[TiffyF]

Has anyone been wrongly diagnosed with IBS and actually had something else wrong. I was just wondering if I could possibly have something else. I had upper GI, Cat scan, ultra sound(s) and do have endometriosis. what do you guys think?

 

[~JR~]

Hi Tiffy:I too have endometriosis and bowel problems. My doctor has often wondered about Crohn's disease, but I have always been told it is IBS. However, it is also likely that the endo. and resulting adhesions are causing a lot of my bowel symptoms, which are very severe.Diarrhea and constipation as well as severe cramping of the intestines are very common problems in women with endometriosis.~JR~

 

[~JR~]

Hi Tiffy:I too have endometriosis and bowel problems. My doctor has often wondered about Crohn's disease, but I have always been told it is IBS. However, it is also likely that the endo. and resulting adhesions are causing a lot of my bowel symptoms, which are very severe.Diarrhea and constipation as well as severe cramping of the intestines are very common problems in women with endometriosis.~JR~

 

[Guest]

Hey Tiffy, I was incorrectly diagnosed with IBS for 2 years. I recently found out I have Celiac disease. I do have a business partner with endo, however. She suffers IBS symptoms as well and has for quite sometime to include her teenage years. I hope you figure it all out, it helps to know a definite cause of it all. : ) 2ndChance

 

[Guest]

Hey Tiffy, I was incorrectly diagnosed with IBS for 2 years. I recently found out I have Celiac disease. I do have a business partner with endo, however. She suffers IBS symptoms as well and has for quite sometime to include her teenage years. I hope you figure it all out, it helps to know a definite cause of it all. : ) 2ndChance

 

[Mike NoLomotil]

TIIFY: ______________________________"Has anyone been wrongly diagnosed with IBS and actually had something else wrong." ______________________________Yes. To paraphrase "Their Name is Legion".MNL_____________ www.leapallergy.com

 

[Mike NoLomotil]

TIIFY: ______________________________"Has anyone been wrongly diagnosed with IBS and actually had something else wrong." ______________________________Yes. To paraphrase "Their Name is Legion".MNL_____________ www.leapallergy.com

 

[Kathleen M.]

When they did a study on diagnosed IBSers and put them through the wringer of tests somewhere in the neighborhood of 5% of them had something else.Most of the something else's tend to have some tell-tale symptoms beyond the IBS symptoms.If your generally healthy, your blood tests are normal, your not losing weight for no reason (I.E you eat more than enough to maintain weight) and there is no blood in the stools stuff like that it is more than likely that you have IBS.A couple of the other things it could be are curable. Most of the other things it could be are much worse and you don't want them.Having the endometriosis confounds things as that by itself can cause GI problems.K.------------------�When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love has always won. There have been tyrants and murderers and for a time they seem invincible but in the end, they always fall�Think of it, ALWAYS. �Mahatma GandhiMy story and what worked for me in greatly easing my IBS: http://www.ibsgroup.org/ubb/Forum17/HTML/000015.html I do not work for anyone who sells any IBS related products.

 

[Kathleen M.]

When they did a study on diagnosed IBSers and put them through the wringer of tests somewhere in the neighborhood of 5% of them had something else.Most of the something else's tend to have some tell-tale symptoms beyond the IBS symptoms.If your generally healthy, your blood tests are normal, your not losing weight for no reason (I.E you eat more than enough to maintain weight) and there is no blood in the stools stuff like that it is more than likely that you have IBS.A couple of the other things it could be are curable. Most of the other things it could be are much worse and you don't want them.Having the endometriosis confounds things as that by itself can cause GI problems.K.------------------�When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love has always won. There have been tyrants and murderers and for a time they seem invincible but in the end, they always fall�Think of it, ALWAYS. �Mahatma GandhiMy story and what worked for me in greatly easing my IBS: http://www.ibsgroup.org/ubb/Forum17/HTML/000015.html I do not work for anyone who sells any IBS related products.

