# Recently diagnosed with post infectious IBS



## Josh.23 (Jan 17, 2017)

Hi everyone. My name is Josh. I am a 30 year old man that recently was diagnosed with irritable bowl syndrome. It is really awesome that there is a group like this to chat with about this terrible disease.

My story began back in August while I was traveling abroad. When I returned home I remember going out for dinner one night and feeling dizzy and feverish. I ended up having explosive diarrhea the whole night. I ended up having to leave for another trip the next day and could not find the time to see a doctor. The whole trip my appetite was lost and I had weird yellow loose stools. I started to loose a bit of weight. I went to a GP when I returned and he ordered me a stool test for parasites, fecal blood test and a full blood hematology panel. All came back negative. I was still suffering a month later with off and on loose bowl movements. He ordered a CRP test to check for swelling, and a lipase blood test, liver enzymes, and blood sugar test. All of which came back normal.

During this time I was under a lot of stress. I began to experience anxiety about my symptoms. He said he believed I had IBS and my physical examination was normal. I started a month on a probiotic align which did not help. I was noticing I wasn't digesting food properly and my stools floated. I saw a different GP a month later. He got another stool culture and checked for parasites, and bacteria as well as my electrolytes, and a fecal blood test, which all came back normal.

I ended up going in for an abdominal ultrasound which showed a small tiny fatty liver and upper lever normal spleen and everything else looked fine.

I finally saw a third doctor who put me on a strong antibiotic called flagyl....I ended up having a reaction to it and ended up in the emergency. I seemed to have got a bit better from it though.

The next month I was out for dinner and got another round of food poisoning. I ended up with bloody diarrhea. I ended up in the emergency. They discovered I had two strains of bacteria known as Camplylobacter jinjini and C. difficile.

I ended up on an antibiotic called vancomycin for 2 weeks. This seemed to help. I saw an internal medicine specialist who got me a HIV, hep A, B, and C test, and a fecal fat test done...all negative.

She also diagnosed me with post infectious IBS.

I then saw a GI specialist which looked at me for 15 minutes and also said IBS. At this point 5 months had gone by and I had lost 15 pounds and I finally began to see a difference. I saw a second GI who also agreed that I had IBS and no colonoscopy was needed.

I still get flare ups and I have had every kind of bowl movement under the sun.

I get constipation and loose stools....small diameter/ribbon shape, and normal from time to time. I developed an anal fissure which showed blood once or twice. For so long I was scared I had cancer and worried constantly...developed anxiety and eat very carefully.

I feel all you frustration with this shitty syndrome.


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## TO68 (Aug 25, 2016)

HI Josh,

I am a 45 year old woman who has also been diagnosed with PI-IBS. I am a little over 9 months in and have had much improvement. I was never tested properly in the beginning for whatver bacterial infection I had. I was staying with my mom at the time and we both got some sort of stomach bug that was horrible for 2 weeks. My mom eventually got better at about week 4 and for me at week 6 I would start to get better to only get worse again. I had extreme abdominal pain and putrid smelling ribbon like stools up to 8X/day in spurts. Like 3-5 in the morning then another round in the evening. I was put on 10 days of flagyl and my pain was slightly lessened, I no longer felt like my guts were full of knoves but they still hurt. And my BMs actually got looser but less frequent. About 2 months later I was diganosed with PI-IBS. I am on a motility drug called dicetel whihc seems to help and I have been on Align for about 6 months with good results. I lost 40 pounds and have gained back about 5. I am still pretty careful baout what I eat and I take daily drugs but I have a relatively functional life. I currently have 1 morning BM that is formed but what I will call unattractive and not my norm of a soft log prior to being sick. Sorry for the graphics! Once in a while I have pain before the BM that goes away. My energy levels are back and I am feeling pretty good at this point. Your ordeal sounds like it was more intense with your initial infection and having food poisoning 2X. How are you doing now and what things have worked for you? Has your GI Dr been at all helpful? Mine was not so much. Has any DR discussed the possibility of recovery with you? Mine did but was vague on time lines. He just said that when the gut gets disrupted that it takes a long time to get sorted out. Things I read online suggest anywhere from 1-5 years for a recovery. Hope you are doing better.

Take care,

TO68


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## Jesse1234 (Jan 4, 2009)

Hi mate. I too have post infectious IBS since 2006. I'm 28 now. It's horrible right?!

There's been a lot of research done into this especially recently to prove that it's an autoimmune disease.

What happens is you get the food poisoning. The food poisoning bacteria carry a toxin. This toxin is called Cytolethal Distending Toxin B. Your body produces antibodies to attack this toxin. This toxin, however, mimicks a Protein in the nerves of your small intestine called Vinculin. Your body starts attacking Vinculin. Vinculin controls motility of the gut (it cleans out your gut every 90 minutes of residual food). Without this motility, bacteria build up and produce gas breaking down your food, this is what causes all the IBS symptoms. It's a condition called SIBO - Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth. You can get a breath test to diagnose SIBO. If you are in America, you can get a blood test to diagnose post infectious IBS. They are 1 in the same.

Both C Jejuni and C Difficile carry the cdtB toxin.

Information on the blood test IBSChek.com
I wish I knew all of this when I first became sick, so I'm passing it onto you.

Good luck


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