Stomach aches all day

[Ali3232]

I have never posted on one of these sites before but feel I really need some help.

I've had ibs-d since I was 14 (I'm now 21) but in the last three months have been experiencing loss of appetite and awful upper stomach aches, they aren't painful but just sicky and full which is horrible. My IBS has got really bad since this has all happened too.

I have had a gastroscopy, a scan and a stool test and everything has come back normal. This has lead to me being very depressed as I now feel there is no hope at all. Can anyone help on this? I just want to go back to the way I was 3 months ago.

[Hidden]

Big sympathies to you. It if horrible to be constantly in discomfort. At least your results are normal - so nothing terrible happening. But the Dr needs to find something to help you. Could you go back and ask for some more help?

It can make you feel really down when you are constantly in discomfort - try to keep positive and go back to the dr. If you are brave enough tell them that it is affecting your life and you need some help.

Good luck

[jenishpatel87]

I can understand your situation. If you reports are normal, nothing to worry. And in either case worrying is not going to help. You need to take a right action and for that mind needs to be clear. I understand mind gets stressed in such situations, especially dealing with all these gut related issues, like IBS becoz brain is directly connected to guts. I have IBS since last 2.5 years and recently few weeks back I had a bad attack of abdominal pain at nights. And I am dealing with it very positively. You can go through my story, you may find something useful: healthunlocked.com/theibsne...

I believe at least we can do something about our stress, so that it gives us more positivity in life. Try some breathing exercises as it helps to reduce the stress. I follow SKY breathing for my stress management. artofliving.org/us-en/resea...

If you are having a gas in stomach, then try some fennel powder after every meal as it helps to relieve the gas and acid reflux.

Hope it helps!

[Ali3232 in reply to jenishpatel87]

Thank you for the support

[Carrollar]

I know how you feel, it can be pretty frustrating to be told everything is normal can't it? It's like 'nope nothing wrong with you, you're on your own!'. I think people just need a bit of help realising that having attacks of diarrhoea is super awkward for daily life. People don't like talking about diarrhoea either, probably because they associate it with the few times they've had it through illness. They don't realise that some of us are dealing with it almost every day and it's painful and burning and relentless at times.

You have every right to feel depressed about it too, it sucks! Trouble is that then you enter into a cycle of worrying and wanting it to end, and then the worry contributes to your symptoms.

I am on antidepressants (venlafaxine) having tried many others that actually made my symptoms worse, and these ones really help me. I'm not saying you should go on them but for me they have made my life liveable, and helped a load with my fatigue levels which were really more of a problem than my IBS (and yeah I found it all pretty depressing too).

There are so many different factors but you have to work out what helps you as an individual. How many people have told me to eat more fibre when insoluble fibre is my number one trigger I do not know, but lots of research and I have found that actually soluble fibre foods help me a lot. I've found oats are bad for me (I swear every person I mention this to tells me to eat oats) mainly because they make my stomach just hurt, I think they make it overproduce acid or something because it gives me reflux too. Pretty annoying as I like them and they are a good food source for other people with IBS.

I have found that beef is a bit of a trigger for me but is ok sometimes as long as not too fatty. Rice isn't safe for me really either, potato seems to be hit and miss. Chewing gum equals a ticking time bomb to diarrhoea time. Peppermint tea is the same but ginger tea is great and I drink it every day. Coffee is ok in moderation but normal tea is again diarrhoea time. Bread seems to be mostly OK despite everyone telling me that gluten is bad (and I do find it makes me more sensitive to other foods if eaten every day) especially sourdough bread is good.

Last night I had falafel and rice with quinoa and a few bits of cucumber.... healthy for most but not for me, I was on the toilet so much I haven't dared eat today and it's past lunchtime here.

You know what the one food that seems to be safe for me is? Tortilla chips! I mean, how ridiculous. I try to buy all of this healthy balanced stuff and my body says 'nah, just eat chilli heatwave doritos' seriously, it doesn't even matter what flavouring is on them. It's absurd.

The point of my ramble is that if you've read articles telling you what is safe and not safe for you to eat, you just have to experiment and see what happens. I must say that the majority of the time I can eat most foods in moderation and it is fine, but right now I'm off sick from work with a severe flare up so I'm just biding my time til I feel safe to go to the supermaket and stock up on doritos. Sigh.

Once you can work out some go-to safe foods and get yourself a plan, I think you will start to feel better and less stressed. It sucks having IBS but you get used to it really.

I try to be thankful that I don't have anything more serious, once you find the foods that are ok you will find there is a fair bit of variety really, and you'll probably be able to eat your other less safe favourites once your body is on an even keel and feeling less sensitive

[Ali3232 in reply to Carrollar]

Thanks for the reply it really helps that other people are in the same situation, but at the moment it's not the IBS that is annoying me so much it's the constant upper stomach ache that I just can't get rid of, I've had IBS for so many years and never experienced this before.

[Ali3232]

I really appreciate your comments and taking the time to write this for me!