy' feeling in my belly, after about two hours it started into bloating and a twisting/stabbing sensation that came and went every minute or two. This is a normal pattern for me. But the severity of it had me pacing the house until 3:00 am with pain that just wore me down until I finally just konked out in an upright chair from exhaustion.

Do other people have this pattern of stabbing pain (it is like having a muscle cramp in my gut that radiates from above my naval down to my right side and up my lower back)? Often I can feel material kind of gurgling through at the end of a round of cramping. Sometimes I will become severely nauseated and eventually dry heave. Usually this type of attack will leave me sore for several days with irregularity and intermittent pain as material moves through my gut (I think of it as a sore muscle feeling, not the same as the attack itself but I assume basically just things being overused and recovering.)

I wondered if others had found ways to manage the pain and severity of this type of attack when it happens through any sort of supplement, anti-spasmodic, anti-anxiety medication, gas relief, or even forms of exercise. Because that is 8 or 10 hours of just pure misery that I'd like to learn to mitigate.

Thanks

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