Ok, so let me start off by briefly saying my history. I am a 24 year old male. I have had numerous tests run, CT scan, endoscopy, colonoscopy, HIDA Scan (which was low), etc. I got my gall bladder out because my HIDA scan was abnormal. I felt good after the surgery, but this may also be because the pain meds which were slowing down my digestive tract. The surgery did get rid of my upper abdominal pain, although it has given me some weird issues where I have to eat as soon as I am hungry and I did gain some weight. Now that was a decent success, but my main problem now is horrible gas gas and mushy poop as soon as I wake up in the morning. My stomach also acts weird sometimes at night. Generally, during the day it is pretty calm. Now this afflicts me EVERY day no matter what I do. Literally, every morning I wake up to cramping, tons of gas, and semi-diarrhea. I have resorted to taking pain meds now often to try to slow down my tract, but as soon as I am off them, the symptoms just return. My mom also has digestive issues, but she has a lot of auto-immune issues like celiac and lupus, and she had her gall bladder out too. I was negative for celiac and autoimmune antibodies.I was diagnosed with IBS, mainly because they couldn't figure out what was wrong with me. About 1-2 times a year I will get a very bad weeklong diarrhea spell with a fever that has hospitalized me in the past due to dehydration (I am off work right now because I am on day 2 of one of these right now). The rest of the year I struggle with the morning abdominal pain, extreme gas, and stool issues. I also have issues when I get anxious too, but I have had those my whole life. I consider the anxious issues to be IBS, but the morning issues seems too constant to be IBS. I feel worse when I eat larger, fattier meals, but mainly larger is the bad thing. I have tried the antibiotics that clear out your gut, and after all the diarrhea was over, I actually had normal stools for a little. Of course, it all returned a few weeks after. My doctor just prescribes me hyoscyamine and librax, which don't really do anything. I am looking for any sort of relief. I wouldn't care about having these issues if they weren't so damn painful. Oh yea, it's important to note that my stools/gas are particularly foul smelling. My gf says they make her eyes water.My diet is pretty good. I tend not to eat out a lot, since I corresponds to pain for me. I usually eat a ham/turkey sandwich for lunch and an apple. For dinner, I have a large salad and some meat and a steamed vegetable. I have dessert late at night sometimes, which usually consists of ice cream. When I take fiber supplements, it makes me have to run the the bathroom more often. They don't seem to make a difference, although the doctor really believes otherwise. I know you all have some insight into the situation and maybe can give me better tips than my doctor, who seems to not care. I am going to try to go to another doctor as soon as my health insurance permits me next year. They say IBS should not really affect your life and shouldn't interfere with sleep and whatnot. But my problems do, and I awaken at night in pain. It can also cause me to be lethargic as well because I have no energy.
Morning problems
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Daily morning issues is really consistent with IBS as a diagnosis.IBS very often causes symptoms when the colon is most active. That is why most of the time IBS calms down at night during deep sleep as that is when the colon is least active in all people.The colon then "wakes up" around the time we get up (or sometimes on a regular schedule like around dawn no matter how long you would like to sleep in). That is the time it is most active. Since IBS usually has worse symptoms with increased colon activity morning tends to be a bad time (and it can be every single morning as the colon wakes up every single morning without fail) as well as after meals. A lot may depend on which of the signals your gut over-reacts to, and inappropriate response to normal GI signals is pretty much only an IBS thing. The gut reacts to other things in other diseases but those tend to be appropriate responses to signals you are supposed to react to.The "move it get active" signal after meals is bigger when all humans eat larger meals, particularly fatty meals or don't eat for awhile and finally give in when they are starving (like skipping meals)IBS can occasionally wake people in the middle of the night from a sound sleep, but that is less common than the colon waking up earlier than you want to (so 5 am rather that at 1 am). IBS is less likely to cause abdominal pain in the night than things like GERD that typically get worse when people lay down.If you have problems every day a low dose antidepressant may be something to think about as it tends to block the inappropriate pain signals.For gassiness you might try a low carb/low starch diet, especially if the stool issues are more on the diarrhea side of things, and a probiotic may not be a bad idea as they don't make gas from carbs.
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Diarhea after a cholecystectomy isn't exactly rare. Has your Doc. mentioned trying a bile acid, or bile salt, absorber/binder med? (Like: cholestyramine aka Questran)
My sibling had terrible trouble with D, gas, and abdominal pain starting about two months after he had his gall bladder removed. The bile acid absorbers helped, didn't cure it all, but it helped. Within a year he didn't need the med any more as his body, and habits, adapted to the changes. He found that greasy/oily, or high fat, or sugary, or super spicy foods (or any combo), make it worse again. And yeppers, X-large meals cause him a lot of distress, so he took to eating a small balanced mini-meal every 3 hours or so instead. His last snack of the day is 4 to 5 hours before bedtime. He also went lactose free, dialed down his caffeine intake to no more than 2 cups a day, and little-to-no more beer or wine.
