[Reagan26]

How can we tell if we are having d from our IBS or if it's the stomach flu? I think I might have the stomach flu because I never get sick with d in the evenings and shortly after I got home from work last night I had d. My stomach is rumbling again today. I don't know. Maybe it is stress. I did find out earlier this week that my grandmother has pancreatic cancer with 2 months left to live. Who knows.

 

[Kathleen M.]

The bad news alone could be enough stress to trigger more IBS than usual.Mostly for me the big differnece is that stomach "flu" is diarrhea every 20-45 minutes that continues after I go to sleep.For me the IBS when the diarrhea goes off I have a couple of bathroom trips and it is over (rather than going on for hours at a time) and it doesn't wake me up in the night where stomach "flu" almost always does.K.

 

[Reagan26]

Thanks for your response. Yeah I think it is stress after all, because it's true, with the stomach flu, I would have been going all night....Ok thanks Kath.

 

[phillipm2]

Angel*Cordy, the way you can get rid of stomach flu, if it is the stomach flu, is by using charcoal. You can buy charcoal pills at any drugstore and take them with food. The other way, and you might not like this way, is to intentionally burn toast if you have a toaster. Scrap the black burnt toast on a tablespoon and swallow it. You might want to chase it with something because of taste. The coal is known to absorb mirco-growth in the intestines.

 

[Reagan26]

I've never heard of that before....ok thanks.

 

[knothappy]

How many charcole tablets do you take?

 

[phillipm2]

Usually a standard dose is about two pills. The scale is on the back of the charcoal bottle that will indicate what to take. Also depends on the mg inside the pill itself. Different brands will have different dosages...

 

[Lagomorph]

I've heard that taking Pepto Bismol will also help with micro-growth.

 

[19928]

Yeah, what agony. With me it's more like, IBS or Food Poisoning (which I guess is exactly similar to the stomach flu and in most cases of the 'stomach flu' IS food poisoining).I wake up 3-4 nights per month with the exact same thing. Putting a gun to my stomach and pumping in a round of ammo would actually feel better than my abdominal area sometimes. And it's ALWAYS different. EVERY time it's a slightly different area, or a slightly different sensation. But i will be SO nauseated each time. And then I sit there in complete panic. (I've had a terrible fear of vomit for my entire life). And think, what if this time, it IS food poisoning. It feels like a lump of clay in the pit of my stomach, very gag-worthy. And I'll be dry-heaving. Once, I could've sworn it was food poisoning. But I can only result to the same outcome every time- just waiting it out. If it's food poisoning, I think, well, in a few hours I'll be puking my guts out. If it's IBS, it will gradually subside in a few hours. Then I get so panicked I can't sleep either way. It really is pure agony. Because I think to myself, if it's food poisoning, and I go back to sleep, I'm just gonna wake up in an hour vomiting my guts out. This thought terrifies the bejesus out of me. So I'll stay awake most of the night with insomnia and feel like **** the next day because I'm so tired. It's such a vicious cycle. I guess I haven't had food poisoning yet, though. Just EXTREMELY, extremely similar reactions. I guess through all this I've managed not to vomit in over 12 years, though. but don't get me wrong, I get nauseated to the point of where I'm dry heaving.