# New To This, Looking for support



## kitten2003 (Dec 4, 2011)

Hey Everyone. Ive been having stomach issues for 4 years. I mean everyone has a stomach upset every so often but I didnt seen a dr until 4 years ago. It started at just stomach pain that would start about and hour to and hour and half from getting out the bed and would last all day. Then it when from that to I would go to the bathroom before work, go eat lunch and with in an hour I would be going to the bathroom again and it would be different. Went to the dr they said I might have a stomach ulcer so they treated me with something. I dont remember the name of it. It didnt get better went back and they said it could be over production of stomach acid. Didnt get better. Went back and they wanted to do a ultra sound of my galbladder, kidneys, stomach, ect. I go have that done and everything looked normal except for a cyst on my kidney. I was under alot of stress and they said that could be causing it. Then it gets to the point where I wouldnt eat hardly anything all day and when I ate supper no matter what it was I would be running to the bathroom. Some time in the mix of all this I got a nasty stomach bug or something. I was still having stomach pain so I go and see a different dr. He tells me I could have IBS, maybe a slight food algery, or something more serious. By this time I still havent had any blood work done. He gives me a print out of some info on eatting veggies and fruit. Eatting right the best I could didnt help it. I go back and He says that we are gonna try fiber and heartburn meds and he told me to EAT! He said even if it messes your stomach up not eatting is destroying my body. So I try to eat fiber cerel for breakfast. YUCK! But I tried. I took the fibercon and it would help but I would have good days and bad days. I stopped going out to eat at lunch and would come home and eat a sandwich. Then I would spend the rest of my lunch hour sitting on the toilet trying to go so that I might not have to run to the bathroom at work. I went back to him because I was still have stomach upsets every few days. He finally decided to do some blood work and that all came back normal. I went back to him and finally he said he is leaning more towards IBS. He then says he could try to treat it with a antidepressant. A old one that in a low dose I might benifit from it. I refused to take that because those types of meds have always scared me. I then made an appointment to see a GI Specialist. He tells me he wants to do some more blood work to check for infections and wanted to do a endoscopy and a colonostopy(spelling). I refused the endo and colon. I got the orders for my blood work and they were a TSH (thyroid) test and A ESR (erythrocyte sedimentation) test. Those test were normal. He wanted me to keep a food journal so I did for a while but I didnt see anything as trigger foods because one day I might eat something and it do fine the next time I eat it it might mess me up. In november I got a sinus infection and a ear infection at the same time and my family dr. gave me amoxicillan. I took this for 10 days 3 time a day and the whole time I was on it I had no stomach issues. If anything it helped me out because I started to feel like my self again. I was having solid stool and I felt like I got it all out in one sitting. I have no D or C while on this and for 6 days after finishing the meds also. Then I went back down hill. During all of this my 10 year relationship (high school sweethearts) ended and I blame some of it on my IBS. Before 2008 I was Wild and Crazy and Would jump in the car for a road trip, go shopping, live life on the edge but after 2008 I have gotten to the point that I dont go out to eat. I dont go to the mall shopping. I dont hunt of fish anymore. I dread trips and vacations. I did find love again but I feel guilty that I cant even go on a date with him. In 2 years of being with him we have only went out to eat together 2 times and the whole time I was in a panic. This IBS junk I feel is running my life and I refuse to let it. Sometimes I just cry and cry because I cant take my mom to eat or go to lunch with friends or even have a dating life with my boyfriend. The only good that has come out of this is my cooking skills are amazing! A lot of people that dont suffer put me down and say stuff like just get over it, or its all in your head and those comments hurt. I want my life back! We all do! I go for a follow up with the GI specialist on the 12th of December. Any suggestion on stuff I can ask. Test? Meds? Anything? Sorry I wrote a mini book.


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## somewhereiniowa (Sep 30, 2011)

Sorry for all your tummy issues. I would test for food allergies first then test for food intolerances. Test for celiac and bacterial overgrowth. If nothing from all of those then I would do the endoscopy and the colonoscopy. Good luck and keep us posted!!


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## kitten2003 (Dec 4, 2011)

somewhereiniowa said:


> Sorry for all your tummy issues. I would test for food allergies first then test for food intolerances. Test for celiac and bacterial overgrowth. If nothing from all of those then I would do the endoscopy and the colonoscopy. Good luck and keep us posted!!


Thanks for your post. I will be sure to ask about everything your mentioned.


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## SarahLund (Aug 16, 2010)

I'm sorry you feel you've lost your old self. It's easy to be humourous about it until we're the one stuck in the bathroom for a few days. Well i'm talking about when we start getting another flare up. For me, it's the severe anal pain that i can't stand. The type of pain where you could almost give birth there and then, wanting to vomit at the same time. If only dr's could consider making a painkiller and laxative all in one. A colonscopy is less painful than how it's described. I know how horrific it may sound, when a dr tells you they need to put a tube up your anus. It horrified me. Until he told me he'd put me to sleep. I was worried it would be a very thick tube, luckily it really wasn't. Lol. I cried as it sounded terrifying. But really they just put you to sleep.


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## maitland (Dec 23, 2011)

hi k2003 sounds like a long 4 years...okay... i was against taking anti-depressants for years and then finally out of desperation gave in and started with 5mg of paxil then up to 10mg...i take it in the evening because they make you drowsy....they have helped a good deal, they seem to work on your intestines not your brain so you are still the same person, i went from 3 or 4 times a day to once, still have cramps and trapped gas but am working on exercising more and more diet changes...you mention good results when on antibiotics and shortly thereafter so if there was no change in your diet during that period and then things went bad again when the antibiotics wore off....i would suspect a bacteria overgrowth which is my totally non-medical opinion


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