# IBS after getting Giardia abroad.



## nstoegger (Aug 15, 2014)

Hey everyone, I've used this forum as a good resource for information as I've struggled with what I've been told is Post Infectious IBS. I was abroad for about four months doing work, at the end of December I was in southern Turkey and then went to Morocco before coming back to the States. About two weeks after I left Turkey I started to have problems after I would eat food involving a lot of acid reflux, burning in my chest, bloated feeling in the upper abdomen, and loose stools. I thought the food in Morocco didn't agree with me, and indeed it seemed to get better for about a week, then the symptoms came back. Again i thought perhaps I was just getting used to food back home as I had been living between a few third world countries recently. After three weeks of not getting better I went to the doctor and based on the symptoms I described he said I most likely had Giardia and prescribed me Flagyl, which I took for a week. While it seemed to get rid of the feelings of bloating and acid after eating, I still was having irregular bowel movements in terms of shape, color and consistency. I also would still get a bit of grumbling and indigestion especially as I laid down to go to sleep at night. These have probably been the most prevalent symptoms I've had since all this started in January and they have been reasonably consistent on a daily basis, though some days worse than others. Blood and stool tests found no irregularities so my doctor referred me to a gastroenterologist. He looked at the test results and listened to my story and pretty much just told me I had IBS probably as a result of the Giardia. To be sure, he ordered a stool test to check for occult blood which came back negative. He didn't recommend a colonoscopy, but of course being a bit of an anxious person, during all this I've often considered the possibility of cancer especially as my symptoms haven't gone away in months. The GI doctor was rather nonchalant about the whole thing and almost acted like I was wasting his time being in the office, like I should have just known it was IBS and gone about my life. So while I felt some comfort in having normal test results as well as none of the alarm symptoms, I still get quite anxious when symptoms flair up. This last week especially I had a lot of bloating in my upper abdomen after eating, and just generally felt uncomfortable. Luckily going to the bathroom seems to ease a lot of these feelings, but not always. My stool is still not a normal consistency, I'd say since January I've probably only had about a dozen or so movements that I would consider normal, most of the time they're just loose (not diarrhea loose, but not as solid as they should be). I've tried different probiotics, cutting out a lot of dairy, cutting out coffee (which is a damn shame because I love it) but I haven't been able to find a consistent diet or exercise regiment that seems to alleviate symptoms. Taking a course of Prilosec seemed to calm down the indigestion for a bit, and my aunt with IBS gave me some Dicyclomine to help with cramping which does seem to work when I use it. I've read a lot of good things about Iberogast and put in an order for it on Amazon today, so I figure I would try that out. I guess my main point and concern is just that I'm still having symptoms all these months later, it's almost daily to varying degrees, and my bowel movements refuse to normalize. My doctor didn't exactly put my fears to rest with his attitude, so I think still having that bit of doubt in my mind feeds into my anxieties as well. I just wanted to share my story and see if anyone has had a similar issue with these types of recurring symptoms after getting Giardia or some other bug, and see if anything has worked to help. Thanks in advance.


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