IBS symptoms

[houghchrst]

I had my gallbladder removed last May and just the last couple weeks I have noticed that I am having what feels like gall stones and every once in a while I get agonizing bowel cramps. It feels like I need to have a movement but most of the time can't. Some times it fades with some flatulence. This does not happen every day and my movements are different every time. The first was so bad that I had to take 2 muscle relaxers to make it go away. Can someone tell me if this sounds like IBS or something else?

[tic chick]

hey chris!

google "proctalgia fugax" and see if that sounds like it.

you could also try a cup of yogurt that has "active cultures" in it, or probiotics. they might help regulate your system.

my surgeon told me before i had my gallbladder out, that i might still get some of the pain symptoms that i had with the gallbladder in and sick! he also said a minor percentage of people have chronic diarrhea after gallbladder surgery.

hope you find out what it is...
jeannie

[houghchrst]

No this feels more like someone has a knife in my lower intestines and is twisting it around. I can sit on the commode for ten minutes in agony and it will pass then I will get up and about five to ten minutes later I will get another stab, or if I stand or roll over, and have to go sit on the commode again, sweating with the severe pain, almost feeling on the edge of a faint.

This is not constipation or an anal type thing this is actually in my intestines. Fortunately I haven't had a severe attack in almost a week though I have had some twinges. I do have movements but each one is different and I never feel as though I am completely done.

I also am bloated feeling and my gut feels and looks distended, course that could be fat lol but I feel full uncomfortably bloated after a glass of water.

I found an article about the correlation between cholecystectomy, fibromyalgia, IBS, ODDI Syndrome and a few other things that was fascinating and informative and I will be darned if I can find it now and with this new version of Firefox I have no clue how to use the history.

I see the doc on Wednesday maybe I will bring it up. Then again maybe I am just sick of being diagnosed with something else so I won't unless it get's worse lol.

Thanks

((((((((((((hugs)))))))))))))

[Buttons2]

Christina, well you are under alot of stress right now,not saying that's the issue but be sure the doc knows about it. Also I urge you to keep a journal of what's going on & certainly tell your doc even if it goes away tomorrow.

You don't need this on top of everything else!Hang on,things will improve I'm sure & don't think for one minute you're seeking more issues,this could very well be tied to the surgery or then again it might be something else. At any rate it's happening & you need to find out why.

(((((HUGS))))

[houghchrst]

Thanks guys, I went to the doc and he was kind enough to inform me that 10% of people who have their gallbladders removed develop IBS. So we will keep an eye on it for a month and see if maybe it was stress or something I ate, fingers crossed. If not gone by then we will do some testing.

[ms1128]

Hi Cristina....So sorry you're having trouble. :( I have 'IBS' and I also had my gall bladder removed about 5 years back. I found out AFTER surgery....at follow up, that I wasn't suppose to be eating fatty foods. That was one problem, but I had chronic diarrhea for 5 years prior to the surgery.

I knew I needed to seek the advice of a doctor when it was waking me up from my sleep. I also had horrid pains.

After my diagnosis, doctor put me on a regimen of 'medimucil'. One teaspoon, in the morning every day, in a glass of water, before I ate anything. I thought he was a little wonky, but I gave it a try. It worked for me. Within a week, my pain were disappearing, and I was beginning to become regular.

When I returned for my follow up. I told the doctor about my mis-givings, and he smiled and said "why would I question his expertise as a doctor"? He explained that the fiber coated the intestines and bowels so they wouldn't get as irritated. Made sense.

Anyway, perhaps it's worth a try. I hope it could work as well for you, as it did for me. If I veer off the system, it goes back to what it was, within a week or so.

Take care

Catherine

[Buttons2]

Dr. Gott just had an article about WARM apple jusice helping with IBS. My post several days ago didn't go through!

[houghchrst]

Thanks guys. I haven't been having any serious pains like those first lately but we had been eating a lot of fast food for about 2 weeks there because I was so busy with my mom. That may have triggered it. I still have some irregularity but no severe lasting pain.

Pati I did read about the apple juice, maybe it was somewhere else.

[joy]

I hope things are going better in that department. I have what they call flank pain. And no one has ever figured out what to do for it in all the years since I first heart that term! It's about as digusting having that as the ididpathic tacked onto my peripheral neuropathy. Hope things get better.

[houghchrst]

Well I guess I jinxed myself because I took shortcake to the dentist on Thursday and had one so bad just as we were finishing that I thought I would faint on the way home. Was miserable for the whole rest of the evening.

Then yesterday after a late lunch with the bf had to hurry home because needed the facilities. Oh man I am not looking forward to this. Guess I better start some research.

Joy I have never heard of Flank Pain. There's something else to look up.

