[AntonioRI]

I think when someonce says, "it's all in your head" they're making a true statement in a crass way. It implies that we are imagining this, but the truth is it is in our heads manifesting into our gut! Our brain sends signals to our colon causing these issues. Usually, if someone asks me about IBS I explain it to them that it's a nerve thing. I just say, "My nerves mis-fire and tell my body to do things it just shouldn't be doing!"

 

[kamie]

Oh, by the way, when the Gynecologist was trying to convince me that I did not have the appropriate signs of a condition that would warrent a surgery or even a gynecological need, I was presented with Imaging test "truths"Lab report truths.physical examination truths.the whole.....this is the big information and this is truth truth.In short, I was being told it was all in my head and maybe we just might throw a birth control pill and a little nerve pill at the problem and call it done.Well ladies and gentlemen, I chose to question authority.I chose NOT to believe the latest scientifc findings (the analysis of my blood)I chose to look for a new category.I chose to speculate and pull my own ideas out of my own personal fantasyland.And upon that fantasy of disbelief of the OBVIUS most recent and up to date reports I went on toforce the issue and put myself through the torture of saying Okay, you won't go look inside my body unless I sign the paper to let you take out my uterus which you stil believe is not really a significant source of trouble but tender enough to warrent a hysterectomy based on my whineyness and family history.....then go ahead.Well, as it turned out I was not so intuitively crazy after all.I had the impossible going on.I had that impssible "good" left ovary covered with a blanket of adhesions and stuck impossibly to the musculature of the pelvic girdle and that imppossible colon in the impossible situation of having dense attachments to the ovary and the pelvic muscle. And I also had the impossible Adenomyosis, not in it's moderately possible presurgery diagnostic mode, but in the very possible and conclusive post surgical extensive adenomyosis reality mode. I had impossible cysts and an impossible tumor too along with all that impossible endometriosis that never read on a test.So, add insult to the surgery......recently, when i saw a new gynecologist, he read the report on the surgical report and told me that it was impossible to believe that they really cut my colon away from the pelvic train wreck even when the surgical report reads: Adhesions from the colon to the left pelvic side wall were taken down.............The gyn doctor said that didn't make any anatomical sense. That surgery report of mine was probably wrong.My husband, Mr.Kamie spoke up in that meeting and said he saw the pictures from the surgery.To which the knowlegable grand poobah of baby birthing simply went on to discuss other matters.Ya know, I really try to be less judgmental of jerks in motion.I try to focus on their good qualities and positive redeemable points of character.But then,after a few days of looking at the obvious through rose colored glasses, things get dim and I take off those pink shades and take a closer look with out pollyanna glasses and then comes the harsh reality that yet once againI must make choices and stand up for my self lest I be railroaded into things that are not palatable to my care of my own body.Oh what a thing to continually have to stand up for.Understanding, compassions and respect.KamieP.S. I dont think the reality of gynecology problems in my pelvis was at all a manifestation of my brain in my pelvis any more that I buy the psycho babble that the manifestation of my gut problems was caused by the condition of my brain and thought process.but then again, maybe i don't have REAL IBSinspite of what the Doctor wrote on my chart in the post surgical analysis and agreement that indeed there were possibly still adhesion to the outside of the gut and the diagnosis of the urologist commenting on my case, that horse back riding would not be wise for me because of the nature of left over adhesions physically reattaching and causing havoc with my other internal organs. But heck. Who knows. Since maybe I don't really have IBS I could be confused or in the wrong place or making inaccurate observations or at very worst.....manifesting the disorder of my mind in the manifestation of adhesions that secrete from the organs.Oh to only really be oh so powerful.Wouldn't it be nice?I suppose if I can manifest up some big sticky ol adhesions then most assuredly I could manifest upa perfect world.

 

[Automan]

Zouave,Yes... but _ALL_ the time? I've always found it difficult to accept that my stress and anxiety could be causing abdominal pain that never ever goes away or fluctuates much.Admittedly, the things that I have to be stressed about are omnipresent (like my damn green card) but I'm not thinking about my green card every minute of the day, so why should my stomach hurt every minute of the day?Douglas.

