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I developed IBS D after contracting the Noro-virus when I was 15, I am now just going on 20.
My symptoms were sudden and violent bouts of diarrhoea which caused me to start having panic attacks.
I could tell when I was about to have a flare up because my whole body would feel boiling hot and I would sweat,
my vision would sort of narrow down and I would feel like I wanted to vomit, everything sort of narrowed down to
'oh my god I need to go now' and I'd make a mad dash for the nearest toilet. I would also bloat like a whale and feel
really uncomfortable, as well as having a crippling pain/cramping feeling whenever I had a flare up, and just a general
'unwell' or crampy feeling all of the time, like I could feel my guts working constantly, I would wake up to the feeling and
go to bed with it.
This basically started ruining my life and I stopped wanting to go out or just leave the house at all, my boyfriend
at the time wasn't very understanding and that relationship recently ended, IBS probably being one of the main
factors. I finally went to my doctor and was palmed off with 'you've got IBS' and not much else to help me,
except Colofac, which did nothing, and Loperamide, which did help by stopping the flare ups, but it also stopped
all movement entirely for a couple of days (depending on how many I took at a time) and then it was payback time
where I'd basically spend more time on the loo paying for taking the tablet than I would've if I'd just dealt with the
flare ups! I I survived on this method of loperamide and the vicious cycle for about three years. I took other things
too that my mum had found on forums like this, things like peppermint oil, which did nothing for me, omega 3, but I
didn't see much change, Buscopan for the cramps which did help a bit but not as much as I would've liked.
I was also prescribed the antidepressant Citalopram, mainly for the panic and anxiety this caused me, although this
did help with that aspect it also made me severely tired and I was basically an unemotional zombie on these tablets.
I later found out that a side effect of them is diarrhoea! (I started off on 20mg and eventually reduced to 10mg).
After the split with my boyfriend at the end of last year I decided to come off all medication, that being the
citalopram, the pill (yasmin) probiotics and various anti-spasmodics, although I'd also started University and was
still pretty dependent on Loperamide (which is lovingly known as 'sh**-stop' in our household!)
After a severe panic attack and flare up on a train on the way into uni (The train broke down!), I spent 50 minutes +
in the train station toilets and decided enough was enough. My mum got onto more forums and we searched for anything
we hadn't already tried to stop this happening.
Now onto the good stuff!
(Amitriptyline + L-Glutamine Powder + Probiotic (20 billion) + Multivitamin)
We found another antidepressant named Amitriptyline, which is actually used more for things like bedwetting in children
and various pains in the digestive system, than depression. ( 80% of the body's seretonin is apparently found in the gut! )
and with IBS the gut becomes super-sensitive, I went to my doctor and asked for it and had no troubles in being prescribed it
when I explained that it has helped others with IBS.
I began taking it on the 24th of December 2014 and initially began with 10mg but found this had no effect for either my
anxiety nor the IBS so I upped the dosage to 20mg and continued with this.
Unfortunately one of the most common side effects of these tablets is tiredness, which worked out well for me because my
sleep was being disturbed by vivid dreams, I found that if I took the tablets at 9-10PM and went to bed around midnight, I would
have little trouble in getting up at 7:15AM for Uni the next day. I was worried that after I took the tablets I would feel like a zombie
again until I went to bed but I can say that I don't even really feel tired after I take them, but once I actually go to sleep I have
fairly undisturbed sleep and wake up feeling fine. (The box says take them half an hour before bed but that didn't work out for me )
I also worried that some people mentioned weight gain in their review of these tablets, but since taking them I can say I've noticed
no change at all in my weight.
Another side effect (actually helpful side effect) is constipation! Which in someone with IBS D basically means normal poops!
All the trials say to allow up to 8 weeks to feel the full effect of these tablets on IBS symptoms, I took my last Loperamide on Christmas
Day to stop a flare up and today is the 19th of March 2015
![biggrin.png]()
L-Glutamine Powder - Another suggestion we found online, a fairly tasteless powder you put into a drink once a day.(Better of a
morning before you eat or drink, as I've heard hot drinks can destroy some of the 'goodness' before it gets to where it's going!)
I buy this (click here) one off Amazon and put three heaped scoops (scoop included) into a shot glass and add a flat fizzy drink
(bubbles and powder don't mix) stir it, and down it, it doesn't taste of much, especially if you get a strong flavoured drink to mix it with.
Probiotic - I also take one of these every other night, as I find taking one every night can sometimes cause looser stools, Probiotics
need to be no less than 10 billion live bacteria . but preferably 20 billion (click here) for the ones I take.
