# My Introduction



## Questlyfe (Feb 5, 2014)

Hey everyone









Where to begin sheesh. I guess I'll start with my history. Back in high school I developed severe IBS mostly diarreha and so I ended up missing my last semester by staying at home. After the 4 months at home I got my first dose of depression and anxiety out of that experience and my IBS slowly faded away and eventually a year later or so it disappeared. Later on in life I relapsed a few times and it was due to my poor diet and stress and now I'm 32 years old and have relapsed again but this time it's very different. My pains are all over my stomach with specific pains under my right rib cage and left rib cage. Now I do have an enlarged spleen thats been checked and tested in much detail so I know its not that, but ontop of the pain in my stomach I now have lower back pain on my right side. It's a very dull mild pain that comes and goes but it's noticable enough for me to worry about it.

As I mentioned before I've had a taste for depression and anxiety and thats followed me throughout my life but the past 2 years I've conquered depression and have got a hold of my anxiety (no meds for either of them for the past 2 years now). Unfortunately these symptoms of IBS have shaken me up considerably and my anxiety is back but to a mild degree. I've never been completely diagnosed with IBS, doctors have just been telling me that my whole life so I just accepted it like a stupid idiot. I'm in the process of being referred to a gastro guy and a dietician to get a real diagnosis once and for all.

The only other medical issue i have is I'm on thyroid medication for life due to an under active thyroid but I've been closely monitored and my dose is at a stable level now. Going back now to my enlarged spleen, I had 2 ultrasounds and a CT scan done 2 months ago and everything showed up perfectly normal on all those tests. I've been for numerous amounts of blood work for cancer, viruses, infections, etc and all have thankfully come back clean. I did do a stool sample back at the beginning of the summer of 2013 and even that came back all clean. So I have been doing some tests just not all the right ones hence the gastro guy coming soon but I think the only thing that's really got me worried is my lower back pain. It scares the living daylights out of me because I know my kidneys are there and it automatically makes me think of kidney stones. Now I just saw my doctor yesterday and he told me that they would have seen stones in the CT scan and the ultrasounds and there were none when those were done so he's not worried about stones but it still lingers in the back of my mind that it could be but my anxiety rly boosts that so I've just been trying to think rationally.

Now I really don't suffer with alot of symptoms as many of you have it's really just abdominal/back pain and inconsistantly going to the washroom. I usually take a #### ever 2 days sometimes 3 days but the probiotics I've started have really helped to regulate me and my consistancy of the stool has always stayed pretty loose but I do have to push it out first. Other than that I *DO NOT* suffer from headaches, fever, weight loss/gain, nausea, vomitting, dehydration (usually drink a litre or more of water a day), obesity (i weigh in at 175lbs and I'm 5'11), and no blood/mucus in the stools that I can see. The only thing I'd say that isn't good is my loss of appetite. I usually just eat twice a day with no snacks. Oh just a side note I don't drink coffee, alcohol or any kind of soft drinks or high sugar juices mostly just water, freshly squeezed orange juice and mild teas until I can afford to start juicing again.

So as you can see it's kind of a mind boggling situation. I have all these stomach pains that are best described as a never ending stomach ache not so much crampy just extremely achy except for under the rib cage where I can sometimes get a sharp pain if i move a certain way. I've tried advil and muscle relaxers but they do nothing for me so i just live with it. It's exhausting mentally and i'm really starting to get frusterated and stressed. The thing that kills me the most is not knowing what it is, maybe thats just me but if i knew what it was id be alot happier.

*Anyways I thought I'd share what I'm going through and if someone reads this and has some advice or just wants to comment on it please please do so*


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## acidburn32 (Feb 6, 2014)

You may want to ask for a Hida Scan. It could very well be a problem with your gallbladder not emptying properly. The scan is a series of stomach x-rays. So many are diagnosed with ibs over and over again with all normal blood work and everything when it's really their gallbladder. I'd ask for a Hida scan. The worst it can show is that your gallbladder is working...right? I wish you all the best and hope you find answers.... Good luck!


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## Questlyfe (Feb 5, 2014)

Ah yes! I've read up on that recently and it's something I will consider once some of the big scope tests are done. I've had a CT Scan somewhat recently and also a chest x-ray so I'd like to keep my radiation exposure to a minimum as well.


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