[christh]

try looking up the posts i've put on this site..........u have the symptoms that i have had for a long time, till about 5mos ago, along with many others.......the fact that the moronic doctors took out ur gallbladder, tells me u had problems that were not necessarily caused by a defective gallbladder.......even tho u now don't have one.......my daughter had her's out many yrs ago & now, knowing what i do know, i worry......bile is a necessary thing for complete digestion........when ur stomach doesn't make enough HCl, gall stones & inflammation can result..........if i were u, i'd read those other posts by me & then look up bile & how to supplement with something that will either simulate it or actually do what it's suppose to do........u may have to search long & hard.......u have my deepest sympathy.......u maybe producing too much gastrin now, cause u don't have any bile.......bile is needed for the digestion of fats & fat is the starting block of all our hormones, not just sex hormones......i haven't researched this, but i think i will cause of my daughter........r u now suffering from allergies or any kind of sinus issues?........this would go along with everything else....... altho, u may have that to look forward to.........so sorry.........they have a term for doctor caused conditions, so sad, that it's in the dictionary........it's like cholesterol lowering drugs, by all means let's artificially reduce cholesterol levels rather than finding out why our bodies r producing too much of it........& in the process, making us feel worse & not really effecting the cause........pain is a warning that things r not right, things get inflamed, doesn't mean we should take out the effected part.......why not find out why it's inflamed........it's like my joints & sometimes the ends of some of my toes.......the joints were killing me & making it hard to more in any way..... my toes would get these red, swollen & very painful areas either on the side of the toe next to the nail or in the cuticle under the nail ends.........the toe issues i've had for 20yrs or more, the joints for about 7.........well, after researching HCl for the stomach & supplementing myself, these issues have cleared up........i now believe it was gout.......uric acid is a waste product from our bodies & if our bodies can't get rid of wastes & poisons, it stores the in out of the way areas.......after al,l u don't need to walk to live, but the human body can't survive with too many poisons floating around in our blood.........uric acid gets stored in joints & in toes & fingers, elsewhere, too......and it HURTS, badly.......well, after taking HCl for a while, things r so much better, i can not tell u effectively........that's cause HCl, makes things work right & gets rid of those many poisons.......takes care of sluggish livers & kidneys, among many..........i hope this has at least given u food for thought...........

[christh]

hello christina......... quwinkidink, my name is christine......anyway, i was wondering if u r really fatigued, achy, headachy, cloudy thinking, hard doing the regular things, much less doing extra & do u now get pain & diarrhea everytime u have to leave the house, out to lunch, shopping for food, anything where it's an extra effort? or even if u get mad or upset about something?..........i once a while ago, went to cost co, a big warehouse shopping for food & non-food place, and spent 30min in the place, 20 of which were involved in 3 trips to the bathroom......i went home without getting anything........it was the worst.......this was a normal occurrence........ my life was awful, & among the things that made it a misery, was i had insomnia, too......i cannot tell u for sure what is happening, but i know it has something to do with the adrenals & the stomach not producing enough HCl.....when we become adrenal fatigued & we HAVE to do something, anything, even the stuff we want to do, we need more secretion from the adrenals & when we have adrenal fatigue, our adrenals have a hard time providing what we need........also, when we r stressed in anyway, even good stressed, we don't produce enough HCl to keep the Ph of our stomachs at an optimal level, somewhere between 1 & 3Ph......the adrenals, thyroid & everything else comes under stress & can't step up to the plate, unfortunately for us......one thing goes wrong & that effects something else & on & on.......alot like dominos..........u might try 5-HTP & St. John's Wort.......they both help to calm the intestines.......there's a couple of books that really helped me.......#1=Adrenal Fatigue, the 21st century syndrome by: James L. Wilson.....#2: Why Stomach Acid Is Good For You by: Jonathan V. Wright.......then do lots of research & look everything up..........it may take some time & u may get better before u need all the info, but it is a good education............

hopefully, chris

[houghchrst]

Hi Chris thank you so much for your response. My gallbladder had a very large polyp in as well as the stones, fortunately the polyp didn't show anything. As for bowel movements I have noticed that mine run back and forth from instant constipation if I try to hold it at all to diarrhea where if I don't get to a bathroom then all might be lost. Sometimes I still have an achy weight where my gallbladder use to be.

I don't have the severe cramping bowel pain like I was always getting especially when eating out except for once in a while. I have learned that jumping on that with a muscle relaxer before it gets too bad is the best way to go.

I am constantly under a huge amount of stress and am being treated for mental illness so ST. John's Wort is out of the question though I do take many other nutritional supplements.

I do have low thyroid levels and am being treated for it and this is just since my gb removal. Also I have been taking Prilosec OTC for a long time for GERD and recently I started aspirating stomach contents while sleeping which has caused me to have two bronchial infections. I was given reglan to resolve it but it caused such terrible depression that I had to stop.

I am currently taking a probiotic, B12, C, Calcium, D, Melatonin, a multivitamin and I think something else I can't think of right off.

I will check your posts and whatever else I can find. Thanks so much.