 

[eric]

Douglas, in IBS symptoms are not all overt stress, its more daily emotions which are processed in areas of the brain that also process pain.Take some time also and look through that last link I posted, there is a lot on all this there that helps to explain somethings and connections. The pain is caused in part in how the gut is sending chemical electrical signals to it and back, which can be altered for good or for bad by the brain.This one will also on IBS and stress emotions which are extremely complex connections.The Neurobiology of Stress and Emotions By: Emeran A. Mayer, M.D., UCLA Mind Body Collaborative Research Center, UCLA School of Medicine, California http://www.aboutibs.org/Publications/stress.html

 

[kamie]

Douglas postedoAdmittedly, the things that I have to be stressed about are omnipresent (like my damn green card) but I'm not thinking about my green card every minute of the day, so why should my stomach hurt every minute of the day?___________________________________________So why should your stomach hurt every minute of the day?Because it's natures way of telling us that something's wrong.Douglas, they have no clue as to what is wrong with you.I have no clue as to what is wrong with you.Unfortunately we have a problem in this societyin which it seems to be the compulsive nature of the egoist to simply be right about everything.So in your case, you're going to run up against opposition only because you still don't fit into an exact category and when you don't mold and easily fit you make the omniwise egoist look wrong and ill informed and that, THAT is simply not tolerated.So yuo get the runaround and you get the blow off and you get the 600.00 words that THEY expect you not to understand so you will be dumbfounded and just sit there quietly and simply agree to allow you bad treatment.So Douglas, let me make a totally unqualified, lack of scientific knowlege observation here.You are ill. You might be very ill for all that matter.Who Knows.Certainly no one here really knows and I suspect that your case is as baffling to your doctors as it has been to many people here.So knowing that,one proceeds.They simply proceed.They start with a belief concept.You start with a belief concept.So what's your belief concept?Let's take the category IBS out of this whole equation and ask a fundamental question.Do YOU think YOU ARE SICK? What do you feel from an intuitve selfperspective.And, yes, you do know what you feel, you just have to disallow all the other voices you have heard, and hear only the present day truth from you to yourself.So Identify your self belief and act accordingly.It's what we all have to do when we find that we must fight for our health.You are in the very same boat as the rest of us.confused, upset and just plain ol feeling bad.That's enough for me.That's all anyone needs to know.Sick in your head? sick in your body?At some point sick is sick.People can be jerks.Blow them off. Especially if it happens to be a Doctor to whome you have given a sufficient run with the way any individual practices medicine.Kamie

 

[Automan]

I might be very ill?Thats the sort of stuff that really freaks me out. My mother died of stomach cancer (yes, I've been cleared on that) and to be honest nothing scares me to the very pits of my soul more than being sick.Cockroaches are a close second.

 

[kamie]

Douglas, My dad died at 48 from coronary heart disease.I have crazy hypertension that was diagnosed at an age doctors consider to be young.My Mom and her Sister had breast cancer and one of them had to have a mastectomy.You don't think that stuff freaks ME out?Me with a plethoria of woman estrogen problems.Or how about Mr. Kamie?He just recently bled and bled oodles and oodles of gushing red blood every time he tried to have a bowel movent.Days on end. Even after having a scope done.He still bled.We spent our first year wedding anniversaryin the hospital trying to find out what was making him gush blood.Sometimes up to every 2-3 hours!His grandfather died of leukemia and the male side of his family often expire from man cancer.Mr. Kamies pathology report from the scope revealed a pre cancer polyp.Yes, the whole illness thing can be fearsome.but you know what? Being forewarned by our genetic past makes us forarmed and ahead of theillness monster.You have just said that you have been cleared regarding the cancer in your family.Well, right there is one less malady to worry about. Lucky you. That is indeed a very promising sign.So get the medical help and evaluation you need to help you stop being afraid.It was a great day recently when they told me thatmy Estradiol levels were very low.After the gynecologist TOTALLY freaked me out and told me that he thought my ovary grew back after the hysterectomy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!No that's some freakey news!Having a genetic past is actually a gift.From the past of our family history we learn how to give our bodies the best benefit so we are not going to walk the same road as our parents or our parents parents.Be well Douglas and think of good happy things.And keep looking until you find the right doctor.Kamie

 

[Yzingerr]

I am in the same (or similar) boat you are in. My IBS is sometimes brought on by stressful situations and its sometimes mental related. Some instances are when i am going into a tunnel and i know i cant pull my vehicle over and go to the bathroom, my IBS acts up..badly. Another one is when I am traveling over a bridge or in an area that i cant get away from to go to the bathroom.. it will attack.

quote: For me IBS is a combination for physical and mental. When I get really excited, edgy or stressed I have trouble. I can also get pretty sick for no appearate reason (or so it seams).

