[tory28]

So this summer I began having some digestion problems. The first one I remember was the day I graduated from high school, at my family dinner I had a few bouts of D and wasn't sure why. My mom and I chalked it up to how much coffee I drank, so I got rid of coffee and was fine for awhile. Then in July I took a trip into the city with my friends and had urgent D twice. I thought I was getting a stomach bug so went home and was stuck in bed for a week with D, feeling miserable. Again, this all went away, until one month later (August, a few weeks before I was leaving for my freshman year of college) the D started again. But this time it came with C and an overall feeling of nausea (which I'm guessing was not actually nausea, but the D made me feel that I was sick so I made myself feel nauseous). Three days before leaving for college I saw a GI doctor who had to make a quick diagnosis without tests, and he told me it sounded like IBS. I started on Align and Benefiber. He also told me to stay away from dairy as I might be lactose intolerant. The next month was great, I had maybe one attack of D but it was more than manageable. But as soon as October came around, all the symptoms came back. I didn't have a lot of D, but instead was in constant abdominal pain with a lot of gas and strange noises. I've had all of this ever since, but in the past few weeks I've had a few bouts of D. But the weird thing is when I have D its only one time, and I've been keeping a diary of the foods I eat and nothing matches up. Something will affect me one day and not the next. Dairy is definitely bad, but for some reason I'm able to eat fast food like fried chicken I'm fine, but after eating grilled chicken I have an urgency to use the bathroom. I just saw a GI up here who wants to test me officially for lactose intolerance, and is also starting me on an antibiotic especially for the digestive system. His theory is that this antibiotic clears up the bacteria, good and bad, and then when I start Align again I'll be better. My question is, does this sound like IBS? All the stories I've heard have a lot more constant symptoms, and also there are trigger foods. The second GI I saw kind of rushed me out without really helping, and I'm going to see the original GI in a week for an endoscopy and colonscopy because he wants to rule out anything serious. This past weekend I was in the hospital because I was in such bad pain, but the doctors there did a CT scan and couldn't find out anything. Luckily I only have a week left until Thanksgiving break and I get to go home, but I'm just so confused with my symptoms and am looking for some guidance.

 

[Kathleen M.]

IBS doesn't mean constant symptoms that are the same every hour of every day.It often comes and goes or only hits at certain times of the day.Single bouts of diarrhea is common in IBS. Endless hours of diarrhea usually is not IBS. Often the colon has a burst of activity (when you get up in the morning or after meals and that can lead to a BM that isn't quite ready getting pushed to the end, but when the colon calms down the BM's stop)Some people with IBS have trigger foods. Most really do not. Everyone likes to think you just eliminate 1 or a half dozen foods and you will be perfect all the time. It isn't that easy. Usually it is the act of eating, not what food you eat that sets it off.IBS is often a lot more about the pain than about the diarrhea or constipation (or both if you are unlucky).The nerves in the GI tract over sense things and your brain hears all the chatter as pain.IBS typically starts up after a GI infection so that thing that seemed like a GI infection may have been.