 

[Jupiter119]

In April was told I had IBS by 2 doctors but they hadn't done any tests...no 'scope or any biopsies. I had to really persuade another GP to rush my sigmoidoscopy through. I was seeing blood a lot when going to the loo, running there about 10 times a day & I lost over a stone in weight.The diagnosis was U.C & these symptoms (blood, diarreah & weight loss) are typical of this illness.

 

[Jupiter119]

In April was told I had IBS by 2 doctors but they hadn't done any tests...no 'scope or any biopsies. I had to really persuade another GP to rush my sigmoidoscopy through. I was seeing blood a lot when going to the loo, running there about 10 times a day & I lost over a stone in weight.The diagnosis was U.C & these symptoms (blood, diarreah & weight loss) are typical of this illness.

 

[ibssean]

I have been diagnosed by the GP as having IBS and had to bug her three time before she made a GI appointment for me and that is 4 months waiting.I generally have 3-6 BM/day, often just loose, sometimes D, occasionally some naseau with the D other time just more BMs. Thin stools, floating stools, every combination imaginable. I have noticed a mild fever (36.5 normally but can get up to 37.5 when I don't feel well. Lot of mucus in the stools at times. The really bad symptoms seem to rear their ugly head about every four months regardless of the triggers. I am skinny and I think most of my 2-3 pounds of weight loss can be attribued to eating less...but not sure on that. And my mother has IBS.Seems to be fairly typical of IBS and reading this most doctors would say IBS, but something tells me there's something else more sinister at work. I think mentally I will need the colonoscopy anyway just to get this confirmed in my head so I can get on with life. There a small part of my brian that keeps telling me it it imflamation and it won't relent. I guess when I am feeling miserable there's no way I can convince myself that it is functional and not inflamatory. I have found in my experience that the doctors feel it is IBS until proven otherwise. When I think they should take the approach of elimintating everything else that it could be then call it IBS. As recognition of the functional problem grows it becomes an easier garbage pile for any problem that can;t be easily found. Sorry I am ranting a bit as I am still angry that I have to wait so long for a GI appointment just because there's no blood in my stool.Sorry I got side tracked a little here. I responded only because you sound a little like me. Simmering thinking there is something else wrong when there may or may not be and everyone has written you off as IBS. I think I won't be convinced until I have a colonoscopy to tell me for sure.

 

[ibssean]

I have been diagnosed by the GP as having IBS and had to bug her three time before she made a GI appointment for me and that is 4 months waiting.I generally have 3-6 BM/day, often just loose, sometimes D, occasionally some naseau with the D other time just more BMs. Thin stools, floating stools, every combination imaginable. I have noticed a mild fever (36.5 normally but can get up to 37.5 when I don't feel well. Lot of mucus in the stools at times. The really bad symptoms seem to rear their ugly head about every four months regardless of the triggers. I am skinny and I think most of my 2-3 pounds of weight loss can be attribued to eating less...but not sure on that. And my mother has IBS.Seems to be fairly typical of IBS and reading this most doctors would say IBS, but something tells me there's something else more sinister at work. I think mentally I will need the colonoscopy anyway just to get this confirmed in my head so I can get on with life. There a small part of my brian that keeps telling me it it imflamation and it won't relent. I guess when I am feeling miserable there's no way I can convince myself that it is functional and not inflamatory. I have found in my experience that the doctors feel it is IBS until proven otherwise. When I think they should take the approach of elimintating everything else that it could be then call it IBS. As recognition of the functional problem grows it becomes an easier garbage pile for any problem that can;t be easily found. Sorry I am ranting a bit as I am still angry that I have to wait so long for a GI appointment just because there's no blood in my stool.Sorry I got side tracked a little here. I responded only because you sound a little like me. Simmering thinking there is something else wrong when there may or may not be and everyone has written you off as IBS. I think I won't be convinced until I have a colonoscopy to tell me for sure.

 

[Kathleen M.]