I am pretty much the same way too. Good luck, i hope you can find something that helps you get through it..i have found one that may not be PC but it helps and that all i care about!

 

[hyacynth26]

I don't think "nuts" and IBS are one in the same. Stress isn't good for any illness. So the pain and all the #### that goes along with our malfunctioning guts does not mean that we are "head cases." Our guts malfunction for whatever reason(s), period. I think things with the body are complex and for a lot of us there isn't "one" answer.

 

[hyacynth26]

It would be nice, though, if it were simple. Take a pill and you're fine. I hate this "syndrome."

 

[ohnometo]

Hi DouglasI just read this post and it is always a hard subject for me to talk about...Stress can effect your gut and so can alot of other things...For 45 years I was told over and over that I was making myself sick by worrying about things..

So I spent most of my life talking to shrinks and psycholigist about how in the world I was doing this...I have had many stupid Doctors along this journey...I would try all the relaxation techinques that they gave me along with many different medications...I would get alittle better and there is was back full blown IBS-D and CVS...So I have had a life long struggle with IBS and that I am creating these symptoms....Last Novemember I was able to find relief after working with LEAP and what work for me was keeping an open mind about the possibility for Food playing a part in my symptoms..I had a hard time believing that certain food and additives could make anyone that sick where they would end up in the hospital, Emergency rooms, Doctors office..But I was at the end of my rope and didnt know where else to turn and decided to work with LEAP and I did get wonderful results.... This is what worked for me...I still get some symptoms sometime..and I know what did it..ME NOT FOLLOWING DIRECTIONS...Sometimes when I start feeling good I think well maybe just alittle of this or alittle of that...

It will be almost 1 year

that I havent had to go to the hospital for horrible pain , D, Vomiting, muscles aching, ect....So that is what has helped me get better....Stress does play a big part with IBS...but Oh My God what we have been through why wouldnt we have stress....Who knows for what ever reason Stress may have caused my Immune system to lose tolerance to certain foods...I dont know

but as long as I stay away from certain things like apple, coconut, mustard, sodium benzonate, green beans, I am so much betterGood luck and learn all you can about IBS...There is so much to learn

 

[Mike NoLomotil]

