# Is what I have actually IBS?



## Lana5891 (Jan 2, 2013)

Hi! I was fortunate enough to stumble across this website today, and I've been reading a lot of posts on these forums. I'd really like to share my story and hopefully get some of your opinions.

I was "diagnosed" with IBS when I was around 12 or 13 years old. It started when I was in the 7th grade. I was walking to one of my classes at school, and suddenly had severe clenching pains in my stomach. I had never felt anything so painful, and I had to kneel down in the middle of the hallway because the pain was so gut wrenching. My pediatrician (who was my doctor at the time) didn't fully explain IBS to me, he didn't tell me which type it was, and I was confused about it. He only told me that it was brought on by stress. I was given medication (I don't remember the name, just that they were small white pills), which did not help at all. I stopped taking the medication after a couple of months. Over the next few years my stomach pains became more frequent.

About 3 years ago I switched to a different doctor, and when I explained my symptoms to her she basically told me that it was something I just had to live with. I have never been sure if what I suffer from is actually IBS or something else.

Now I'm 20 years old and have stomach pains on almost a daily basis. The pains I get are always in random places; my lower right or left side, the middle of my abdomen, or what feels like my whole stomach in general. Usually my stomach pain feels very sharp, but sometimes they feel like cramps. When I'm stressed my stomach hurts even worse. There are times when the pain just seems unbearable, but I know I can get through it.

However, my worst symptom seems to be gas. It's horrible. I'm extremely gassy all the time, and the problem is that I'm not always in a situation where I can pass gas. When I have to hold it in, it causes even more stomach pain and usually diarrhea. Also, it makes my stomach clench up, which is very painful. I also have issues with my stomach being loud and grumbly. I've tried gas-ex and pepto bismal to relieve my gas, but they give me diarrhea.

I've learned to cope with the stomach pain and the gas, but it's hard to have a normal life like this. I always wonder if something is seriously wrong with me, because my doctors never seem to give me any useful information and actually seem to ignore what I tell them about these issues. I would appreciate anyone's opinions on my symtpoms: is this actually IBS? Is there anything I should be doing to help my stomach?

Thanks for taking the time to read my post. I'd appreciate anyone's thoughts on this!


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## Kathleen M. (Nov 16, 1999)

Symptoms really do sound like what a lot of us IBSers go through and you aren't mentioning the symptoms of the more serious things. IBS can be extremely painful and is often more obnoxious than some of the "more serious" disorders.

Unfortunately a lot of doctors don't get more than a few minutes of education on IBS as it isn't life threatening so sometimes they don't have a lot to offer.

You could look at trying probiotics or the Low-Fodmap diet (or a combination of the two). This is looking at dealing with the gas. The Low FODMAP diet reduces all the various things that feed the bacteria in the gut (which make the gas) and probiotics can also help as they don't release gas when they eat the FODMAPS.

If you are willing you might ask about trialing a low dose antidepressant to see if that reduces the pain. The pain is in the nervous system (rather than being from the lining of the colon being all chewed up with ulcers as you may find in "more serious" disorders) so sometimes treating the nervous system helps with that.

Have you tried peppermint? It is about the only over the counter antispasmodic you can get in the US.


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## smilethroughit (Dec 9, 2012)

Hi there. I noticed your 20 years old as am I. This is probably just me but I find when I go to my doctor and complain of all the things you've mentioned I don't get taken seriously. I'm sure it's down to my age, they've never officials diagnosed my ibs either nor has it been looked into by any other specialist. My doctor just listened to me talk for about 3 minutes then said it sounds like ibs- drink peppermint tea and it'll be okay. Problem is the not knowing exactly what's going on in your body plays on your mind all day and you end up worrying and becoming more anxious which in turn amplifies every symptom of ibs. It's such a viscous circle! I'm curious, along with your pain and cramping you mentioned you get gurgling noises, do you find these occur more in the upper abdo or more lower? Do you also suffer with indigestion or any nausea? I'm still desperately trying to put together the puzzle of all my symptoms and this forum certainly helps more than doctors seem to sometimes. Don't get me wrong, you do her doctors that are amazing, but when it comes to ibs, they just don't seem to know what to do!


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## Lana5891 (Jan 2, 2013)

Kathleen M. said:


> Symptoms really do sound like what a lot of us IBSers go through and you aren't mentioning the symptoms of the more serious things. IBS can be extremely painful and is often more obnoxious than some of the "more serious" disorders.
> 
> Unfortunately a lot of doctors don't get more than a few minutes of education on IBS as it isn't life threatening so sometimes they don't have a lot to offer.
> 
> ...


Thanks for answering my post so quickly. I haven't tried peppermint, and I will look into that, along with what you mentioned about probiotics or the Low-Fodmap diet. I honestly haven't tried much in terms of helping my situation besides eating Activia for a few weeks (which was a couple years ago), and that didn't seem to do much for me.