Multivitamin - I take (click here) one of these every morning.
Taking all of these together since December has virtually cured me, I don't wake up with any pain or uncomfortable feeling, I haven't had
a flare up in months and the few I've had were early on and even then nothing like they used to be. I can go out without worrying now and
have even been able to start eating and drinking some of the things I thought were lost to me forever! (Energy drinks, Coffee and Pizza if
it is shop bought, greasy Dominoes or the likes are still off limit for now though, too risky! )
I honestly believe that taking all of these together is healing me, the Amitriptyline is meant to stop signals from the gut to the brain and the
L-glutamine is used to heal all sorts of internal problems, especially digestive problems, same with the probiotics and multivitamins.
I have been meaning to get onto a forum and
write about this for a while now as it's because of various other people's threads that I've found my solutions and I'd like to help other
people with their problems.
If any of this has been helpful or if you've got any more questions or just fancy a chat, message me
![biggrin.png]()
- Emma
!!!!!!!!!UPDATE! 25th May 2016!!!!!!!!!!
Hello again! As you can see, this post was initially posted in March of 2015, and since then a bit has changed.
I'm still taking the amitriptyline, I upped the dose to 25mg a few months after making this post but I began to gain a lot of weight on it so cut back
down to 20mg. I'm now on 10mg (I tried to come off them altogether and a lot of my symptoms came right back so I back on them I go!) My weight
has come right back down since I lowered the dose so don't be afraid to experiment a little with the dosage and find what's right for you.
I became irritated with how many different medications I was taking daily and when I stopped the amitriptyline, I stopped everything else too.
I figured I'd stop it all and slowly take different things until I figured out what was actually helping me. (Basically once I gained the weight
I felt majorly depressed and had a bit of a tantrum, that's why I stopped everything
)
This wasn't a good move, all my symptoms naturally came back, so I slowly reintroduced amitriptyline (10mg) and also decided to try
VSL3 Live bacteria probiotic - they need to be stored in the fridge from delivery but the box is small - I usually pour a sachet into a shot
glass with a little bit of orange cordial and knock it back in one, it doesn't taste too bad either!
I had a holiday to Florida coming up and I knew I had to get myself sorted and do it quickly! I took the recommended 3 week course of once
sachet of VSL3 every day and I had many days where I thought it wasn't making the slightest difference, but once the 3 weeks were up, I managed
to survive 2 weeks of non-stop holiday without a single flare up!
If I'm ever going anyhwere I know I need to be good and well for, or I feel my symptoms are creeping back in, I take about a week's worth of them and
then a couple here and there just to keep it topped up.
Around this time I also discovered Pepto-bismol and took the odd glug of this (straight from the bottle is best, ignore the stupid cap they give you!)
before and sometimes after meals. I have spoken to a doctor about taking Pepto for IBS and was told that they can't prescribe it because they can't
prove that it helps, but if it helps me then I should continue taking it as and when I need it. So now I always have a bottle with me, just in case!
I have also just discovered something new to the market called Silicol-gel, not going to lie, this stuff is pretty gross. It's entirely tasteless but looks
like wallpaper paste. The basic idea of it is to cling to and cover a large surface area of the gut and because of this, you can literally feel it 'grabbing'
at your tongue when you take it! I usually take the spoonful of it and immediately chase it down with a strong tasting drink to wash away the feeling.
I use this mainly when I know I'm going out for a large meal or I'm going to be having alcohol. I can't say if this truly works or not, as I've only used it
a couple of times so far, but the times I did use it, I was remarkably good the next day, so you never know!
I've been back and forth to hospital begging for different tests for a while now, I've finally had a colonoscopy (not gonna lie, it didn't feel great, but wasn't too bad)
it was actually after it that I had problems, I'm going to assume it was because for the test, you take a solution to completely empty your bowels, this likely
takes out any and all 'good bacteria' that you've been building up. I had terrible flare ups for the next few weeks but I got back on the VSL3 and it eventually
evened out again. I had a few blood and stool tests but they came back fine and unfortunately I've now been discharged from the hospital with the very convenient line "it's just symptom management at this point" apparently 'IBS' usually sorts itself out after a few years, which sucks but gives me a bit of hope!
When I think of the early days of how bad I was, compared to how I am today, I can safely say that my symptoms have greatly improved.
I think all of the medications I've written about in this whole post have played a part and I'd recommend you try them all and see what they could possibly
do for you. Let me know if you have any questions!
((I forogt to mention, I still always carry loperamide with me just in case of an unexpected flare up. I also take these preemptively before a night out
sometimes just to give myself peace of mind. Thankfully I don't have to rely on these as much anymore!))
