# New: is this IBS?



## kspa35 (May 15, 2014)

Hi All,

I am new here. I have been searching this group for answers, and finally decided to join. Brief story of me: I have been experiencing diarrhea (frequency/urgency) and right lower quadrant pain for 2 years now. During that time I initially had all stool testing (c.diff, ova and parasites), blood work and a CT scan abdomen/pelvis: which all came back normal. Doc gave me Bentyl which helped but 2 days later I got hives so had to stop it. Since I was in a rigorous training program it was chalked up to anxiety and stress, so I have been living on immodium.

Now, school is done and I finally went to a GI with same symptoms and now heartburn. First we did endoscopy/colonoscopy. Endoscopy showed gastritis for which I got protonix. Colon had some pus like stuff near appendix but biopsies were normal. So we did a capsule endoscopy (camera pill). Results of which are pending now. Also sent me for MRI abdomen/pelvis with and without contrast. Due to anxiety/claustrophobia I was only able to do pelvis one. Report says normal, but since appendix and bowel were not on film radiologist recommends CT with oral contrast.

I have an appointment tomorrow with GI, but he mentioned last time if MRI is normal he may want to do exploratory surgery.

The right lower quadrant pain is internment but daily. if I sit up quickly it feels like I am squishing something and it a breath-taking-away pain.

Could this all just be IBS? I asked my doc last appointment and he said we have a lot of tests to do before we can call it that.

Please help? Advice?

Oh- and if it is IBS-D what do you all recommend for someone who is allergic to antispasmotics and cant take SSRIs?

I'm using donnatal exilar now which helps somewhat, and immodium.

Anyone using enteragam? Doc gave me a pamphlet on it.

Thanks

K


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## Kathleen M. (Nov 16, 1999)

How many more tests does the doctor want to bill your insurance for? Exploratory surgery? What is so unusual about your symptoms that they feel they need to cut you open?! That seems pretty extreme. IBS pain can be severe, but I don't know what sounds so unusual that you need to be cut open stem to stern and have everything pulled out (at least that is what exploratory surgery used to mean back when they couldn't do CT or MRI imaging). After all sometimes abdominal surgery causes adhesions which can make IBS worse and just mucking up the neural net by cutting and poking around in there can set it off, as well as all the antibiotics you would need upsetting the colon flora.

Are you having red flag symptoms (weight loss when you eat more than enough to maintain weight, bloody diarrhea, copious watery diarrhea predominately at night or nutritional deficits (like anemia) even when you eat more than enough nutrients).

Because most people at most get a colonoscopy and that is it. Doing test after test after test when everything comes back normal usually only makes IBS symptoms worse.

SSRIs usually aren't the best antidepressants for IBS-D, usually tricyclics like Desipramine (a bit less likely to cause side effects) or Elavil (which is usually the standard go to low dose tricyclic for most things so often where the start) tend to be more likely to slow the bowel down and may have more evidence they control the pain. SSRIs tend to cause diarrhea more than other antidepressants.

We've had some people try enteragam and seems to work for some people, so may be worth a try.

The only question I have is did they test for celiac disease? I'd do that long before more CT's with the radiation and surgery.


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## kspa35 (May 15, 2014)

Hi,

thanks for the reply.

A bit of an update:

I saw GI doc today.

Blood work and biopsy for celiac negative.

So he's calling it IBS. Gave me donnatal elixir and enteragam.

But he re-examined me and when he got to the right lower quadrant I jumped and yelled out in pain. So for that he wants me to take to a general surgeon about laproscopic exploration, so a single incision in the belly button and they inset a camera to get a look around. Said that would show if he appendix is inflamed or if theres endometriosis or such. Not sure how I fell about that yet, but I figured I can at least listen to what the surgeon suggests. The pain is really bad now since doc pressed on it. Its sore.

 I hope its just all from the IBS and that the meds will help.


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