-both of those meats give me terrible gas. The only meats I eat are chicken, beef, lamb, and seafood. (and bison when I can get it fresh. I hate that frozen-for-shipping stuff)Personally, I'm not keen on processed meats...more chemicals than meat in it. Try cooking/making sliced meats at home, or make a salad using them. Save money and eat healthier and safer!
-Steer clear of the gassy ones. Beans, peas, broccoli, brussel sprouts, peppers...Everybody is different, so what's gassy for me might be fine for you. Live and learn.
-Might be a bad choice for you right now. High fat and sugar in cream, and late night snacks may be a temporary no-no. At least try low fat/fat free. Or try sherbet with no added sugars, or low/no fat yogurt with fresh fruit.
Take a peek here for some quick info on gassy foods and how some forms of fiber can cause gas issues. It doesn't go into much detail, just a decent bunch of tips to get you started asking the right questions.Top Six Gassy Foods
Pfft -They don't know as much as they want you to think they do. There is no one sure thing for IBS sufferers, its a trial and error process. Nor is there a one size fits all symptom chart. Try hard to learn and educate yourself on what works for you.
Wow, those are both very excellent posts and I thank you both for taking the time to respond. I had this D issue before the gall bladder removal, although it has changed a little since then. It is less pale and flakey, and more of a dark/greenish tint mud now lol...sorry for the graphic. I asked the doctor for Questran because of what I read online, but he never called me back and my insurance lapsed to this year, so I gave up. I really should try that as soon as the year ends. I billed my insurance over 70k last year for all the procedures I had done, and I am way in the negative for my HSA, so I need to wait until this year ends before going back.The FIRST thing my doctor had me do was to try to alter my diet to avoid the foods that typically cause intestinal issues. I didn't really notice a difference after a week so I gave up. I then tried to eat a low carb, zero wheat diet for a week and a half. I didn't notice any difference with that either...it almost seemed worse. Then, I thought I had some egg intolerance because I seemed to have a lot of issues after eating eggs. I couldn't conclusively tell the result of that one since I still had issues, but when I ate eggs, they seemed worse. It seems like no matter what I eat, I have the same problem. It's reallllly frustrating.I also tried the $250 anti-biotic that clears out everything in your gut, and followed that with 2 weeks of Align probiotics. I honestly thought I was better at that point, but then it all came back. It seems anytime I do something that completely flushes my gut out (being sick, preparing for colonoscopy, or taking antibiotics), I have a few days of relief then I return back to pain. This would lead me to believe it's a bacterial/parasitical issue, but who knows?I have tried a low-dose regime of Zoloft, but that didn't make a difference either and made me feel really weird. The only thing that will make me go a solid day symptom free is taking Tramadol. As soon as it wears off, everything catches up to me. But, I can't take that every day because you become dependent and will get withdrawals. What a cruel world!It's really hard to take some default diagnosis of IBS as an answer when something obviously is wrong. It seems like I have malabsorption more than anything. I mean I have seen the way anxiety and the brain can affect the gut. It happens to me before something like a job interview. But, you can pinpoint the cause of that and it makes sense with the flight or fight response. It just seems that doctors are so quit to rule it as IBS without pursuing all the tests. Who knows, some people could be lacking a certain enzyme, others could have issues with the way their colon is structured, others could have parasitic infestations or extra bad bacteria? So frustrating...I wish one of them could study my bowel movement while I sleep from start to finish to see at what point it goes wrong. Oh, I wish I was in my teens again when I had perfectly normal bowels.
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IBS *IS* something wrong.The researchers find all sorts of things physically wrong in people with IBS.Enough so that there even is a blood test that uses biomarkers for IBS (as well as a few other GI illnesses) to rule IBS in or out. http://www.ibsbloodtest.com.Just most medical tests are like taking your TV to the TV repair place and they check it out and it is fine and no one ever checked to see that the remote got dropped in some water and is now shorted out.IBS doesn't mean absolutely everything inside is perfect. Just tests designed for other illnesses don't see it.The "remote" for the gut is the nervous system and some parts of the immune system. They can find things wrong with that, but that doesn't cause ulcers in the lining or other big obvious easy to see things other medical tests look for.With the clean out helping that may indicate SIBO (small intestinal bacteria overgrowth---NORMAL TOTALLY NORMAL colon bacteria every single healthy person has has living in their colon now living in the wrong place). Antibiotics is the treatment for that, and it usually comes back after awhile, so that is typical. Malabsoption is not IBS, but if your nutritional status is OK and you don't lose weight even when you eat way more than you need that usually rules out malabsorption.You might check out Linda's (LNAPE) information on Calcium as that has helped a lot of IBS-D types and she had diarrhea after gall bladder removal and you can do that without a prescription.
That is great information, thank you. I did not know there were specific blood tests that can test for IBS. I also heard about the calcium treatment, but I didn't think it would do anything for me since I had these problems prior to the surgery. It doesn't hurt to give it a shot, though.
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