Doug: ____________________________________"I might be very ill?Thats the sort of stuff that really freaks me out. My mother died of stomach cancer (yes, I've been cleared on that) and to be honest nothing scares me to the very pits of my soul more than being sick." ______________________________________Easy now....you might NOT be very ill, either. Depending upon the degree of invasive testing you have had so far, the likelihood of you being seriously ill and not knowing it is sort of "inversely proportionate".that is the more involved the docs have been so far, and the less they come up with, the less likely it is that you have some heinous disease hiding in there chewing you up.That does not necessarily mean that you abdominal pain is imaginary, it is not, but if this is indeed your only symptom and you have had a full differential diagnosis by a board certified GI doc, then this suggests that it would be a good idea to get off that road and get another opinion.Abdominal pain is not always an easy thing to find a specific pathology for, especially when all the standard tests draw blanks.There are indeed processes which can occur in the bowel which can cause abdminal pain which is primarily, for example, related to certian types of immunoprotective cells releasing mediators which activate the pain receptors directly or secondarily.This is very very hard to isolate as it happens in a place that is hard to study...the small bowel.And it is true that this can occur from external things, in your diet, which can provoke it, and then the anxiety which accompanies the sympotms amplifies it, OR it isa also true that chronic anxiety, fear, and the associated stress, could be the primary mechanism and then the "reactive gut" even the immune dysfunction can be secondary.This is one of the reasons that stress reduction strategies like HT can really help reduce symptomology.I suggest reading up on, and considering, both options.I suggest you take a littel time to read these, or at least the first one.IBS: A DOCTORS PLAN FOR CHRONIC DIGESTIVE TROUBLESBy Gerard Guillory, M.D.; Vanessa Ameen, M.D.; Paul Donovan, M.D.; Jack Martin, Ph.D. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-h...9085785-1742301 "FOOD ALLERGIES AND FOOD INTOLERANCE: THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO THEIR IDENTIFICTION AND TREATMENT", Professor Jonathan Brostoff , M.D.. Allergy, Immunology and Environmental Medicine, Kings' College, London http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/089...6487508-3420903 I also think, after watching the threads and listenig to your issues for some time, that you should speak to Eric about Mike Mahnoneys program, or at trhe very least give Dr. Weinstocks program a try www.ibstherapy.comRegardless of whether you choose to take your chart and all the tests and history and go have a different doctor look everything over for another perspective, lloking at the books, talking to people about anxiety redution methods, looking at how chemicals in the diet can make the gut hurt, these are not things we have to do one at a time. I didn't ...I had to get kkind of aggressive to overcome my symptoms, which were not the same as yours, but thats not the point. These are simp,y places wherein an answer may lie for you so the idea is just to point at the rocks and suggest you turn these over too.Its out there you just have not found it yet...On the road again...

MNL

 

[kamie]

