[Diane M]

I have IBS-C. Don't have it all the time, fortunately, but I've had this episode for a month with no letup in sight. Citrocel finally does its work, but as soon as I'm cleaned out, it starts all over again. This time I'm having lots of heartburn and belching, no matter what I eat. Since IBS is mainly a condition of the bowels, I'm wondering if this is something new and not part of my IBS. My doctor says if I don't improve in the near future, he'll order an upper GI. Does anyone else have upper digestive problems with their IBS?

 

[Guest]

DianeM; I haven't been diagnosed with IBS C but believe that's what I have. Near constant moderate pain in lower right quad of abdomen. Drs. can find nothing causing it. XRAY, CT scans, colonoscopy all negative.But, an endoscopy showed a near-Barretts Esophagus condition which can turn cancerous quickly. I had lots of heartburn and belching. Am taking Prevacid for that now. Works great! I urge you to have that upper GI including the endoscopy. It might find something more serious than the IBS.Now if I could just get rid of the pain in my guts I'd be happy.Good Luck

 

[Guest]

DianeM; I haven't been diagnosed with IBS C but believe that's what I have. Near constant moderate pain in lower right quad of abdomen. Drs. can find nothing causing it. XRAY, CT scans, colonoscopy all negative.But, an endoscopy showed a near-Barretts Esophagus condition which can turn cancerous quickly. I had lots of heartburn and belching. Am taking Prevacid for that now. Works great! I urge you to have that upper GI including the endoscopy. It might find something more serious than the IBS.Now if I could just get rid of the pain in my guts I'd be happy.Good Luck

 

[cupcake9069]

Diane:I also have a hiatal hernia. So when I have an episode, and the bloating kicks in, my hernia problems kick in also. But as you can see by reading the posts here, boy...there are alot of different variables.

 

[cupcake9069]

Diane:I also have a hiatal hernia. So when I have an episode, and the bloating kicks in, my hernia problems kick in also. But as you can see by reading the posts here, boy...there are alot of different variables.

 

[Kathleen M.]

Upper GI problems seem to mostly stem from a separate upper GI problem.However it is fairly common for people to have both upper GI and lower GI problems. If the heartburn doesn't go away soon it would make alot of sense to check it out. It may be due to something treatable, or it may require treatment to keep it from causing other problems.While your waiting to see if it continues do either antacids, or acid blocking drugs (tagamet, pepcid, zantac...all of which are OTC) seem to help at all. If it is all the time you may get better control with one of the acid blockers rather than an antacid. With IBS-C sticking to magnesium-based antacids would probably be the better choice as calcium-based ones are constipating.K.------------------I am a scientific researcher primarily in the area of the environment and the impact of environmental factors on human health, I have no ties to the pharmaceutical industry. I have no financial, academic, or any other stake in any commercial, natural, or any other product mentioned by me.My story and what worked for me in greatly easing my IBS: http://www.ibsgroup.org/ubb/Forum17/HTML/000015.html

 

[Kathleen M.]

Upper GI problems seem to mostly stem from a separate upper GI problem.However it is fairly common for people to have both upper GI and lower GI problems. If the heartburn doesn't go away soon it would make alot of sense to check it out. It may be due to something treatable, or it may require treatment to keep it from causing other problems.While your waiting to see if it continues do either antacids, or acid blocking drugs (tagamet, pepcid, zantac...all of which are OTC) seem to help at all. If it is all the time you may get better control with one of the acid blockers rather than an antacid. With IBS-C sticking to magnesium-based antacids would probably be the better choice as calcium-based ones are constipating.K.------------------I am a scientific researcher primarily in the area of the environment and the impact of environmental factors on human health, I have no ties to the pharmaceutical industry. I have no financial, academic, or any other stake in any commercial, natural, or any other product mentioned by me.My story and what worked for me in greatly easing my IBS: http://www.ibsgroup.org/ubb/Forum17/HTML/000015.html

 

[carolf]

Dear Diane, Your heartburna and upper digestive problems seem very familiar to me. That is how my IBS started out. I had severe heartburn and belching for about 8 weeks. I recommend that you have the endoscopy to have things checked out. I did and everything was fine. They tried me on a lot of antacids and nothing worked, then one day it just improved on its own. I still get heartburn and belching but nothing comparable to the constant pain I was in back then. Wishing you well.

 

[carolf]

Dear Diane, Your heartburna and upper digestive problems seem very familiar to me. That is how my IBS started out. I had severe heartburn and belching for about 8 weeks. I recommend that you have the endoscopy to have things checked out. I did and everything was fine. They tried me on a lot of antacids and nothing worked, then one day it just improved on its own. I still get heartburn and belching but nothing comparable to the constant pain I was in back then. Wishing you well.

 

[WD40]

My GI doc told me that IBS can manifest itself anywhere along the digestive tract from the mouth to the anus. Most of my problems the last 5 years or so have been upper gastric problems like heartburn, severe indigestion, nausea, and chronic gastritis. He put me on 25mg of Elavil and gave me a few months worth of Nexium for the acid. The thing is they did the endoscopy and he said I hardly have any acid at all and that's why he proclaimed it to be a manifestation of the IBS. He calls it "visceral hypersensitity". In other words I feel pain too fast in my guts from my esophagus to my anus; something to do with the Serotonin receptors. Great!

