Irritable Bowel Syndrome and Digestive Health Support Forum banner

Can these really be IBS symptoms?

2K views 5 replies 3 participants last post by  Kathleen M. 
#1 ·
I was diagnosed with IBS after 4 years of pain. I had many tests for divericulitis, crohn's etc and the IBS diagnosis kind of went along the lines of "well, it's nothing else serious, so it must be IBS". What a frustrating diagnosis! The thing is, reading about other people's experiences I am not sure whether my symptoms are actually likely to be IBS or not!My pain is predominantly at night and/or early morning. I get it for around 3 - 10 days in a row, frequently being woken in the night, every 1-2 months. Each bout of pain during these few days only lasts for about 30-40 minutes and then subsides. I rarely have constipation, and I have occasional diarrhoea but nothing serious and not usually linked to the pain. I almost never have pain after eating, and it doesn't seem to be linked to any foods. The thing that I find most confusing is that when I get pain, I get hot. Like, really hot! I strip off and lie under the A/C (even in winter), and when I start to feel cold I know the pain is about to end. On the odd occasion I have had pain during the day, I got hot first. This even happened at work and I couldn't go anywhere, I was in agony and sweating and felt helpless.I was prescribed a very mild antispasmodic (I live in Japan - extremely low doses for people of much less body mass than my western size!) and so bought mebeverine over the counter when I was home. Although the suggested dose is before eating I don't get meal linked pain so I usually take them before bed or during pain. Sometimes I don't get woken up again, and sometimes I do, so I can't be sure whether the meds are actually helping or not. Does anyone else have these kinds of symptoms? Thanks, Malon
 
See less See more
#3 ·
I am female, 29. I have a small gallstone but the pain is different and much lower down. I have had colonoscopy, many ultrasounds (internal wand and regular external), blood tests etc. I also had an MRI for a different reason but the docs had a look at the area and couldn't see anything. I have no kidney stones and ovary fine. The first time I ever went to the doctors with the problem they thought I was pregnant (I wasn't). Any thoughts greatly appreciated!
 
#4 · (Edited by Moderator)
Pain that wakes you up from a sound sleep in the middle of the night is less common in IBS (can happen) than in some other GI illnesses (like GERD commonly wakes people up with pain).It isn't impossible in IBS but it can mean some additional tests depending on your whole symptom profile.Pain around the time you get up is common in IBS as the colon "wakes up" around when you do (or around dawn as sometimes it is earlier than people actually want to get up). The most active time of the day for the colon is around getting up time and IBSers tend to have more pain (and often diarrhea for those on that end of things) in the morning.As long as there is some alteration in stool consistency or frequency that counts. You do not need to have severe diarrhea or severe constipation. IBS stool differences tend to be closer to normal than other illnesses. Often with IBS the amount of stool issues wouldn't bother people it is the pain and discomfort that makes IBS intolerable.IBS is often not at all related to which foods. However some people do react to the increase in colon activity after meals. Pain before a BM is not required, but about 70% of IBSers have rectal hypersensitivity (and this is rare in other things) so it is common in IBS, but isn't in 100% and every other pain pattern must be something else. Some people do react to some foods (or all really fatty foods) but it isn't at all required for an IBS diagnosis.Pretty much every pain pattern you can imagine is IBS. Pain with IBS can be episodic (last from a few minutes to a few hours) or nearly constant. Depends on how severe your IBS is.Generally less severe than what you hear other people talk about is still IBS (or other functional GI illness) not something much worse and much more worrisome. Things that are worse than IBS tend to have additional symptoms or more severe symptoms than a typical IBSer.The before meals for the antispasmodic is because after eating pain is common. If you have a different pattern of predictable pain that take it before those times rather than before meals.
 
#5 ·
Wow, thanks for such a detailed response. I am sure I don't have GERD. The rest of what you described does seem to fit me perfectly. I am still confused as to why I would get so incredibly hot, but I guess that is just my body going into overdrive, and at least it means I get some warning during the day! From looking at other IBSers stories I am just grateful that my pain is episodic and relatively mild - I hope things get better soon for everyone. I also hope doctors can stop being so dismissive of the condition (that is how it seemed to me anyway at my diagnosis), as I know a lot of people find it truly debilitating - that is one of the reasons I wasn't sure of my diagnosis. Thanks again
 
#6 ·
Sometimes feeling hot, cold, clammy, or even all the way to light-headed and some people faint may just be the vagus nerve reacting to things.Some people's vagus nerve is more sensitive and when it causes a drop in blood pressure that can cause some symptoms and which ones depend on the person. BM's and abdominal pain are common stimuli the nerve responds to.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top