Douglas, I've been giving some thought to your situation and your responsesI wroteouglas, they have no clue as to what is wrong with you.I have no clue as to what is wrong with you.____________________________________________I think that is a pretty fair assessment since you are still worried and searching and you are not yet convinced or comfortable with much of anything the doctors have come up with.I also wrote:So Douglas, let me make a totally unqualified, lack of scientific knowlege observation here.You are ill. You might be very ill for all that matter.Who Knows.Certainly no one here really knows and I suspect that your case is as baffling to your doctors as it has been to many people here.So knowing that,one proceeds.They simply proceed.They start with a belief concept.You start with a belief concept.So what's your belief concept?Let's take the category IBS out of this whole equation and ask a fundamental question.Do YOU think YOU ARE SICK? What do you feel from an intuitve selfperspective.________________________________________However, you took one piece of that long statement and ran with it and you did not answer the question I asked of you.You chose to focus on one thing and you replyed:your post:I might be very ill?Thats the sort of stuff that really freaks me out. My mother died of stomach cancer (yes, I've been cleared on that) and to be honest nothing scares me to the very pits of my soul more than being sick.____________________________________________So what does that statement you answered with mean Douglas?Does it mean that you chose not to consider the other parts of my post which asked the question about your reality?I made a general speculative guess based on the way your posts have read up until this point.At one point you say you think you are ill.at another point you wonder if it's in your head.Then again at still another point you get a test done that tells you something about your condition and then you doubt if that was a valid test and then you decide you don't like the treatment they give you even before you are done.you posted:I've been on a liquid diet of Vivonex Plus for a week now and the pain is still there. Its for bacterial overgrowth that I supposedly have, which I'm now quite skeptical of.____________________________________________So then you had someone else totally empathize with you and make a really good and valid statement.Post read:The bottom line is that our stomachs hurt and it effects our lives. It�s real and it hurts.______________________________________________But you did not feel comfortable with that answer either and you replied:Yes... but _ALL_ the time? I've always found it difficult to accept that my stress and anxiety could be causing abdominal pain that never ever goes away or fluctuates much._________________________________________so then you seem to take the stand that your pain is not a totally mind related problem and it would appear that from this point in your answers to the huge amount of posts that have been sent your way that you are still not resolved to any of the ieas that have been touched upon. So then we are back to my earlier question that you took out of context. And so being, I will ask that question yet once again with the rest of the original thought.my post:So what's your belief concept?Let's take the category IBS out of this whole equation and ask a fundamental question.Do YOU think YOU ARE SICK? What do you feel from an intuitve selfperspective._________________________________________________So what is it you really think Douglas.What do YOU and only YOU believe to be true about your real state of health?Mike wrote:Easy now....you might NOT be very ill, either. Depending upon the degree of invasive testing you have had so far, the likelihood of you being seriously ill and not knowing it is sort of "inversely proportionate"._____________________________________________I can't speak for Mike but it would appear to me that Mike was addressing your fear factor and trying to give you a broader perspective.It would appear to me that just about everyone here has made an attempt to give you an answer based on the tone of what you felt at the time you posted any one of the messagas you have posted either here on this thread or anywhere else where you have been asking your important questions.I know I was responding to things that looked like the obvious direction of your questions because when I discussed your illness or non illness I was clear in saying that I had no clue as to what the real state of your health and well being might be.After all, many of your posts challenged and denyed that the pain you feel is a psychological pain.Your posts convery a person who is worried about an internal disease process or some mysterious malady.I was responding to validate the quandry.I decided that since you seemed to be saying that you suspected illness in your body, then yes, maybe illness was indeed in your body so I went on to ask the questions regarding a real illness of the body sortmy post:So what's your belief concept?Let's take the category IBS out of this whole equation and ask a fundamental question.Do YOU think YOU ARE SICK? What do you feel from an intuitve selfperspective.___________________________________________But unless I just missed it, I don't recall you ever stating your belief.I don't recall seeing that you ever revealed your true feelings about your state of affairs where your health was concerned.So you took the beginning of a long series of questions and simply stated that the first part of the sequence, taken out of context, freaked you out.I still don't know what YOU think.Yes, I know that you stated that you got all freaked out.But WHY? WHY did you get freaked out?You have not given a diffinative statement.you say:Thats the sort of stuff that really freaks me out. My mother died of stomach cancer (yes, I've been cleared on that) and to be honest nothing scares me to the very pits of my soul more than being sick.________________________________________Well you also say in your post that you have been cleared of the stomach cancer issue. Okay, that's really good.So since we all now know that you are not worried of dying from stomach cancer due to your family genetic health history, then WHAT, what freaks you out........other than cockroaches....about the question regarding being ill and asking you the million dollar question......WHAT DO YOU THINK?after all you keep wanting validation that your pain is not in your head/Okay, so you get that validation.Scoo Poodles of validation.But there's pain.And unless pain is psychological in it's origin it's then most likely it would active in the physical form of illness or at very least some sort of injury or trauma to the area of discomfort.So, that's why I assumed that yes, as you seem to have been trying to prove, you might be ill.So I agree with you and then I ask what you think and then you answer me by saying.....Well.....that just freaks you out...but you give no answer for your self.so which is it?What do you really think?Do you think you are physically ill?Do you think it's in your head?What is your personal truth.Those are the questions I am interested in.It appears that you have been very successful in generating a large amount of support and sympathy and detailed research knowlege.No Douglas, I have no clue as to what you want at this point, but with the huge amount of information you have been given by the kind and caring people on this board, one would think that at very least you might be able to form the speculative answer........WHAT DO YOU THINK IS WRONG WITH YOUAfter all the thoughts and research I just know, somewhere deep inside that you do most definately have even a smidgen of an answer already formed in your head.You are a very inquisitive person.You dwell on things.You come up with many many questions that reveal that you do give your condition a whole lot of thought.So Douglas, for a person who thinks with such great and persistent investigation as even the best research scientist, I KNOW (call it womans intuition) that you do indeed have at least one or two thoughts formed on the question of physical malady.Mike posted:Easy now....you might NOT be very ill, either. ____________________________________________But you know what Douglas, Mike has no clue. Just like I have no clue.And you know why we have no clue?Because neither one of us are your Doctor.we don't see you, we don't take your vitals, we don't have access to your medical records, we don't even know what you do as a regular course of life that could be affecting your situation.In short, we ALL are just guessing to the best of our combined technical knowlege and intuitive ability.You recently asked the same question you have been asking in a new post but now you ask in a different way.Post:I've had constant 24x7 mild abdominal pain for over a year now with altered BM's (frequency has increased from 1x a day to 3x a day and sometimes they're normal and sometimes they're kinda broken up). No C or D. I've had soooo many tests done and the doctors can't find anything specifically wrong with me. All thats come up is bacterial overgrowth.The pain is mild, diffuse and seems to be evenly distributed around my belly button area. Just exactly what IS that? Is that my stomach, small bowel or large bowel? People keep telling me different things.______________________________________________Yes, douglas, people do keep telling you different things.Know why?Because people all have different experiences and different opinions and this is a public bulliten Board and for every question there are a gazillin answers and the only way any of us find our dfinitives through internet self help forums is to gather the knowlege we get and sort through the similarities and contradictions and decide for ourselves which answer is most likey to reflect our personal situation.You also get different opinions because once you run a lap with one set of answeres you go out in search of a whole new set of answers and when you run the lap with several more after that, you find it difficult to settle on a direction that feels most right for you.So right now Douglas, it's very good that you are getting alot of feed back.It's good because having a lot of information is much better than having NO information.However, you are probably still going to find yourself somewhat lost in the cascade of opinions until you find the doctor who can help you sort all of your information.Your recent coments on the new post read:Oh wait... now I don't feel better. Your pain is in the same location as mine. Maybt it IS my gall bladderOh boy. This is scarey. I've read several posts here lately from people who had IBS symptoms, had their gallbladders removed, and still had the symptoms! "An abdominal ultrasound is the best test to confirm gallstones; it is 95% accurate."I'm not thrilled about the idea of a Hida scan actually because it involves radiation. In the past year, since this started, the wireless enteroscopy, CT scan and barium swallow have all involved radiation of some sort. _________________________________________Oay, so now you have some new opinions and some new folks giving you input.But you are back there with the being frightened thing and you are back there with not likeing the possible treatmentsSo you are back there with the same stuff that just leaves you wondering and confused.So what I am saying is this....It's your body Douglas and if it's causing you grief you owe it to yourself to run around and see new specialists and keep asking the Doctors the very important questions you are asking here because basicaly, it will only be the Doctor who sees you in person who can tell you in a more definitive way as to what your healing answers might be.And as far as personal research goes....yes, it's important to research and study and get to know as much as you can about the body and medicines and how the whole dynamic works.As far as I know Douglas, no one here is an Internal Medicine doctor or a Colon surgeon or a gastroenterologist.So what every "scary" answer you might get....it's all just speculation from the individuals perspective and life exxperiences and accumulated research. People are sharing with you. No one is giving you a diagnosis.So when something frightening or worrysome turns up in an answer....just take it with a grain of salt because basically, even the ones who do excellant research....we are all just GUESSINGand that's why it is of the utmost importance for you, as the individual, that YOU need to come to some sort of decision.What do you think is wrong with YOU.Is it in your head? Is it physical? is it a bit of both?It has to be you Douglas.Only you and your doctor can make the call that classifys you in the diagnosis of your physical or emotinal reality.So while searching for your answers, continue to ask questions and ponder.But remember, none of what any of us say has to be your truth.Only you will know your truth when you hear it and after that, toss all other info out in the waste basket and fine tune your reality with your Doctor and only your doctor.Best Wishes for good health,Kamie

