Advice Please

[NickyB82]

My gp thinks i am suffering with IBS although at first thought perhaps a stomach ulcer. For the last 3 weeks i have terrible stomach issues, which started with what i thought was a bug, cramps & constant trips to the loo- not diarrhoea mind. However this has never resolved.

My pain is central almost around my Naval area, i can only describe it as a nagging burning uncomfortable pain. I am constantly bloated- sometimes worse than others with back pain & a feeling of being full. No real diarrhoea although often a feeling as though i haven't emptied and the urge to constantly go. This pain often radiates to my pelvis. This is almost always exacerbated by eating.....

Please can you tell me where your pain is situated? And also would IBS be going on this long?

Nicky x

[Hidden]

So what is the GP doing? Get some action out of them before asking advice

[NickyB82]

Tom i am a nurse practitioner so have access to gps/action all day long. I am awaiting an endoscopy and the result of Hpylori stool test but i feel i am getting nowhere hence the experience of the IBS forum

N

[Hidden in reply to NickyB82]

OK, I misread your post and thought the GP had just said I think you have IBS and left it at that.

I have had IBS for 30+ years and the only conclusions I have come to is that no treatment suits everyone, IBS being individual seems to react differently per person and per treatment. I went to a dietician and for a while a change of diet helped but then it came back and I am now just resigned to living with it.

Medication is limited help and the best my GP can do is print off a factsheet, telling me what I was told 20 years ago which makes me think medical science is no further forward with IBS.

Until someone can point to a definitive cause and solution its all just trial and error, except that you have to give each new treatment a period of time to work.

[NickyB82 in reply to Hidden]

Thanks Tom, i think clinicians are very poorly educated on it

[Hidden in reply to NickyB82]

I think the poor education for some, stems from not being that interested. IBS is very much a trial and error issue and they just want you gone.

[patientj]

A lot of IBS pain is felt around the sigmoid colon (lower corner of your intestine on your left hand side for those without a medical background). Some people also experience pain in the rectum. However, we are all different so who knows where your pain may be felt the worst, especially with bloating.

[NickyB82 in reply to patientj]

Thank you, do you get bad bloating?

[patientj in reply to NickyB82]

At times, although my problem is more that I fart too much. I think if I hadn't lived by myself for most of the last few years I might bloat more and experience more pain. I've found the low FODMAP diet with some modifications to be helpful. I have blog where I record some of my experiences and sometimes post about the latest research I've read, although it's a bit untended to at the moment: patientj.wordpress.com/

[Rayofsun66]

Most of my pain in on the left side, upper quadrant. Lately it is dead center, where the liver would be situated. Now I had pain today through out my belly all day long. I took my extra Librex and a took a dramamine to alleviate the nausea. That helped enough to get me through work. I do take med's for GURD and when I was 30 (I am 49 now) I had hpylori (sp?) and stomach ulcers. I was very sick with that as well however at the same time that was going on I was also diagnosed with a very large ovarian tumor (non cancerous thankfully)

[Eleanor91]

Nicky, have you had a colonoscopy or a CT scan?