I stopped taking the Nexium a couple of weeks ago because I started taking a large amount of aloe powder and it seems to work better than the Nexium. (I had no withdrawal symptoms going off the Nexium cold turkey.) Still on the Elavil but I'm going to try to ween myself off after another month or so and see what happens. It makes me chronically tired (not a lot, just enough to be noticed) and I want to see if just doing the aloe and my fiber mixture with more fruits and veggies will work for me. If not I would have no problem staying on the Elavil. I had this problem once before really bad about 4 years ago and it cleared up on its own. I don't even know what I did differently, it just seemed to stop hurting until last February and WHAMMO! chronic gastritis and heartburn. I don't have the belching problem simply because I don't know how to burp. Believe me, I think it would help!

 

[WD40]

My GI doc told me that IBS can manifest itself anywhere along the digestive tract from the mouth to the anus. Most of my problems the last 5 years or so have been upper gastric problems like heartburn, severe indigestion, nausea, and chronic gastritis. He put me on 25mg of Elavil and gave me a few months worth of Nexium for the acid. The thing is they did the endoscopy and he said I hardly have any acid at all and that's why he proclaimed it to be a manifestation of the IBS. He calls it "visceral hypersensitity". In other words I feel pain too fast in my guts from my esophagus to my anus; something to do with the Serotonin receptors. Great!

I stopped taking the Nexium a couple of weeks ago because I started taking a large amount of aloe powder and it seems to work better than the Nexium. (I had no withdrawal symptoms going off the Nexium cold turkey.) Still on the Elavil but I'm going to try to ween myself off after another month or so and see what happens. It makes me chronically tired (not a lot, just enough to be noticed) and I want to see if just doing the aloe and my fiber mixture with more fruits and veggies will work for me. If not I would have no problem staying on the Elavil. I had this problem once before really bad about 4 years ago and it cleared up on its own. I don't even know what I did differently, it just seemed to stop hurting until last February and WHAMMO! chronic gastritis and heartburn. I don't have the belching problem simply because I don't know how to burp. Believe me, I think it would help!

 

[Diane M]

Thanks to all of you for your advice and for telling me what you did for your problem. It really helps to communicate with others who know what this miserable condition feels like. I took two Gaviscon this morning when the heartburn was making me crazy (after eating a bowl of oatmeal, of all things). It has kept the monster away all day, so I think I'll continue with that as long as it works. Now if these darn cramps would go away maybe I could get some sleep.Diane

 

[Diane M]

Thanks to all of you for your advice and for telling me what you did for your problem. It really helps to communicate with others who know what this miserable condition feels like. I took two Gaviscon this morning when the heartburn was making me crazy (after eating a bowl of oatmeal, of all things). It has kept the monster away all day, so I think I'll continue with that as long as it works. Now if these darn cramps would go away maybe I could get some sleep.Diane

 

[Julia37]

Diane,I had both upper and lower GI symptoms. The lower turned out to be from dairy. There's a long and vigorous argument on other threads about whether lactose intolerance alone accounts for the symptoms many get from dairy. But anyway, avoiding dairy cleared it up.With the help of this board I identified trigger foods that were causing my acid pain and heartburn: fruits, sugars, and onions. It was hard to give up sweets! but worth it.

During the year I was treated for the upper GI symptoms I was diagnosed with acid reflux, and I had a rebound affect from using calcium carbonate antacids. This is not something many people have heard of, but the pain was bad enough to send me to hospital. When you use calcium carbonate antacid on a long-term basis, it *increases* acid production because acid is required to digest the calcium.Stick with Gaviscon, and if you switch to another antacid check the ingredient label for calcium carbonate. I use pepcid now because the sugar in Gaviscon bothers me.Good luck

 

[Julia37]

Diane,I had both upper and lower GI symptoms. The lower turned out to be from dairy. There's a long and vigorous argument on other threads about whether lactose intolerance alone accounts for the symptoms many get from dairy. But anyway, avoiding dairy cleared it up.With the help of this board I identified trigger foods that were causing my acid pain and heartburn: fruits, sugars, and onions. It was hard to give up sweets! but worth it.

During the year I was treated for the upper GI symptoms I was diagnosed with acid reflux, and I had a rebound affect from using calcium carbonate antacids. This is not something many people have heard of, but the pain was bad enough to send me to hospital. When you use calcium carbonate antacid on a long-term basis, it *increases* acid production because acid is required to digest the calcium.Stick with Gaviscon, and if you switch to another antacid check the ingredient label for calcium carbonate. I use pepcid now because the sugar in Gaviscon bothers me.Good luck

 

[flux]

quoteianeM; I haven't been diagnosed with IBS C but believe that's what I have. Near constant moderate pain in lower right quad of abdomen. Drs. can find nothing causing it. XRAY, CT scans, colonoscopy all negative.

No motility studies?

quote:My GI doc told me that IBS can manifest itself anywhere along the digestive tract

IBS is set of symptoms, which are mainly mainfest in the lower gut, so this isn't really accurate. But what K says above is also correct,------------------I am not a doctor, nor do I work for profit in the medical/pharmacological field, but I have read scientific and medical texts, and have access to numerous sources of medical information that are not readily available to others. One should always consult a medical professional regarding advice received.

 

[flux]

quoteianeM; I haven't been diagnosed with IBS C but believe that's what I have. Near constant moderate pain in lower right quad of abdomen. Drs. can find nothing causing it. XRAY, CT scans, colonoscopy all negative.

No motility studies?

quote:My GI doc told me that IBS can manifest itself anywhere along the digestive tract

IBS is set of symptoms, which are mainly mainfest in the lower gut, so this isn't really accurate. But what K says above is also correct,------------------I am not a doctor, nor do I work for profit in the medical/pharmacological field, but I have read scientific and medical texts, and have access to numerous sources of medical information that are not readily available to others. One should always consult a medical professional regarding advice received.