# Makes No Sense



## 1x2be (Jan 19, 2009)

Hello, I have been visiting this website on and off for the last two months and found all of the information provided quite helpful. I have started taking calcium every day as recommended by Linda, three times a day with each meal, but I find that I am still have occassional bouts of pain and diarrhea. The most frustrating part is I can't find any consistency in what is causing my problems. One day I eat a pastrami sandwich from Firehouse Subs and I am in pain within 30 minutes of finishing and for the next few hours. Prior to this I had eating this same exact sandwich before without any problems. Okay, I tell myself that it is just because of the fat content of the sandwich. I mark that one down on my list of no-no's. A few days later I am in the grocery store and I eat a couple of grapes to see if they are sweet or not. Within 10 minutes I have to run to the bathroom with severe pain in my side and horrible diarrhea. That makes no sense to me. It was a grape for gosh sakes. I waited a few days later and tried some grapes again to see if that was truly the cause of my pain. Nothing. I was fine. Last night I eat my dinner - homemade chicken and dumplings (minimal fat), and afterward I have a couple of small peppermint patties. Again, within 30 minutes or so of eating the candy my stomach is rolling and I am in pain. The diarrhea is yellow and burning and causing cramping. It doesn't make any sense to me. The night before I ate a Quarter Pounder with cheese and french fries from McDonald's and I didn't have one bit of trouble. I am trying to figure out what my trigger foods are but they don't seem to be consistent. One day I can eat a couple of slices of pizza and nothing but the next time I eat it I have severe cramping and pain. Does anyone have any suggestions on why this is happening? I can' very well figure out what not to eat because it will cause diarrhea if it doesn't cause diarrhea all the time.To top it all off, I travel for work and my anxiety has gotten increasingly worse. I am afraid to go anywhere by car because I keep thinking, "what if I get stuff in traffic and have to go to the bathroom?" "What if I don't know where the bathroom is?" "What if I am driving out in the middle of no where and the cramping and diarrhea suddenly hit? The sudden urge and pain is so severe that I am afraid to go to lunch with my co-workers because something I ate might cause me to have problems, which is not convenient when you travel to other offices and people want to take you out. I have severe anxiety about going with them. I have thoughts running through my head the whole time I am eating related to my having to go to the bathroom and what will I do if that happens. I hate feeling this way and not wanting to go places because of it. I hate that this thing has taken control over my life. I never had problems like this until I had my gallbladder removed in Oct. 04. Any suggestions or encouragements to help me along would be great. I am about to travel for three weeks straight covering five states. On one of my trips I will be stuck in the car for 3 1/2 hours driving from Maine to RI during the snowy season. I have driven this route many times but for some reason I am freaking out about it this time.Thanks for listening and any help/advice you are willing to give.


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## Kathleen M. (Nov 16, 1999)

There may be variations in your bile production that are not just because of the very last thing you ate. It may have to do with how much fat you have eaten over the course of several meals.Additionally if anything other than food is triggering symptoms (and it seems rare that food is the one and only trigger someone has) people may be more sensitive to post eating increases in activity. Sometime is it how long since you ate your last meal that can make you have a slightly larger vs a slightly smaller gastrocolic reflex. It responds to lots of factors that oven have very little to do with which particular food you just ate.I think there may be something to what you ate yesterday rather than the immediate fat intake that plays a role. After all you are usually making bile to replace what you released from the last few meals not making it to order for the food you just ate. With a gall bladder you store it up for awhile and release what you need, but when you are releasing it as you make it, it will be in an amount from whatever the lag time to make it is. So you might count up fat grams for the day and see if the days after a higher fat day are the problem. Your intestines get active after every meal no matter what you eat so if you have bile to be pushed into the colon (like from the previous meal) that may be where the problem is. You might be looking to close to the symptoms and missing who the real culprit is. Some people have to eat a low fat diet consistently and use something like calcium to have good control..Things like physical stress (did you get enough sleep last night, are you coming down with a cold, is the weather really cold or really hot) as well as mental state can be a part of why something will bother you one day and not another. If the calcium alone is not enough to control things you might look at other OTC things you can do (like try a low dose of Imodium a couple of times a day) or see if the prescription Questran which is specifically for binding bile might be helpful.


