This is a tough one. It does sound like maybe something else is going on besides IBS but then again you had the tests and they were normal. At first maybe I thought Chrohn's but it wasn't detected so??? Have you lost a lot of weight from this? I was diagnosed with microscopic colitis after about 12 years of IBS. My current GI says that when I had a colonoscopy about 7 years ago, they did not look at the cells through a microscope, just the naked eye during the procedure, so it's possible I had the colitis back then too. Did your doc biopsy anything from your large intestine? (They need to do that to diagnose microscopic colitis.)
On the other hand, my symptoms are more typical of IBS so my doc thinks (and I agree wholeheartedly) that the IBS is my real problem and it just so happens that I have the m. colitis too. In my personal opinion which has no medical basis whatsoever, I think my insides were so messed up at the time of my colonoscopy, that the inflammation may have been a result of all the d and IBS. I often wonder if I took the test now would it be gone (I am stable).
I also had the endoscopy b/c I was having nausea (not really heartburn) frequently and he found that I too had inflammation in my stomach which he characterized as "gastritis." I was put on Nexium which did help a bit but not with my d. Funny, since I have found this site, I stopped all meds...Nexium, Librax (maybe you should ask your doc about that...do a search), Asacol (for colitis), and even immodium....HOWEVER,
That brings me to my next paragraph. Like Atomic Rose, I feel as if the AD I am taking has made a huge positive impact on my IBS (Lexapro 10mg). When I started it, I was definitely on the road to stability though (unlike you, my d had subsided quite a bit and I was more IBS-A). The lexapro made me more on the C side. I'm sure some of it is physical but I do know that even when C, I could usually spin myself into oblivion when anxious and get d out of the blue. Perhaps you want to go the avenue of some meds. Do you notice a difference in frequency of d based on stress, etc.? (No, certainly not saying that your stress causes it!!!! God knows we hate to hear people suggest that ...just meaning that maybe you are prone to the d and anxiety may exacerbate it.)
Well, that's all I can think of. I don't know much about the fructose and gluten that others have suggested you check. I would say go through the list of suggestions and keep plugging along until you find some relief. I commend you for your tenacious efforts and patience for so long without much improvement. Good luck.
-------------------- Originally IBS-D for a million years!
Then IBS-A, Now a transformed slightly C
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