As for the antidepressants, I'm not sure if I would want to try those. I've always been weird about taking medication. I don't even like to take ibuprofen for headaches.

Thanks for the information! I look forward to looking into what you suggested.


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## Lana5891 (Jan 2, 2013)

smilethroughit said:


> Hi there. I noticed your 20 years old as am I. This is probably just me but I find when I go to my doctor and complain of all the things you've mentioned I don't get taken seriously. I'm sure it's down to my age, they've never officials diagnosed my ibs either nor has it been looked into by any other specialist. My doctor just listened to me talk for about 3 minutes then said it sounds like ibs- drink peppermint tea and it'll be okay. Problem is the not knowing exactly what's going on in your body plays on your mind all day and you end up worrying and becoming more anxious which in turn amplifies every symptom of ibs. It's such a viscous circle! I'm curious, along with your pain and cramping you mentioned you get gurgling noises, do you find these occur more in the upper abdo or more lower? Do you also suffer with indigestion or any nausea? I'm still desperately trying to put together the puzzle of all my symptoms and this forum certainly helps more than doctors seem to sometimes. Don't get me wrong, you do her doctors that are amazing, but when it comes to ibs, they just don't seem to know what to do!


Hi! Thanks for sharing some of your story with me. I can relate to what you said about worrying and becoming anxious due to what's going on in your body, and I can see how this would lead to more stomach pain and other symtpoms.

About your question regarging the gurgling noises, I've found that they occur more towards my lower abdomen, towards the center of my stomach (near the belly button). I also suffer from nausea, but I've always written this off to being on the birth control pill. I get nausea in the mornings and at night very frequently. I've never considered that it might be connected to IBS though, so it's interesting that you brought that up.


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## Pepper H (Jan 3, 2013)

I'm on the pill too, and generally I can tell whether I'm having pill-nausea or IBS-nausea. It doesn't work the same way for everyone, of course, but nausea following a meal is generally due to IBS for me. When it happens for no apparent reason (i.e. I haven't felt anything in my gut for an hour or so), and that's mostly mornings and evenings, I believe it's due to the pill. I have been switching types of pill for several years and with some of them, morning and evening nausea tends to be less persistent. However, when I have to stop taking it for a couple of days every months, IBS gets terribly worse. I'm considering giving a try to non-hormonal contraception someday.

When going to a new doctor's for the first time, I have found that telling them upfront "I suffer from IBS, is there anything you can do?" works quite well. If you leave your new doctor to diagnose you, you'll somehow expect him/her to find out something new about it and will be more vulnerable when they tell you some basic things they scraped up from vague memories in class years and years ago. That's how can tell if the doctor is good or not. The GP I'm seing these days sent me to a good gastroenterologist's and told me straight away that he didn't know a thing about IBS and couldn't give me anything except probiotics, but I should go to that other docotr's who was a good one and could probably help me.

So yeah, what you have is most probably IBS if these are your only symptoms and if all tests run by doctors showed you don't have some other serious disease. By now you probably learnt how to handle it on your own, I hope, and not let what doctors say get you down.


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## Lana5891 (Jan 2, 2013)

Pepper H said:


> I'm on the pill too, and generally I can tell whether I'm having pill-nausea or IBS-nausea. It doesn't work the same way for everyone, of course, but nausea following a meal is generally due to IBS for me. When it happens for no apparent reason (i.e. I haven't felt anything in my gut for an hour or so), and that's mostly mornings and evenings, I believe it's due to the pill. I have been switching types of pill for several years and with some of them, morning and evening nausea tends to be less persistent. However, when I have to stop taking it for a couple of days every months, IBS gets terribly worse. I'm considering giving a try to non-hormonal contraception someday.
> 
> When going to a new doctor's for the first time, I have found that telling them upfront "I suffer from IBS, is there anything you can do?" works quite well. If you leave your new doctor to diagnose you, you'll somehow expect him/her to find out something new about it and will be more vulnerable when they tell you some basic things they scraped up from vague memories in class years and years ago. That's how can tell if the doctor is good or not. The GP I'm seing these days sent me to a good gastroenterologist's and told me straight away that he didn't know a thing about IBS and couldn't give me anything except probiotics, but I should go to that other docotr's who was a good one and could probably help me.
> 
> So yeah, what you have is most probably IBS if these are your only symptoms and if all tests run by doctors showed you don't have some other serious disease. By now you probably learnt how to handle it on your own, I hope, and not let what doctors say get you down.


Yes, generally I know when my nausea is due to the pill. I honestly never knew that IBS could cause nausea until yesterday. I've been thinking about switching doctors again and would like to try seeing a gastroentrologist at some point, espcially due to the fact that I haven't had any tests done related to my stomach or GI tract. I've definitely been able to learn how to handle my stomach issues on my own after coping with it for over 7 years, but there are just some days when it's hard to do. Thanks for your post!


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