# how long do your flare ups last and what are the symptoms



## fedup

my ibs has been particularly bad for the last 3 months or so since my health anxiety started up again. I started with ocassional diahorea then loose stools every morning with the odd normal stool. Increased frequency up to 4/5 times a day, not always but a couple times a week. Feeling that i'm not finished which can last all day and the ocassional small round stools.So wwhat i'm asking is does this sound normal for ibs? how long do your flare ups last and what are your symptoms?I would appreciate any replies as my anxiety is pretty much off the scale just now.


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## katiebabe

I am still suffering the first ever flare up and its been going on for 5 months! my symptoms are, constipation, small sheep like poos.Spasm attacks all down the left side- usually linked to a bowel movement afterwards but gets worse if i can't go.Winded stomach, if i walk out for longer than say 10 minutes it feels like someone is punching me and i have to go home.Bloated, terrible, can't eat meals anymore so just eat tiny portions.Cramps, chesty pains on and off.The most painful is spasms, the winded pain in my tummy is effecting my life the most becoz I can't do much.I do hope it passes for you, this sounds normal for IBS from what I have learnt, poos can be any shape/form/size, loose or constipated. A few months back I was like you, now I can't get it out. kate xx


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## fedup

hi katie,Thanks for your reply.Have you had any tests done to determine that its ibs? My gp thinks i should have a colonoscopy but i'm really worried about having it done. I have had ibs for 20 years but never had such a prolonged attack. I know what you mean about the left sided pain, i get a lot of discomfort there.Are you taking anything for your ibs?


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## Kathleen M.

Are you working on getting the anxiety under control? If you are more anxious than usual (for any reason) that will tend to gear up the IBS and it will be hard for it to "unflare" while the anxiety is going on. Doesn't help that the IBS flaring up will make the health anxiety worse.When my IBS first got bad it was extremely severe every day for months on end, so it can get worse for months at a time (and some people are always bad no matter what). Now I tend to have mild symptoms for a few hours a few times a year.Since your flare up is really only typical IBS symptoms (no bloody diarrhea or other red flag symptoms, all sounds like moderate IBS to me) I don't know if you need additional testing, although it isn't a bad idea with a change in symptoms. The main question is would the testing make your anxiety a lot worse right now, or would knowing it came back normal help calm you down. If you'd just be more nervous before the test or even after because some people's anxiety can turn a normal result into "they missed it and I'll die because they missed it" it may not be worth it. You know what your anxiety tends to do with things.


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## fedup

hi kathleen,I have been receiving cbt for my anxiety but my therapist has referred me to the mental health team as she thinks i need more support. I'm also on anti-depressants and beta blockers. I know that if i agree to the colonoscopy my anxiety will get worse while waiting for it, my gp left it up to me to decide, she said she's 99% sure there's nothing wrong but i'm still terrified. How was your ibs diagnosed and how have you managed to get it under control?


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## katiebabe

I am taking 'sorry for my spelling' amatriptlyine, alverine citrate and domperidone.I think it may be one of these thats making me constipated so im going bak to docs today.That is sooo true about anxiety, Although it get pain everyday, but the less I walk and eat I can control it, yesterday I had an argument with my partner and I really shouted and threw things' it was really stupid now looking back' but afterwards I was getting awful pains in my right side 'unusual for me as always left' and today.. i havent had a spasm for two weeks, I was really pleased that one of my symptoms appeared to be getting better and just now ive had one. I woke up with a very sore inflamed left side and it started cramping up and I cud feel it was gunna happen, its gunna keep happening now becoz i cant poo but I dont wana take a laxative. But I think my sore side was brought on from getting like I did y'day. I think we both need to sort our anxiety out by the sounds of things becoz it's awful enuff suffering everyday without it flaring up even worse.I've had most tests, not celiac had a gastro and a bit of a colonscopy 'they had to stop becoz they cudnt get in further or sumthing' had mri and that came back normal, so diagnosed with severe ibs. Kathleen I really pray to god mine settles down like urs did, been five months now and its not showing any signs of settling.fedup - keep ur chin up, have the colonscopy if u feel and ur doctor feels you need one, the prep is pretty awful and the procedure was really painful for me'twist in my bowel or sumthing" but do not be alarmed as for most people they dont feel much so I'm sure you will be fine. If ur worried abotu it u cud always ask to be put to sleep xx