Generally there are a number of symptoms that are red-flags that indicate it is something other than IBS. The vast majority of people who do not have these red flags (and even some that do) have IBS. Occasionally someone won't have any of the red flags and do have something else, but it is relatively rare.For some people who have IBS running them through the gauntlet of every test known to man serves only to make their IBS worse.Doctors are fairly clued in to what symptoms require a deeper evaluation. (thinks like bloody diarrhea, unexplicable weight loss, unusually severe pain--particularly in certain locations, abnormalities in your blood tests, pain that wakes you up from sleep at night).K.------------------�When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love has always won. There have been tyrants and murderers and for a time they seem invincible but in the end, they always fall�Think of it, ALWAYS. �Mahatma GandhiMy story and what worked for me in greatly easing my IBS: http://www.ibsgroup.org/ubb/Forum17/HTML/000015.html I do not work for anyone who sells any IBS related products.[This message has been edited by kmottus (edited 09-24-2001).]

 

[Kathleen M.]

Generally there are a number of symptoms that are red-flags that indicate it is something other than IBS. The vast majority of people who do not have these red flags (and even some that do) have IBS. Occasionally someone won't have any of the red flags and do have something else, but it is relatively rare.For some people who have IBS running them through the gauntlet of every test known to man serves only to make their IBS worse.Doctors are fairly clued in to what symptoms require a deeper evaluation. (thinks like bloody diarrhea, unexplicable weight loss, unusually severe pain--particularly in certain locations, abnormalities in your blood tests, pain that wakes you up from sleep at night).K.------------------�When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love has always won. There have been tyrants and murderers and for a time they seem invincible but in the end, they always fall�Think of it, ALWAYS. �Mahatma GandhiMy story and what worked for me in greatly easing my IBS: http://www.ibsgroup.org/ubb/Forum17/HTML/000015.html I do not work for anyone who sells any IBS related products.[This message has been edited by kmottus (edited 09-24-2001).]

 

[Mike NoLomotil]

The rub in such questions always comes back to "what is IBS" since it is a syndrome not a casual diagnosis.If, for example, you have patients with chronic or cyclic "d" whose symptoms can be provoked by particluar foods by double blind placebo controlled oral challenge, or the truest blind oral challenge of direct instillation into the small bowel, and who are negative for all normal food allergy markers by RAST and even SPT, the King Of False Positives, and then you are able to quantify both mast cell response in the small bowel and cellular immune response by captuing physically the inflammatory mediators that have been released as the result of an immunologic response to the provoking foods, AND the symptoms disappear when the foods are removed becasue the reactions no longer take place and/or they can be reversed with known chemical immunomodulators which stabilize mast cells, lymphocytes and granulocytes...should all these patients be diagnosed as having so-called "IBS" or should a name be assigned to the physiologic condition they are suffering which defines it separately from those, say, who have chronic constipation? Especially since the endocrine hormone profiles between the two seem to also be different as a consequence?Right now there are proponents of both schools of thought: one says all three subpopulations should just be lumped together under the umbrella diagnosis of IBS empirically, and another schoool of thought is that when a physiologic mechanism which accounts for the symptom set can be isolated that the population which is subject to that mechanism be identified uniquely as the clear markers of a causal basis have been isolated.LIKE COPD is now known to be, in simple terms, various degrees of comorbidity of asthma, chronic bronchitis, and emphysema. So a patient with with chronic bronchitis ha chronic bronchitis, one of the comorbid diseases of COPD. This seems supremely logical.So from that point of view the questions of "is this IBS or is it something else" is by nature rhetorical and unanswerable since it hase to answered framed to point of reference of which practitoner you are asking the question to.Eat well. Think well. Be well.MNL__________________wwwleapallergy.comPSThat is not a hypothetical mechanism described, it has been isolated, demonstrated, and repeated any number of times over the years. It is only recently that (primarily) Swedish investigators have actually begun going right into the small bowel of pts. who would be identified as "IBS" and capturing the actual proinflammatory neuralactivating immunomediators being released upon food provocation. It is easier (less potentially traumatic) to isolate the colon for direct examination than it is the duodenum or jejunum but it can be and is now done.[This message has been edited by Mike NoLomotil (edited 09-25-2001).]