-Emma-
My symptoms were sudden and violent bouts of diarrhoea which caused me to start having panic attacks.
I could tell when I was about to have a flare up because my whole body would feel boiling hot and I would sweat,
my vision would sort of narrow down and I would feel like I wanted to vomit, everything sort of narrowed down to
'oh my god I need to go now' and I'd make a mad dash for the nearest toilet. I would also bloat like a whale and feel
really uncomfortable, as well as having a crippling pain/cramping feeling whenever I had a flare up, and just a general
'unwell' or crampy feeling all of the time, like I could feel my guts working constantly, I would wake up to the feeling and
go to bed with it.
This basically started ruining my life and I stopped wanting to go out or just leave the house at all, my boyfriend
at the time wasn't very understanding and that relationship recently ended, IBS probably being one of the main
factors. I finally went to my doctor and was palmed off with 'you've got IBS' and not much else to help me,
except Colofac, which did nothing, and Loperamide, which did help by stopping the flare ups, but it also stopped
all movement entirely for a couple of days (depending on how many I took at a time) and then it was payback time
where I'd basically spend more time on the loo paying for taking the tablet than I would've if I'd just dealt with the
flare ups! I I survived on this method of loperamide and the vicious cycle for about three years. I took other things
too that my mum had found on forums like this, things like peppermint oil, which did nothing for me, omega 3, but I
didn't see much change, Buscopan for the cramps which did help a bit but not as much as I would've liked.
I was also prescribed the antidepressant Citalopram, mainly for the panic and anxiety this caused me, although this
did help with that aspect it also made me severely tired and I was basically an unemotional zombie on these tablets.
I later found out that a side effect of them is diarrhoea! (I started off on 20mg and eventually reduced to 10mg).
After the split with my boyfriend at the end of last year I decided to come off all medication, that being the
citalopram, the pill (yasmin) probiotics and various anti-spasmodics, although I'd also started University and was
still pretty dependent on Loperamide (which is lovingly known as 'sh**-stop' in our household!)
After a severe panic attack and flare up on a train on the way into uni (The train broke down!), I spent 50 minutes +
in the train station toilets and decided enough was enough. My mum got onto more forums and we searched for anything
we hadn't already tried to stop this happening.
Now onto the good stuff!
(Amitriptyline + L-Glutamine Powder + Probiotic (20 billion) + Multivitamin)
We found another antidepressant named Amitriptyline, which is actually used more for things like bedwetting in children
and various pains in the digestive system, than depression. ( 80% of the body's seretonin is apparently found in the gut! )
and with IBS the gut becomes super-sensitive, I went to my doctor and asked for it and had no troubles in being prescribed it
when I explained that it has helped others with IBS.
I began taking it on the 24th of December 2014 and initially began with 10mg but found this had no effect for either my
anxiety nor the IBS so I upped the dosage to 20mg and continued with this.
Unfortunately one of the most common side effects of these tablets is tiredness, which worked out well for me because my
sleep was being disturbed by vivid dreams, I found that if I took the tablets at 9-10PM and went to bed around midnight, I would
have little trouble in getting up at 7:15AM for Uni the next day. I was worried that after I took the tablets I would feel like a zombie
again until I went to bed but I can say that I don't even really feel tired after I take them, but once I actually go to sleep I have
fairly undisturbed sleep and wake up feeling fine. (The box says take them half an hour before bed but that didn't work out for me )
I also worried that some people mentioned weight gain in their review of these tablets, but since taking them I can say I've noticed
no change at all in my weight.
Another side effect (actually helpful side effect) is constipation! Which in someone with IBS D basically means normal poops!
All the trials say to allow up to 8 weeks to feel the full effect of these tablets on IBS symptoms, I took my last Loperamide on Christmas
Day to stop a flare up and today is the 19th of March 2015
L-Glutamine Powder - Another suggestion we found online, a fairly tasteless powder you put into a drink once a day.(Better of a
morning before you eat or drink, as I've heard hot drinks can destroy some of the 'goodness' before it gets to where it's going!)
I buy this (click here) one off Amazon and put three heaped scoops (scoop included) into a shot glass and add a flat fizzy drink
(bubbles and powder don't mix) stir it, and down it, it doesn't taste of much, especially if you get a strong flavoured drink to mix it with.
Probiotic - I also take one of these every other night, as I find taking one every night can sometimes cause looser stools, Probiotics
need to be no less than 10 billion live bacteria . but preferably 20 billion (click here) for the ones I take.
Multivitamin - I take (click here) one of these every morning.
