Irritable Bowel Syndrome Message Boards | Help! Have been on the diet, but nothing is working

I'll start with a quick explanation of how I got to this point, maybe this will help get some better opinions from other sufferers. A little over a year ago after my son was born I was lying in bed at night about to fall asleep when I got this labor like pain in my stomach. Thought I had bad gas pain and Bham! had crazy straight watery diarrhea that actually scared me because I'm telling you, I never had diarrhea much before. I would have to be pretty sick. Anyways, it happened again, but not a lot, it was very mild, usually only after I ate something that agitated me. BBQ for example, but not directly after I ate it, only the next day usually...which made it hard to pinpoint what was agitating me at all. I eventually realized that when I ate at certain restaurants, the next I would get an attack, etc. I did some research and came up with IBS. Was OK for a while though it caused me lots of anxiety going out and everything. I still pretty much ate whatever I wanted and had normal bowel movements majority of the time for the past year. I live in New Mexico and could eat a plate of Mexican food no problem. Like I said certain things just irritated me, especially BBQ.

Well, I saw an add for the Culturelle probiotic on TV and decided I'd try it out. I took Culturelle for a week and for the first few days it made me constipated, but when I started going again it just didn't feel right to me. To say it shortly I was going 3-4 times a day (really strange for me as I'd always been a once a day person) and never really felt like I was done going, so I stopped taking it. Now that I've stopped taking it, I wake up every morning with bad cramping in my abdomen, like really bad gas pains that turns into urgency and I have a loose stool that is mushy and a little watery every morning. Sometimes followed by subsequent mushy watery loose stools with urgent feeling. Sometimes having to strain to start going, but that the stool just turns loose and mushy as I'm going. (sorry for crudness here). If I am awake for more than a few minutes without falling back asleep there the pains are and it's only a matter of time before I'm on the toilet. Sometimes this is the only stool I pass that day, sometimes I'm back in the bathroom a few times. I've been blood tested, urine tested and stool tested and told all is normal. The doctor put me on Buspirone for anxiety and MENTIONED IBS. She told me to take more Culturelle, which I'm afraid to do at this point. It's been a month since I stopped taking Culturelle and this started. I was not this bad before, did not have stools like this every day, etc... I was still able to function pretty much normally and now I'm not.

I started the diet. I've been following it rigidly. Been using the Acacia powder (at 1 TBS/day now), but unfortunately cannot use the peppermint capsules due to heartburn. I drink Yogi brand peppermint tea and Stomach Ease tea with fennel I cut out all dairy, all red meat. I'm breaking my meals up into smaller meals throughout the day. I still have no change in symptoms. It seems to me that no matter what I eat, be it a green chile enchilada plate loaded with cheese and grease and fat like I was eating before or lightly seasoned chicken with white rice, I still have the same problem every morning when I wake up. I'm sticking to the diet and keeping a journal right now. I'm waiting for Medicaid to hopefully come through so I can see a Gastroenterologist, but I'm wondering if this really seems like IBS to any of you who have it and know what it's like? Seems like I read stuff about people with IBS eating a food that bothers them and than reacting to it immediately which doesn't really happen to me... also I think it's strange that my symptoms got worse after I stopped taking the Culturelle. Dunno if they could have upset the bacteria balance in my stomach or what, but everyone seems to think I'm crazy for thinking that this probiotic that helped so many people could have actually caused me more trouble. The only time I ever have a normal formed stool now is if I take Imodium. Imodium makes me constipated for anywhere from 1 day to 4 days, and after it wears off and I have a formed movement from being constipated, my symptoms just come back.

Anyways would love to hear anyones opinions on this. Sorry for long posting, this is just causing me sooo much stress and anxiety lately, especially since I can't go see the doctor yet.

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