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## fedup

hi katie,Do you mind me asking how old you are? I'm 45 so getting nearer to the age where bowel cancer is more likely. I've been looking at the bowel cancer stats and for my age there's a 1 in 3000 chance of getting it. My anxiety convinces me that i must be that 1.Who was it that decided you needed a colonoscopy? My gp says there's a 5 week wait to get it done and we're off to Turkey in 2 weeks so will wait until i get back to speak my gp when i get back.When it all started with you did you find you were going to the toilet more frquently? I have had spells like this in the past but my anxiety was'nt as bad and it eventually settled down, did'nt taake this long. I'm so tired of being so anxious every day,its causing severe depression in me.


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## katiebabe

I am only 23. Unlike you and most people who experience spells of ibs on and off for a long time, mine just came just like that had has been severe for the whole 5 month period.I don't think we have it quite the same, I don't know if yours effects you walking? but I literally cannot walk or go anywhere for longer than say 20mins before i am in pain. I have to sit and rest, it feels like im being punched. I met someone another young girl in the hospital who has it as severe as me and it was so good to speak to someone else who has it like you becoz you dont feel so insane! as it extremly difficult explaining it all and you often feel like you have to prove urself to friends and work etc, which you shudnt have to do. I kept going back to docs like every week and I was trying just about all 'i think i have' ibs pills you can take. but I was taking each one for like 3 weeks and then wud go back, which I've heard you need to give each pill at least a six week period to take effect and also, along with trying to relax- I cud not relax for about 4 months becoz I kept thinking like you are. Trust me when I say this, it does make everything feel worse and aggravates it all even more when you are stressing. A distraction is the best thing and I think that's what you need to get you through it.I draw so drawing for me is an escape and I'm sat down so everythings easier to cope with.I can't say because yes you are older than me but you have to put things into perspective you cannot let yourself start thinking like that. I know it's easier said than done. And yes when it all first happened I was going to the toilet a lot more, and now like I am terribly constipated, my whole stomach and bowels have just felt totally upside down for months like I have a constant bug, or creature inside of me!! that is messing with my poos, giving me spasms/pain/bloating/inflamation and sore tummy.IBS can be sooo severe as I am learning and it can take a longgggg time for things to calm down, but you are ur biggest enemy. If your doctor thinks you need this procedure then go ahead with it. But for now, please 'very jelous' go on holiday and TRy to make the most of it!! we get one life, you have to think positive and enjoy everyday the best you can. You will get through this I am sure.kate x


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## fedup

hi again,Do you know what has caused your ibs? For me i'm sure it was a stomach bug. I don't get the feeling you describe like you've been punched but i do get a lot of gas and discomfort on my left side below my ribs. If i press on that side i can hear the gas moving along my colon.I also enjoy drawing but can't seem to focus on anything these days. I'm also suffering from depression which has come on since my anxiety started up.I really want to enjoy my holiday but i'm so scared i'll ruin it for everyone.I was your age when my ibs started. I hope yours settles down soon.Tracey x


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## Kathleen M.

I did cognitive behavioral therapy that was specific for IBS. It was part of a clinical trial. I'm not clear on how it differs from CBT for other issues like anxiety.Some people do need medications to help get anxiety under control enough for the CBT to work. Often in clinical trials a combination of the two is more effective than either one alone. It can take awhile, so keep working on that, it can only help the other health issues.


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## katiebabe

Tracy,Funnily enuff I had like a 24h tummy bug things, which left my system and then 2 days later it came back in the form of ibs and has been ever since. It's so frustrating becoz u think, must I have eaten sumthing or did sumthing particularly stressful happen at that time.. but I think it was most likely waiting to happen anyway.Thats interesting, was yours like mine when you were younger or has it never effected walking etc.I feel and here allsorts, bubbling gurgling everyday, i look down at my tummy and it is a funny shape! I am really thin so I can see everything, when I get cramps first thing on a morning often my bowel raises up and down. And it feels like I have a baby inside of me. It just feels off all the time and has done ever since. I really miss sports etc.Try your hardest to do things it really does help, lifes to short to destroy your holiday over your thoughts, just dont let your head go there, think about it, i know exactly how you feel, yes you are in pain and discomfort but your minds making you feel like this, you have to beat your thoughts. Enjoy your hols and deal with this when your back, I am sure everything will work it's way out  you have to think positive as negativity does no good to anyone. Kathleen are you from the UK? do you know how to get onto these trials? Docs etc havent mentioned this to me but I would be really interested in giving it a go katexx