 

[Automan]

Kamie,What do I think is wrong with me? I don't know!I've had so many tests done and nothing has come up except some mild inflamation of the small bowel, which an IBD specialist and biopsies from 2 colonoscopies tell me isn't IBD, and small bowel bacterial overgrowth. My symptoms don't seem to be consistent with bacterial overgrowth, yet the tests show it is there. This implies that something else is going on behind the bacterial overgrowth causing abdominal pain. From my questions on here, it appears that constant abdominal pain (that never ceases) is not an IBS symptom. From my questions to people suffering bacterial overgrowth it appears that the constant abdominal pain is not a symptom of that either.So what am I left with? No answers and an ache that never goes away. I'm going back to see my regular doctor this week so I can start trying the myriad of antispasmodics and antidepressants to see if one of those has any effect.Do I think this is purely stress related? No. I'm a very highly strung person, and I have a lot to worry about every day, but I simply cannot accept the fact that my pain is always there as a result of it. Eight biofeedback sessions so far have had no effect.So while I'm at the mercy of the doctors ability to get me into their next appointment, I'm constantly thinking about the abdominal pain. It never goes away, and I never stop thinking about it. I'm obsessing over it. If I'm awake, I'm thinking about it, searching the net for answers, thinking about what else it could be, if there's something more serious that all the tests have missed, or what I can try because I want it gone!And before someone says I should see a new doctor, I've just started on my 4th Gastroenterologist last week.

