Hi, I'm new to this BBS. I am going to make my "introductory" thread so bare with me please.A bit about me first. I am a 23 year old male living in Ohio. I was attending ITT Technical Institute full time (year round) for the last year. For the last year and a half to two years I've been experiencing some morning problems with a lot of trapped (painful!!!) gas and diarrhea before school and going to work. This was not a constant thing for me as I'd have my good days and I'd have my bad but it always seemed to subside after I had that painful/diarrhea bowel movement in the morning (sometimes all it would take is 2 and I'd be fine for the rest of the day and night.)About 2 and a half months ago I started experiencing some pretty horrible trapped gas and morning bowel movements (pure diarrhea) in the morning and it was causing me to miss nearly all of my classes which are morning classes starting at 8 am and ending at 1 pm. I was missing so much school I was getting concerned. A week after it was gradually getting a bit worse I woke up one morning and I had full-blown gastritis. It felt like the gas engulfed my entire stomach, intestines and abdomen. Painful but more importantly EXTREMELY uncomfortable, I couldn't do anyhing, could barely feed myself let alone want to stay "awake" and have to deal with it. I found myself sleeping 14 to 16 hours or more of the days away for a good week and a half to 2 weeks. I lost around 12 pounds during that time period and have lost another 3 to 4 pounds since then. I was forced to drop my classes last quarter at ITT and am still not well enough to attend this quarter (just started yesterday!). I knew it was time to see the doctor, I'm stubborn and not a big fan of the doctor so I went through those miserable weeks without any medical attention.First visit to the doctor came while I was still under my full blown gastritis symptoms w/ IBS symptoms. I went to my family doctor and I was mainly just talked to about what it could be and was put on questran that day and bentyl. The bentyl to reduce the spasms never really helped but the spasms were never such a serious symptom for me over the others so I quit taking the bentyl altogether. I was referred to go to Digestive Specialists Inc. and get an endoscopy performed.Visit to Digestive Specialists, my first visit, was a simply the "doctor" asking me questions about my diet etc. I told her that I was drinking LITERS of pop a day for a while now. I don't drink coffee so I get my caffeine boost from lots and lots of cola. She was thinking that I might've had an ulcer due to the symptoms that I was describing (pain, upset stomach all the time, gas) so I scheduled my endoscopy. A week later I had my endoscopy and it revealed that I had gastritis (big surprise) and that I had some inflamed stomach tissue but no ulcers that they could see. To say the least this upset me.. I had done research on the internet into what could be causing my problems and once they ruled out that I didn't have any ulcers I knew what I was facing -- the dreaded Irritable Bowel Syndrome w/ gastritis to boot.I had seen the Digestive Specialists thereafter but there wasn't much that could be done for me other than talk of "change" which at the time I didn't want to hear. I am a smoker and of course was told to quit, eat healthier and reduce my stress exposure and get more exercise (common sense). My first visit to the Digestive Specialists office was a joke, I was literally told that drinking too much pop was the reason for my full blown gastritis when I was so sick from it that I laid in bed for nearly 2 weeks soley because of it. While I normally would've believed such a "story" I hadn't touched pop for weeks before I developed the gastritis, which I told the doctor.Weeks later I curbed my extreme case of gastritis when I started taking 2-3 prilosec OTCs a day (which I still have but it's not near as bad as it was). I was also prescribed Zoloft by my family doctor which I've been on for about a month now and haven't noticed any real difference at the 25mg dose I'm taking. I've had 4 bloodtests done, the endoscopy, X-rays and a CAT scan where they injected me with dye and made me drink lots of barium sulfate. I've had my liver enzymes checked, blood's been checked for celiac disease and crohn's etc. I've had my urine tested as well but not stool sample or colonoscopy yet (I feel it's not necessary by now). The cat scan, endoscopy and blood tests didn't reveal anything that I could really blame my symptoms on so again I knew what I was looking at as far as what I have.I quit smoking for a week and while it made a difference it wasn't that great (I was smoking a pack a day). I completely quit drinking all carbonated beverages, not just soda. I changed my diet and quit eating fried, greasy foods and am sticking to baked and broiled foods, baked fish and potatos, vegetables. When I went to the emergency room I was prescribed Nexium (again) but I've been sticking to the prilosec OTC at more than it's normal dose in it's place. The doctor told me in the emergency room to try the BRAT diet which I haven't tried yet but I've changed my diet for the better and have been walking a mile and a half a day (the exercise does seem to help and improve motility).At present I am still experiencing my gastritis symptoms but it appears that the IBS symptoms have overshadowed most of that now... still lots of gas when I go many hours without eating or right after I "do" eat, regardless of WHAT I eat or sometimes even drink. I've tried pepto to curb the diarrhea but it isn't working anymore so today I went and got some imodium Advanced, we'll see how that turns out. Between all of my upset stomach pains, indigestion, diarrhea, trapped gas and bowel/stomach gurgling and loud noises it's officially broken me. I wish that I could get the "old" me back that didn't have these problems all day long and all night long. While my condition is improving the symptoms seem to be cycling week to week where diarrhea might be the biggest problem one week and the next it'll be the gas again or the upset stomach and bowel noises and movement.None of the doctors I've been to have even once suggested these pro-biotics or anything else for that matter to me. While I have tried Activia yogurt I didn't notice it making a real difference. If anybody here knows of any tips or anything I could sure use them now as if I'm not significantly better within the next 3 months (the new quarter starts) I'll be forced to leave ITT forever. I will have to start paying my loans back then and I will have forgotted a lot of the important material (I can't practice a lot of what I've learned because I don't have the concentration anymore because of my IBS). All of the doctors are saying I have IBS and gastritis so I've accepted this and would like to attempt to get better and move on from it, I'd really like to kill it off altogether but I don't know if that's even possible. If it wasn't for my hot water bottle I doubt I would've remained "sane" through the gastritis weeks where I had to lay in bed to feel comfortable and to cope.
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