# severe episode in the middle of the night



## 19655 (Feb 26, 2006)

Hello all -- I want to know if others on here have experienced what i went throught the other night. This isn't so much the misery loves company thing as much as it is to see if I should pursue this with my doctor again.After eating my normal diet this past weekend (Sunday dinner was a homemade chicken stew with potatos, carrots and peas that I've eaten often and consider a "safe food") I woke at 2am with mild gas cramps. This rarely happens to me anymore, in fact I thought my management program was working really well as I had not had any episodes of IBS-D in several weeks if not a couple months. Anyway, I passed the gas but the cramps got worse. After about 10 minutes I went to the bathroom to try to pass whatever was causing the cramps. I spent the next half hour on the toilet with SEVERE cramps. I was able to pass stool fairly easily, which went from well formed at first to pure water by the end of the half hour but the cramps were so bad I was moaning and swearing loudly enough to wake the whole house. I had cold sweats, clammy skin, shakes, and rather bad nausea. I got dizzy and felt faint at one point so I lay down on the tile floor as my doctor suggested once, only to have another severe cramp and have to get up to sit back on the toilet.When the episode was over I towelled off -- I was that damp from the cold sweats -- and went back to bed. Even with turning on my heated blanket. I could not get warm again and slept badly the rest of the night.Someone suggested I had a flu, but I was perfectly fine in the morning which, for me, was just 2 hours after the episode ended. Tired, but hardly flu-ish. I am fine today as well and my stool is formed again.I accept that something set off my IBS-D. I'm really asking if others have experienced the cold sweats, clammy skin, shakes, nausea and especially dizziness. Those last three scared me.


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## Kathleen M. (Nov 16, 1999)

Sometimes abdominal pain or for some people mild pain or even painless bowel movements can trigger the vagus nerve and cause people to feel pretty funky, sometimes even completely faint (so light headed, dizzy, nauseated, too warm, too cold, clammy, sweaty even if you don't completely pass out)Generally the best thing to do when you feel that way is lie down. Part of the problem is blood pressure goes funny and the blood can't get back up to the head which is what sets off a lot of symptoms.A lot of things can set if off. President Bush II one time fainted from swallowing a pretzel wrong, so it can happen to anyone for a wide variety of reasons.


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## TVgirl (Sep 16, 2009)

Oh I have had that happen to me before. You feel like you are going to die it is so bad. I don't know how to stop it. I think the sweaty, claminess comes from our reaction to the pain. When I have had that attack before it was like I couldn't breathe because there wasn't any room in my abdomen to expand even just a little because it hurt too much. I wish I knew what it was. Then afterwards my abdomen is all sore like it has been through a workout and I just need to lay down and sleep. I just think when the pain is so bad it gets our anxiety up, we don't breathe properly through it and it causes those other symptoms. I get nausea bad too when they happen to the point where I almost vomit. I could if I wanted to but I stop myself.


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## riddick (Dec 30, 2008)

Yeah i've had that happen to me as well. vaso vagal episode it's called. Whe i told my gastroenetrologist he just laughed it off and said it's no big deal and probably means i've got a hyper sensitive vagal nerve as well as IBS!It feels awful...i will come over all nauseated and dizzy and clammy and have to lay on the bathroom floor (i once fainted!).


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## bmwgardner (Oct 27, 2009)

Same here. This is the primary way that I experience my IBS. It always hits me at about 3 or 4 am. It feels like vultures are picking at my intestines it is so bad. I get up to go to the bathroom and I get light-headed, hot sweats, naseau, and I just scream the pain is so bad. The first time it happened I had my parents come over at 4 am so I could go to the emergency room. When they arrived to my house I was fine so I never went. I was getting this quite a bit about 5 years ago and it always happened the same way. I would have an episode about 3 x a week. When I quit my stressful job I didn't have another episode for about 4 years. I just recently started having them again a few weeks ago.


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