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## baz22p (Dec 1, 2008)

Hi, I am so sorry to hear of your problems.The bit of advice I can give you for travel wont stop the symptoms, but will at least make you more confident about coping IF the worst should happen (and hopefully prevent the anxiety a bit). In a carrier bag in the boot of my car I carry, what I call, an emergency clean-up kit. It consists of nothing more than a clean pair of underwear and a pack of babywipes (obviously you can add anything you wish to this). Unfortunately, it wont prevent 'problems' but it should give you the confidence to be able to cope with it. In the 3+ years that I've carried mine I have only had to use it once, and I feel more positive about making journeys.As far as knowing your trigger foods is concerned, I have exactly the same problem - one day certain food is fine, the next it spells disaster! I think that it part of the nature of the beast that says the problem is more to do with how your body reacts to any food at that time, and not any particular food as a trigger. There are plenty of other people on this forum far more knowledgable about this than me, so I wont try to 'bluff' my way around this (and confuse you in the process). The only thing I can advise on this (and it is something I do, and have done for 4 years) is to keep an IBS diary. In it, you list everything that you eat and drink (and when). You also do exactly the same thing for any symptoms you have. Another thing I do is 'grade' the day as a whole (good, bad, fair, etc). This way you can reflect easier, and over a longer time; plus you can expand on this to include your emotional state at the time (stressed, relaxed, etc) as, that too, may help.Probably the best bit af advice I can give is to consult a doctor about any health concerns you may have - after all, that is what they are there for. If they already know of your general situation then it may be worth consulting with them if this has been going on a while, and/or you are concerned.Hope this is of some help.Baz


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## LNAPE (Feb 9, 1999)

1x2be,Well the advice given thus far sounds pretty good. You said you had your gall bladder removed in 2004 so the bile has a long time to cause irritation and you did not say exactly how long you have been on the calcium but it does take time for the insides to heal from the burning acid you have had flowing in your gut for years. That is the first thing to consider.Also any additional acidic food or dirnk needs to be limited until some healing can occur. Tomato sauce and OJ and the like.I never eat at the salad bars when I eat out and never have lettuce when I eat out. Sulfits are added to the lettuce to keep it looking fresh and this is a problem for a lot of us.Your remarks of eating something once and getting sick and eating it again and do just fine is typical. Be sure you are using calcium carbonate and you ay want to go with just calcium carbonate and vitamin D if you are using the one with the added minerals. You may also want to skip the dinner dose and take the final dose of the day at bedtime with a small snack and stay consistent and don't forget to take it. Even after all this time if I miss a dose in about 12 hours I can be right back where I was many years ago.Do not take any multi vitamin either Vitamin A E C and magnesium will cause trouble. Also check any other meds of the side effect of diarrhea.I hope this will help. Linda


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## ibseddie (Jan 20, 2009)

Its IBS, it never has and never will make sense.One day/week fine, the next LOOK out.Go to your doc, get on some anti-anxiety - Buspar is best, dont go on any anti-depressents, too many side effects for me.Good luck.


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## Hilda (Feb 16, 2009)

i'm the same, i always thought how can i be going to the loo that quickly after eating when it hasnt even reached my stomach yet, like within 10 mins, i saw a dietician and she said its probably not what you have just eaten, but what is already in your stomach, it is sort of triggering it to come out. dont know how true that is though as doesnt necessarily make sense!


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## BQ (May 22, 2000)

Makes perfect sense. If you read Kathleen's response above us here you will see why. Simply the act of eating stimulates our colons...(and I mean every human's colon) That's all there is to it really. So it isn't what you just ate coming up in D form.. but what you ate the day before or hours ago.Read Kathleen's response above here... she's says it way better than I.BQ


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