My doctor told me to read a book about IBS from the HMO. When I read the IBS section, it says "Tell your doctor if you use Imodium more than twice per month" I use it 2-3 times per week, sometimes more, sometimes less. Is there any danger in this? Seems to me other people posted that they used it often and over long periods of time.
no problems taking imodium often?
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If you have to use it more than 2X a month you want the reason for the frequent diarrhea diagnosed.Once you know what it is then it is fine to use it as often as you need it.It is when you just use Imodium or avoid ever going to the doctor to find out if it is IBS or something else that there is a problem.They've done studies with IBSers using it for weeks. It is a good way to control IBS for some people and they found it to be safe. They did find that people had better control with 2 doses a day rather than one even if the total dose was the same.K.
I take it every day, sometimes twice a day. 6 in the morning usually allows me to have a fairly normal life, unless we are going out that night. At that point I'll pop 4 more in the afternoon. It works 99% of the time, but their are those times where it just doesn't work, but its rare.One thing that has helped me a bit is doing Atkins. I've backed down to 4-5 a day and I'm fine.Honestly though I really think all of this is in my head because like others if I'm home on the couch I'm fine. As soon as we talk about going out I get sick. Wierd....
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They are right, there is no test that will prove 100% that you have IBS.IBS is diagnosed based on symptoms and testing for other things when needed.Do you have the symptoms of IBS (or other functional bowel disease)?Do you have any symtoms that indicate something other than IBS is likely? Some of that is the "minimal" blood tests they do. If the blood tests are abnormal that triggers additional testing. Pretty much if you are otherwise normal with just IBS symptoms you are going to get an IBS diagnosis.These days most doctors feel spending thousands of dollars and weeks of your time with multiple bowel cleansing when they are near certain none of them will find anything is a waste of effort, and there is evidence the only thing you do for these patients is make the IBS worse from the stress of coming in again and again for test after test that shows normal results.How many normal tests would it take you to believe it is IBS? Some people will never ever believe it because it isn't a number on a chart and do end up making themselves a lot worse off than they are trying to get some proof it MUST be something else.If you have symptoms of IBS and do not have symptoms of other things, and your minimal tests are normal or your tests that were done because of the symptoms that could be something else are normal, then they can diagnose you with IBS.Really we think everything else is so clear cut and there is the one perfect test that is the one thing that gives a diagnosis, but it really is not that straight forward for most things. Yep somethings are really clear cut, but a heck of a lot are just as murky and muddy as IBS. Even when it appears clear cut there are any number of confounding factors that make it difficult to figure out what is going on.I wish the doctors could stick a thingy on your body and prove to you that you have it, but they do not.They do know that patients with clear symptoms of functional bowel symptom problems with normal blood tests and no "red flag" symptoms of other disorders generally don't have anything besides a functional bowel disorder.The GI doctor may not do any more tests than the general doctor, most of the tests they would run for other things regular doctors will have done if you need them. You may not get whatever it is you think you need from a GI specialist if the regular doctor has done their job. Some GI doctors are better at helping patients figure out what works for them, so it can be worth seeing one, but they don't have a magic machine that proves to a patient they have a functional GI disorder. K.
My symptoms are: -urgency -some days I have 5-6 bowel movements usually starting normalish in consistency and moving to D as I go -often feeling that I didn't complete a BM or a feeling that I need to go even when I don't-bloating in the stomach (sometimes perfectly flat other times 3-4 months pregnant looking)-some days I have cramping or pains that are quite uncomfortable-frequent nausea-sweating profusely in the posterior right before I go and right afterThose are all the problems I have. I started with nausea in about 5th grade or so and went off dairy. I got the urgency/D in 11th grade right after my wisdom tooth surgery and was never "normal" again although the urgency and D were only in the morning and only on school days or special events. At that time the doctor said IBS and eat BRAT. In college I took tricyclics and it really helped the "IBS". 3 years later after I had tapered of the tricycs feeling cured, I had a near accident at work followed by daily urgency and D. I went on a newer SSRI (Paxil) and found almost total relief.When I was trying to get pregnant, I went off meds and things were okay when I was pregnant. About a year after my son was born, the IBS was getting very bad again and I went on Effexor. I tapered off recently to have another baby and it is back and seems worse than ever.The anti-depressants work well for me but they are TERRIBLE for me to come off of, even if I taper much slower than recommeded (say 4-6 months). I thought I'd die coming off Paxil. Effexor wasn't as bad in terms of brain shocks and zaps but made me literally shaky, very dizzy, and nauseous for months.
KAD, most doctors usually look for changes in bowel habits to rule out serious conditions. If you have the same symptoms for many years with little change it is probably nothing serious. If it were you would be dead by now. I have had the same symptoms for about 15 years and am basically very healthy otherwise. Despite chronic D 5+ times a day I am still 40lbs overweight. You may want to rule out Celiac, food allergies or Sibo. If all these things are ok and you are otherwise healthy it is probably IBS. BTW, you are right about the Paxil. I quit cold turkey because it really didn’t help me. Wow, it’s not for the faint of heart. I really had to suck it up for about 2 months to get over it. Stick to Imodium or you may want to try Lomotil. Lomotil is not as strong as Imodium and for me it seems to somewhat control the D without going over to C. I am now looking into Lotronex if I can get it. Good luck.
What is Sibo? They thought I had food allergies but they aren't very willing to go overboard to figure them out. My tests came back positive to like everything and they can register "false" positives. I try to severely limit dairy and avoid tomatoes because tomatoes reacted the worst of all.I am probably 10 pounds underweight. I wouldn't mind putting on some weight but it is hard to eat more because then I just poop more.
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All that is consistant with IBS/functional GI problems and not indicative of other diseases.As long as the underweight thing is due to not eating. If you eat way more than enough to gain weight and cannot that may be a something, but if you don't eat or limit eating to limit symptoms that is expected weight issues.SIBO is small intestinal bacterial overgrowth.That drugs that control IBS control the symptoms well that tends to indicate IBS not other diseases.K.
I would not take always the same medicine. A few days a week Imodium, a few days a week Lomotil and one ?! day a week :nothing. Taking everyday the same molecule increases your chance to become allergic to this molecule. Allergy to Imodium is rare but exists.
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I take 2 imodiums everyday ( a cheaper version on perscription from my doctor). I used to take them 5 days a week and not on my days off from work but it seems to work much more effectively if | take every day rather than stopping and starting. If I am having a bad morning then I sometimes have another tablet as well. It all got so bad that I wouldn't have been able to go out at all without them!!
Kathleen, I'm not sure what the cause of being underweight is. I lose weight when there is stress. I feel like I eat a lot but I eat small portions. Because I have TMJ, chewing is uncomfortable so sometimes I opt to drink rather than eat.Right now I think I weigh about 113 and I am almost 5'5" so I'm not terribly underweight. I weighed in the 120s most of my life and lost weight 10 years ago when I started teaching and it has never come back on other than when I was pregnant and about 4-5 months after the baby was born.
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If you record the calories you eat every day you can see if your weight and the calories in make sense.www.fitday.com allows you to record stuff. Most foods are in there and you can add others.I've known people who tend to chronic underweight problems and TMJ really made it hard for them to eat enough to maintain weight. I think that even if you are normal that can make it hard to keep the weight up.Most of us are pretty bad about estimating how much we eat, so actually tracking it for a few days can really help figure things out.If your weight is pretty constant even if low it is not that much of a concern, it's more a worry if you continue to lose weight eating the same amount that used to allow you to maintain your weight.K.
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