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## overitnow

I was in my early 40s when the D started. It was every day, many times, for 10 years. There was never a normal bm during that whole time. Because I knew mine was at least in part attributable to smoking, I never attempted to treat it medicinally until I could finally quit the habit. That took five years and was not enough to fix me, the damage had been done. When another five years had passed and nothing had gotten better, I started taking a supplement for my cholesterol and my D slowly got better. I still have a couple of soft, fairly urgent bms in the morning; but I haven't had anything that would count as a "flare" since the end of 1999. The only real anxiety I ever go through, anymore, relates to an old prostate and sometimes that urge to pee can mask another bm. Mark


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## fedup

hi katie,When my ibs started it was more constipation and pain. Once when i was pregnant i had to call the dr out as i was doubled up in pain, i thought i was having a miscarriage. The dr examined me and told me it was the ibs, he gave me fybogel which i hated. My ibs continued on and off like this over the years until i started having bouts of diahorea after having a few days of constipation. I had a really bad flare up 7 years ago that was quite prolonged. I was diagnosed with post natal depression around that time.It must be awful for you that you can't do the things that you want to do. Are you working? I've been signed off my work for the last 10 weeks and have been told that i might lose my job.I hope things improve for you soon.Hi mark,When your symptoms first started did you see your gp? If so did they just diagnose you there and then? I'm so fed up with this and can't get out of the anxiety-ibs cycle that i'm caught up in, this is causing quite severe depression.Just wondering if either of you have bother with incomplete evacuation, i'm getting this a few times a week and its driving me insane.


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## goldentony111

okay


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## fedup

okay what?


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## overitnow

No I didn't see a doctor until I started to recover. She, in effect, "diagnosed" it from my description, in the first 6 months of my recovery. Because of the linkage with tobacco--something numbers of us do but seldom talk about--it didn't have the air of mystery that often surrounds this condition. It was only a couple of years ago that I got trapped into a virtual colonoscopy and only because colon cancer was a part of my father's complex of problems. My question, at that time and for many years going forward, was how the grape seed and skin would operate on this long term problem. (At that time, the use of flavonoids was generally restricted to a pine extract and they were only just learning about grape seed/skins as the source of cholesterol control.) It appears, from the Google machine, that some work is now being done on flavonoids and GI problems, including the flavonoids from cocoa.As far as IE, that followed the end of the all out D. At that time I used a fiber and herb mixture to make my stools denser and less sticky, all of which greatly lessened that problem.


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## fedup

hi mark,Just curious about the virtual colonoscopy, what does that entail? Also, why did'nt you have it done sooner?Sorry for all the questions.Tracey.


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## goldentony111

thanks for the advice


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## overitnow

It was a CT scan, rather than the camera. As to why I put it off so long, that had more to do with a toxic relationship I had with my doctor and I knew he would guilt me out about smoking causing it. Since I was incapable of quitting, I "preferred" the D to being told what I already knew to be true. Once I had resolved my problem, then it was pretty clear that it wasn't cancer that was causing this, so why put myself through it? Of course, I know that one day this attitude may be my undoing; but having survived the US war machine, a grizzly bear on my porch, and dumping a canoe in some frigid white water, not to mention in any detail the number of flirtations I had with frostbite, I guess I am just going with my own "flow."


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## fedup

i did'nt know that smoking was a contributing factor in ibs. Why did you have a ct scan instead of a colonoscopy?Sounds like you have an exciting life! You seem to have a positive outlook, i wish i could. I know my negativity won't be helping my ibs/anxiety but i can't break the cycle.Do you ever have any flare ups these days?Thanks for taking the time to reply to my posts.Tracey.


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