 

[kamie]

Douglas, I can totally appreciate your plight.I've shared enough of my personal medical craziness with you that you know that I too come from a place of great frustration with medicine.I also come to a great frustration with alternative practices because I am a holistic practitioner and both my husband and I have come to a place where we must work with traditonal medicine and then try to fit our holistic practices around the medicine to hopefully find some balance.Right now, you are following a course of action with one doctor.When you are finished with that you will take any unresolved matters up with another doctor.With each doctor you need to ask for help with even momentary relief from your pain.If that means a trial and error with antispasmodics and maybe SSRI's then so be it.It's help in however flawed and minute it's presence and effectiveness.But you need to remember that when going the medicine route you need to give it time and you need to work with dose and if you don't feel a particular med is right for your body you then need to discuss your med reactions with a pharmacist and ask for alternatives.You notice I said PHARMACIST.I take a lot of meds and I use the pharmacy to trouble shoot my meds before I go to the doctor with my facts, opinions and alternatives in hand.The doctor then has some idea as to what I do and don't want and somtimes they think my idea is a good one and other times they may have something that works better.So it's a partnership with you, the pharmacist and the doctor when you begin to introduce the meds and it takes patience. However, evey once in a while, if your doctor knows you well enough, then you get lucky at the first try.And yes, that little miracle is really and truly known to happen in life.so since you are not sure what is wrong with you but you do have some ideas, then go forward with the clearest and strongest idea you have regarding your health and allow that directin to be where you begin.At some point you will know more than you did yesterday and by the process of elimination you will eventually know the most right answer that beings relief to your body.You just keep pushing.We all do.And let me assure you, you are not alone in feeling misunderstood and misdiagnosed and otherwise lost in the big scary world of medicine.Sometimes we may not have any smart answers at all but at least theres community here, community with the whole bunch of us who are just trying to have more good days than bad.So hang in there.I think you are considering a wise choice in the med department.At very least it will help the horrible anxiety that builds up over time when we live 24/7 with pain.Hugs& Hope,Kamie

 

[hyacynth26]

It is all very frusrtaing, isn't it? Your pain is real. I have driven myself nearly crazy trying to figure out what's wrong with me. And there is no answer. yet. Except that I have pain and nausea and D. No one has found an answer for me so far. And so I struggle to find symptomatic relief. That's all there is for the moment and I must cope with that. I hope you find relief and reassurance. I really do feel for you, for what it is worth. Take care.

 

[trbell]

is it in the mind or the brain or body? it's pretty much of consensus now that they are connected, but I don;t think you sjould be hard on professionals. they are only now starting to find some clues to basic things like anxiety: http://www.ibsgroup.org/cgi-local/ubbcgi/u...c&f=10&t=000611 tom

 

[kamie]

okay, one more thought...Stanley is calling...the post read;is it in the mind or the brain or body? _______________________________________The mind and the brain are a coule of different things.I don't think everything is a manifestation of the mind.But I do think that the brain, as a working piece of standard issue body equipment is definately part of the whole body connection trip.The brain is the computer that sorts the data.In that respect it is truly the Body/Brain connection.As for the mind, well then we are off to other parts of the Holistic reality like the mind and the spirit and the soul and so on and so forth.Kamie

 

[KLG]

Hi Doug,I will have those pages for you tomorrow. I apologize for the delay. I only have a scanner here at work and I have numerous deadlines this week. I will definitely get them to you. Sorry.I totally understand your plight. I too had the 24/7 pain. I had trapped "air" in my intestines all the time and I felt like my intestines had betrayed me as they had totally shut down, or so it seemed. I went to the Doctor...didn't even get a doctor, I got a Nurse Pratictioner who ran back and forth to the Doctor asking her questions (she was basically a middle-man for the doctors). Anyway she comes back and tells me that it's Irritable Bowel Syndrome. She prescribes me Bentyl. Well after two days and no relief on the stuff and feeling like I was ready to slip into a coma (made me very tired) I went back to the Doctor. They sent me for an ultrasound and I hoped they would find a dead gallbladder or something...something that could explain this chronic pain that ranged from an annoyance to dibilitating. Gallbladder looked good