 

[Mike NoLomotil]

The rub in such questions always comes back to "what is IBS" since it is a syndrome not a casual diagnosis.If, for example, you have patients with chronic or cyclic "d" whose symptoms can be provoked by particluar foods by double blind placebo controlled oral challenge, or the truest blind oral challenge of direct instillation into the small bowel, and who are negative for all normal food allergy markers by RAST and even SPT, the King Of False Positives, and then you are able to quantify both mast cell response in the small bowel and cellular immune response by captuing physically the inflammatory mediators that have been released as the result of an immunologic response to the provoking foods, AND the symptoms disappear when the foods are removed becasue the reactions no longer take place and/or they can be reversed with known chemical immunomodulators which stabilize mast cells, lymphocytes and granulocytes...should all these patients be diagnosed as having so-called "IBS" or should a name be assigned to the physiologic condition they are suffering which defines it separately from those, say, who have chronic constipation? Especially since the endocrine hormone profiles between the two seem to also be different as a consequence?Right now there are proponents of both schools of thought: one says all three subpopulations should just be lumped together under the umbrella diagnosis of IBS empirically, and another schoool of thought is that when a physiologic mechanism which accounts for the symptom set can be isolated that the population which is subject to that mechanism be identified uniquely as the clear markers of a causal basis have been isolated.LIKE COPD is now known to be, in simple terms, various degrees of comorbidity of asthma, chronic bronchitis, and emphysema. So a patient with with chronic bronchitis ha chronic bronchitis, one of the comorbid diseases of COPD. This seems supremely logical.So from that point of view the questions of "is this IBS or is it something else" is by nature rhetorical and unanswerable since it hase to answered framed to point of reference of which practitoner you are asking the question to.Eat well. Think well. Be well.MNL__________________wwwleapallergy.comPSThat is not a hypothetical mechanism described, it has been isolated, demonstrated, and repeated any number of times over the years. It is only recently that (primarily) Swedish investigators have actually begun going right into the small bowel of pts. who would be identified as "IBS" and capturing the actual proinflammatory neuralactivating immunomediators being released upon food provocation. It is easier (less potentially traumatic) to isolate the colon for direct examination than it is the duodenum or jejunum but it can be and is now done.[This message has been edited by Mike NoLomotil (edited 09-25-2001).]

 

[Guest]

I found it quite interesting what my GI doc had to say last week for a celiac follow up. I stated that I had been on vacation and had fewer stomach aches..maybe 1 or 2 versus 7 in a weeks time. Then when I got home from vacation I started feeling sick again. He said, "Well, you still have IBS along with your Celiac. It was just your irritable bowel acting up." OK? So according to some, even if we have something else we still have "IBS". Interesting.

 

[Guest]

I found it quite interesting what my GI doc had to say last week for a celiac follow up. I stated that I had been on vacation and had fewer stomach aches..maybe 1 or 2 versus 7 in a weeks time. Then when I got home from vacation I started feeling sick again. He said, "Well, you still have IBS along with your Celiac. It was just your irritable bowel acting up." OK? So according to some, even if we have something else we still have "IBS". Interesting.

 

[Kathleen M.]

You can have both, but if you have something else that explains your symptoms usually they don't give you a dual diagnosis UNLESS, the other condition is something that you can get into remission (like with celiac if you are completely, verifiably, and totally off gluten) and still have symptoms. Some people with IBD's can get to where the colonoscopy is completely clean and clear and still have symptoms. That may be from having IBS compound the other problem.K.------------------�When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love has always won. There have been tyrants and murderers and for a time they seem invincible but in the end, they always fall�Think of it, ALWAYS. �Mahatma GandhiMy story and what worked for me in greatly easing my IBS: http://www.ibsgroup.org/ubb/Forum17/HTML/000015.html I do not work for anyone who sells any IBS related products.