Hello all!I have been suffering from severe abdominal spasms for years and have been attempting to confront my doctors about it for an almost equal amount of time. Being in the military makes it difficult to be seen sometimes but within the past 2 months I have been making some progress with the doctors here. I have been diagnosed as IBS-A since it fluctuates back and forth with no real rhyme or reason. I would have minor pains and spasms throughout the day and I would just grit my teeth until they passed. On the other hand about 4 or 5 times a week I have extreeeemely painful spasms during the early morning...around 3ish most of the time. These are definitely a 10 on the pain scale and at times I thought I was having a heart attack or dying. I have even chipped teeth grinding them so hard until the spasms stopped. I have been prescribed Bentyl and am taking 2 capsules at 4 times a day. It works great during the day time and I have no problems with it besides the dry mouth and sometimes my vision blurs up. However I still have the severe spasms occasionally in the early morning. My question is, are there any extended release medications for IBS-A that can help me get a full, restfull night of sleep at all? I am only getting 3 - 4 hours of sleep most nights because of the Bentyl wearing off halfway through the night and painful spasms are waking me. Being tired all of the time is really causing my quality of life to deteriorate and I am almost at my wits end! Please give me any recommedations I can follow up on or tips to help me make it through the night!
Abdominal Pain is driving me crazy!
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Not sure of current availabillity but http://www.rxlist.com/levbid-extended-release-drug.htm Levbid is an extended release form of Levsin.Some of the bladder anticholinergics like Detrol (same class but usually prescribed for bladder but may also work on bowel as they don't know what you take the for) come in an extended release formulation.Would they be willing (or are you willing) to try a low dose antidepressant. The tricyclics are normally taken at night as they make you drowsy and that would also have it at a higher dose around the time you need it rather than something like an SSRI that tends to best taken in the morning.
Thank you Kathleen
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I have an appointment tomorrow with my PA and I will mention Levbid to him. I have also done some research and found Donnatal which is extended release as well but from what I read it is mainly for IBS-D. So I don't know how likely it is to get prescribed for IBS-A. I will try to mention the low dose antidepressants as well although the military PAs tend to be a little intimidating due to the whole rank structure thing but I guess I will have to get over that in this case! Thank you so much again!
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