Went back to the doctor and they told me they would put me on NuLev. Threw prescription in the trash on the way out the door. I suffered with the pain for another year and a half (I still do when I eat something I shouldn't)until I decided to go four days of barely eating. The foods I consumed were things I didn't think would upset my stomach. Sure enough the pain went away.Anyway, I know that this is not the case for you as the only thing you have been eating is that predigested stuff to rid you of possible bacteria overgrowth, so unless it contains something you are reactive to that couldn't be it. You had also mentioned having a white coating on your tongue. I read that it can be a sign of candida (as you are being treated for) and I have also read that when people go on liquid diets (usually those that cleanse, like a detox) this can happen as well as trapped toxins release themselves from the body. During this process you may feel horrible: Headaches, possible blemishes or rashes, fatigue and insomnia. Have you thoroughly been treated for Candida (are you done with the Diflucan, I mean?). Are you still on the "liquid" diet? Do you feel any change? Have you been taking probiotics? I ask because you had starved off the bacteria and I am wondering if it rid you of the good bacteria as well.Is it gas that is causing the pain? Are you still feeling bloated? I'm also wondering about stomach acid levels. I've read that not enough can cause indigestion and heartburn, pain gas and bloating as well as the body needs to produce more acid for digestion. If supplemented, the body isn't required to produce as much which sometimes leads to too much. The pages I am going to email you are taken from a book written by Elson Haas. Below I am attaching a link that you may find useful or interesting on digestive disorders and what you can try... http://www.elsonhaas.com/articles/article_11.html Good Luck Doug. Hang in there!Kari

 

[Automan]

Hi Kari.Don't stress over the pages. There's no rush!I really don't have a lot of faith in nurse practitioners. Once I had one who seemed certain I had Crohns disease because thats all she knew, and she linked a few non specific symptoms together. Really freaked me out.You really had trapped gas in there all that time? I think its amazing you could have air trapped in there for so long. I guess there was something causing the gas to be continuously produced, so it wasn't always the same gas... just a constantly replenishing supply!I went back to a bacteria retest on Monday, and while the bad bacteria is considerably down, at borderline overgrowth levels, they decided to keep me on the diet for one more week.

Yuck.Yes, I've thought about food relationships the last 2 weeks. On the one hand I thought that food must not be a factor because the pain is still there. On the other hand, the white powder does have a long list of ingredients. I guess the only way to know for sure would be go to into hospital and get fed on a drip!Have I been thoroughly treated for Candida? No... I guess I haven't taken the possibility too seriously... yet. My doctor prescribed diflucan when he saw the coating on my tongue. I took it for 5 days instead of the 7 he recommended (stupid insurance!) and would you believe it was almost gone, and 24 hours after I stopped taking the diflucan it was completely back! I wonder what that means. Maybe its just part of the detox process.Do I feel any change? No yet... not really. Although you know... In the last day or two, I _MIGHT_ have started to feel better. I'm trying not to think about it because I don't want to jinx myself!Probiotics... Well... I had heard from someone else that the doctor I am currently seeing doesn't think they are useful. However, Pete on this discussion board recommended vsl#3 to me. I ordered some and it arrived yesterday. I'm going to start taking it when the liquid diet finishes. It has 450 billion organisms instead of the usual 5-10 billion most other probiotics seem to have.Could it be gas causing my pain? Maybe. Its a possibility. The bad bacteria may be causing that. I really don't know. It would be funny if it was something that simple. I never really got bloated... bloating didn't happen to me too often.Oh, and on the detoxification thing... yes... I definitely seem to be suffering from detoxification symptoms. I'm really tired, irritable, I have muscle and joint pains, that ikky stuff on my tongue, and I'm having some difficulty getting to sleep. Didn't have any of that stuff before I started the diet. Thanks for the link too. There's some interesting stuff there, especially in regards to getting tests for Candida.