Taking all of these together since December has virtually cured me, I don't wake up with any pain or uncomfortable feeling, I haven't had
a flare up in months and the few I've had were early on and even then nothing like they used to be. I can go out without worrying now and
have even been able to start eating and drinking some of the things I thought were lost to me forever! (Energy drinks, Coffee and Pizza if
it is shop bought, greasy Dominoes or the likes are still off limit for now though, too risky! )
I honestly believe that taking all of these together is healing me, the Amitriptyline is meant to stop signals from the gut to the brain and the
L-glutamine is used to heal all sorts of internal problems, especially digestive problems, same with the probiotics and multivitamins.
I have been meaning to get onto a forum and
write about this for a while now as it's because of various other people's threads that I've found my solutions and I'd like to help other
people with their problems.
If any of this has been helpful or if you've got any more questions or just fancy a chat, message me
- Emma
!!!!!!!!!UPDATE! 25th May 2016!!!!!!!!!!
Hello again! As you can see, this post was initially posted in March of 2015, and since then a bit has changed.
I'm still taking the amitriptyline, I upped the dose to 25mg a few months after making this post but I began to gain a lot of weight on it so cut back
down to 20mg. I'm now on 10mg (I tried to come off them altogether and a lot of my symptoms came right back so I back on them I go!) My weight
has come right back down since I lowered the dose so don't be afraid to experiment a little with the dosage and find what's right for you.
I became irritated with how many different medications I was taking daily and when I stopped the amitriptyline, I stopped everything else too.
I figured I'd stop it all and slowly take different things until I figured out what was actually helping me. (Basically once I gained the weight
I felt majorly depressed and had a bit of a tantrum, that's why I stopped everything
)This wasn't a good move, all my symptoms naturally came back, so I slowly reintroduced amitriptyline (10mg) and also decided to try
VSL3 Live bacteria probiotic - they need to be stored in the fridge from delivery but the box is small - I usually pour a sachet into a shot
glass with a little bit of orange cordial and knock it back in one, it doesn't taste too bad either!
I had a holiday to Florida coming up and I knew I had to get myself sorted and do it quickly! I took the recommended 3 week course of once
sachet of VSL3 every day and I had many days where I thought it wasn't making the slightest difference, but once the 3 weeks were up, I managed
to survive 2 weeks of non-stop holiday without a single flare up!
If I'm ever going anyhwere I know I need to be good and well for, or I feel my symptoms are creeping back in, I take about a week's worth of them and
then a couple here and there just to keep it topped up.
Around this time I also discovered Pepto-bismol and took the odd glug of this (straight from the bottle is best, ignore the stupid cap they give you!)
before and sometimes after meals. I have spoken to a doctor about taking Pepto for IBS and was told that they can't prescribe it because they can't
prove that it helps, but if it helps me then I should continue taking it as and when I need it. So now I always have a bottle with me, just in case!
I have also just discovered something new to the market called Silicol-gel, not going to lie, this stuff is pretty gross. It's entirely tasteless but looks
like wallpaper paste. The basic idea of it is to cling to and cover a large surface area of the gut and because of this, you can literally feel it 'grabbing'
at your tongue when you take it! I usually take the spoonful of it and immediately chase it down with a strong tasting drink to wash away the feeling.
I use this mainly when I know I'm going out for a large meal or I'm going to be having alcohol. I can't say if this truly works or not, as I've only used it
a couple of times so far, but the times I did use it, I was remarkably good the next day, so you never know!
I've been back and forth to hospital begging for different tests for a while now, I've finally had a colonoscopy (not gonna lie, it didn't feel great, but wasn't too bad)
it was actually after it that I had problems, I'm going to assume it was because for the test, you take a solution to completely empty your bowels, this likely
takes out any and all 'good bacteria' that you've been building up. I had terrible flare ups for the next few weeks but I got back on the VSL3 and it eventually
evened out again. I had a few blood and stool tests but they came back fine and unfortunately I've now been discharged from the hospital with the very convenient line "it's just symptom management at this point" apparently 'IBS' usually sorts itself out after a few years, which sucks but gives me a bit of hope!
When I think of the early days of how bad I was, compared to how I am today, I can safely say that my symptoms have greatly improved.
I think all of the medications I've written about in this whole post have played a part and I'd recommend you try them all and see what they could possibly
do for you. Let me know if you have any questions!
((I forogt to mention, I still always carry loperamide with me just in case of an unexpected flare up. I also take these preemptively before a night out
sometimes just to give myself peace of mind. Thankfully I don't have to rely on these as much anymore!))
-Emma-
