I have a pinched nerve and I'm pretty sure it is causing my ibs. Lower right pelvic area. Sudden onset of diahreea three months ago.

[Gypsyontherun]

Proctitis was the diagnosis. Trying asacol.any one else have this thought about the pinched nerve? I have herniated discs. And a numb right leg.

[Hidden]

Hi,

I have a pinched femoral nerve (between L1 & L2) which causes intense pain down the front of my right thigh and into my kneecap. I'm having surgery for this at the end of Feb and have been told by my consultant that, not only should the op cure the leg pain, but it will most likely get rid of my bowel malfunction as well. I was originally diagnosed with IBS-D but was eventually found to have Bile Acid Diarrhoea (BAD) instead - it causes exactly the same symptoms as IBS-D but is treatable with colestyramine.

Any chance of you getting surgery on your spine?

[Gypsyontherun in reply to Hidden]

I try to avoid the surgery. The dr. Seems to believe its not a pinched nerve. I also have chronic leukemia so I try to avoid surgery. I diagnosed my self with the trapped nerve. But the BAD sounds interesting I never heard of that one! I have the ache in my lower right pelvis. Not really a pain but, the ache gets bad at times. The leg is just numb with some buttock pain at times. Thanks so much for your reply and beast of luck with you surgery!

[Hidden in reply to Gypsyontherun]

Point taken about avoiding surgery as you have leukaemia. However, after developing the pinched nerve (eventually diagnosed after 2 MRIs), a very good chiropracter managed to keep me out of trouble for quite a long time. Also, after getting a referral to an orthopaedic surgeon, I had a steroid injection into my spine which helped a lot. Surgery is only done when everything else fails. Might be worth seeing a chiro and an orthopaedics' consultant.

BAD is diagnosed by a SeHCAT test which is done at most general hospitals or a trial-by-treatment of colestyramine. Your GP may not know about it - not many of them do, but worth pushing for.

I wish you well, have a good Christmas, I hope 2014 will be a better year for you.

Roz

[Ibsr in reply to Hidden]

Wow Roz sorry to hear that and best of luck with it all. Will be interesting to see if the BAD gets sorted too!

[Gypsyontherun in reply to Hidden]

How can they tell if it's femoral or a pinched nerve from the spine?

[Hidden in reply to Gypsyontherun]

The femoral nerve does emerge from the spine in the lumbar region. Usually by looking at a spinal MRI and seeing what the discs are up to, an ortho consultant can deduce which nerve is causing the problem.

[Ibsr]

I have a trapped nerve at c6/7 and had acupuncture on it. Was the best thing ever! So glad I didn't have the steroids or an op.

Worth looking into acupuncture if you can find someone that does cupping and electro acupuncture that would be a bonus

[Hidden in reply to Ibsr]

Yes, can't wait to see if this surgery works on both counts. I thought it was a joke at first about organ probs being caused by spinal trauma, but apparently, the brain can't send messages to the appropriate nerve centre properly if that nerve is pinched. If L1 - L2 are in trouble, it can result in all manner of seemingly unrelated digestive/bowel/bladder probs.

My chiro did a lot of acupuncture for me, and although it was great for relieving pain, it couldn't, of course, cure the cause hence the surgery.

This all makes me wonder whether everybody with IBS etc should get a spinal MRI to see if the root cause lies there...

[Ibsr in reply to Hidden]

Totally agree they should do more tests on the spine/IBS link. My neck prob kicked off around the same time my fructose malabsorption started...though I haven't found any link with the upper spine to IBS...yet!

The acupuncture that chiros do is superficial compared to a proper fully trained acupuncturist...worth bearing in mind if you try again for anything. Best to find someone on the BAcC (British Acupuncture Council) website.

[Hidden in reply to Ibsr]

Sorry, should have said that I did actually see a properly qualified, registered acupuncturist at my chiro's clinic. Acupuncture undoubtedly killed the pain for a while, but as the root cause is mechanical (disc collapsing onto a nerve), it just masked the problem.

My chiro did tell me that people don't always realise they've got a problem with their spine as they don't suffer any pain directly in it and it's only when they turn up at his clinic with a pain in their foot/wrist/little finger/left knee etc that a spinal misalignment is sometimes detected.

Have also recently been told by my gastro that even though I've got BAD, I'm still classed as having IBS-D as nobody knows what causes BAD either ... sometimes I lose the will to live!

[Ibsr in reply to Hidden]

Oh that sounds like you've tried it all! Just made me realise my second toe in is painful...wonder if that links to my neck as a week later my neck started playing up....hmmm will investigate..thanks.

Lol...don't loose the will to live just because western med are behind...they will catch up...maybe not in our lifetime though

[Gypsyontherun in reply to Hidden]

I hear you Roz very dis heartening at times when you can't get the right help!