I am really struggling to understand what triggers my IBS-D flare-ups (and hence get some control over my life back). Because I don't have constant daily/weekly attacks it's really hard for me to work out. Sometimes I can go 3-4 months free of any attacks, then just when I think I'm Ok again, wham - off it goes. Othertimes it's maybe every 4-5 weeks, then down to every 2 weeks, weekly - twice a week. Really bad bouts I just give up & stop eating for 3-4 days until it subsides, then gently start really plain foods (boiled check breast & rice, etc.) Usually helps until the (random) next time.
Symptoms for me are usually sudden urgency & swift very loose bm, followed by another 2-3 over the next hour or 2 (unless I take immodium immediately which curtails it). Dont usually get cramps - although I get a real 'bruised/tender' + 'being squeezed' feeling in my abdomen after which makes me feel weak and I just want to do absolutely nothing for the following day or so. Like that fear feeling you get 'in the pit of the stomach' when you miss your footing on the stairs and think you're gonna fall. I also get a lot of gas lately - usualy in my gut, but sometimes in my tummy too, with some acid belching. Doctors have, I feel, just written me off as 'you have IBS' - take the anti-spasmodics & get on with it'. I've had both ends 'oscopies' with -ve results.
Tried researching trigger foods - particularly FODMAPs - which seem to make a lot of sense to me, since very often I have D sessions after eating foods over the previous day, or 2 which I know I've eaten the prev weeks & been fine.
Problem with any exclusion diet for me is, given I can go 3-4 months without a bout, exclusion would have to be at least that long per phase - by my calculation would take several years to come up with any definites. I did try keeping a food/bm diary for 3 months once - but it wasnt very conclusive.
What is driving me nuts is how to work out WHEN I ate something that caused the sudden D attack. Mostly these happen 1-1.5 hours after my evening meal (sometimes a couple hours after lunch). I've been trying to relate these back to either my meals earlier int he day, or the previous day - but can it be what I ate for the recent meal? is it just that processing the food causes the gut to start moving and flushes the previous lot of food into the bowel and that causes it? Can food really get from stomach to large intestine in 1-2 hours? Or is it something (some chemical component) in the food causing a rapid 'flushing' effect - like the bowel cleanser (fleet soda) I had for the colonoscopy - that hit within an hour!
This q came up again for me yesterday - I've been off work with bad flu' all week, and hardly ate at all. On Wednesday am I had a small bowl of oat cereal (I switched to lacto-free milk in case 2 years ago - even tho' I seem to be able to consume milk products with no effect many times) + a little clear chicken soup. Thurs am I ate just the cereal, then nothing until 3pm Fri when I had a bowl of mushroom soup. 4.30pm Fri I had extreme D again - like having the fleet soda. Felt emptied & drained and like giving up (esp on top of the lfu')
Sorry for such a long preamble to ask the question, I do understand that for many here once weekly would be a welcome relief, but hope you can understand that the unpredictability still operates for me in that I still never know when I am going to be able to plan normal life & when it's going to strike and destroy any hope of ever getting there.
Symptoms for me are usually sudden urgency & swift very loose bm, followed by another 2-3 over the next hour or 2 (unless I take immodium immediately which curtails it). Dont usually get cramps - although I get a real 'bruised/tender' + 'being squeezed' feeling in my abdomen after which makes me feel weak and I just want to do absolutely nothing for the following day or so. Like that fear feeling you get 'in the pit of the stomach' when you miss your footing on the stairs and think you're gonna fall. I also get a lot of gas lately - usualy in my gut, but sometimes in my tummy too, with some acid belching. Doctors have, I feel, just written me off as 'you have IBS' - take the anti-spasmodics & get on with it'. I've had both ends 'oscopies' with -ve results.
Tried researching trigger foods - particularly FODMAPs - which seem to make a lot of sense to me, since very often I have D sessions after eating foods over the previous day, or 2 which I know I've eaten the prev weeks & been fine.
Problem with any exclusion diet for me is, given I can go 3-4 months without a bout, exclusion would have to be at least that long per phase - by my calculation would take several years to come up with any definites. I did try keeping a food/bm diary for 3 months once - but it wasnt very conclusive.
What is driving me nuts is how to work out WHEN I ate something that caused the sudden D attack. Mostly these happen 1-1.5 hours after my evening meal (sometimes a couple hours after lunch). I've been trying to relate these back to either my meals earlier int he day, or the previous day - but can it be what I ate for the recent meal? is it just that processing the food causes the gut to start moving and flushes the previous lot of food into the bowel and that causes it? Can food really get from stomach to large intestine in 1-2 hours? Or is it something (some chemical component) in the food causing a rapid 'flushing' effect - like the bowel cleanser (fleet soda) I had for the colonoscopy - that hit within an hour!
This q came up again for me yesterday - I've been off work with bad flu' all week, and hardly ate at all. On Wednesday am I had a small bowl of oat cereal (I switched to lacto-free milk in case 2 years ago - even tho' I seem to be able to consume milk products with no effect many times) + a little clear chicken soup. Thurs am I ate just the cereal, then nothing until 3pm Fri when I had a bowl of mushroom soup. 4.30pm Fri I had extreme D again - like having the fleet soda. Felt emptied & drained and like giving up (esp on top of the lfu')
Sorry for such a long preamble to ask the question, I do understand that for many here once weekly would be a welcome relief, but hope you can understand that the unpredictability still operates for me in that I still never know when I am going to be able to plan normal life & when it's going to strike and destroy any hope of ever getting there.