flare ups

[kay814]

what do you guys do when even a sip of water makes you cramp up and feel sick? i was able to eat cereal this morning and that's really it. i have been having like constipation/constipated diarrhea bc of hemorrhoids and meds (i also have lupus im on a shit ton) and i think today is the day that my body can't take it anymore. i go to the bathroom like every few min bc of cramps and can't even poop, although trying makes me temporarily feel better. my stomach is burning as well (have GERD also) and literally anything makes it worse. i'm at a loss. not eating makes me cramp up and nauseous, usually i eventually dry heave for a while. i've thought about maybe soylent? i have soup but it's canned and i think it will be too salty for me right now. i may try toast. the clock is ticking i need sustenance. i haven't been able to eat properly in weeks. i've gone down to probably the amount of food in one meal all day. maybe two in a good day.

but yeah i'm at my wits end. i recently cut back on meat a bit and i dont eat anything outrageously unhealthy. i don't eat processed shit mostly (maybe deli meat sometimes). i know it's not gluten. i have tried various things and no fix is ever permanent. i took laxatives just for some temporary relief bc it hurts a lot.

[Bijourose]

Look up low FODMAPS foods which are very low in producing gas and are gentle to the stomach. Dr Sue Shepherd's is the best site. It will hive your innards a rest.

Good luck.

[Iesgobdafydd]

Unless you're unlucky enough to be intolerant of rice, plain boiled white rice is supposed to be one of the easiest things there is to digest. I've never been unfortunate enough to have trouble taking water (except when I had winter vomiting virus and couldn't stop throwing up whether or not I drank anything). But I do know what you mean about needing to eat, I tried fasting once since I had IBS and only drinking not eating, and it was ok for a day or two but then I started getting bad pains in my stomach which cleared up pretty quickly when I nibbled some food. I'd suggest trying the rice - it can be Basmati to taste a bit more interesting, make sure it's thoroughly cooked till soft or even a bit overcooked for maximum digestibility. It's not going to help with your constipation though, it's very low fibre; you need some other way of dealing with the constipation. It sounds like you've got laxatives that can help with that, I'm no expert on constipation but it sounds like you're at the point where you need that kind of relief so I'd have said just do what you need to, you can figure out a longer term solution when you're not in a crisis. I've found mixing milled linseed with white rice - taking a total of 1-2T a day of the linseed - stopped me getting constipated on a diet that contained very little other fibre when I experimented with it. It wasn't quite as good as eating fibrous food, in terms of keeping my poo soft, but it kept things moving.

If you can manage eating just rice or just rice and linseed for a couple of days and feel somewhat better, you're in a good position to try reintroducing other foods one at a time, ideally spaced a couple days apart, and work out what your system can tolerate. Obviously you want to try and work back to a balanced diet as quickly as possible too though. A multivitamin can help there but it's also food so in principle you could react to something in it if you have a food allergy. It can be very difficult to work out what foods are disagreeing with you when your digestion's upset all the time and it doesn't seem to improve whatever you do! I found it much easier to figure out what was making my symptoms worse by cutting out a lot of foods and then reintroducing them rather than by keeping a food diary. Good luck, I hope you figure out something soon that helps.

[Hidden]

Hi Kay, I know this is a silly question but have you been diagnosed with IBS, if so, have you had any tests i.e. bloods/Colonoscopy/Endoscopy etc? In relation to constipation I take a good dessertspoon of organic (I would rather go organic if and when possible) linseeds in approximately a 3rd of a mug of water and leave them soaking for around 1/2 an hour to an hour. This works a treat for me and is very gentle on the tummy. I also suffer with nausea, which I think may be Lactose with me so I am removing Lactose from my diet at the moment, and for the nausea I take a travel sick tablet, the ones I use are Stugeron. I find that travel sick tablets work really well for me.

Have you been to the doctor about your diet? If not, I would go to the doctor and ask to be referred to a dietician as you can't go on like this you poor thing, I really feel for you. Also, have you thought about the FODMAP diet at all?

I hope that you find foods that you can eat.

Very best of luck

Alicia

[kay814]

sorry about the delay. today i finally feel sort of ok. yeah i have been diagnosed w IBS and GERD for almost three years i think. i had an endoscopy when i first got diagnosed but haven't had any tests since. my GI seems to be really respected in my area and i trust him completely. he has tried to give me bentyl but it doesn't help or makes it worse. that ibs-d medicine (iforget the name it's on tv a lot) isn't covered by my insurance.. i have sucralfate for the burning.. when i have more money i will buy linseed and perhaps try low fodmap again. i was thinking of being mostly vegetarian before this. meat doesn't make me sick and dairy is like a risk but it's not too bad. i don't eat dairy except ice cream or pizza sometimes. i have tried low fodmap diet before but i'm wondering maybe if i did it wrong so i'm gonna research and talk to the dr and try again probably. i'm supposed to go for a ct scan of my abdomen to see more of what's going on in there but once again money is tight so i have to wait. i only got my lupus diagnosis a month ago and i think the medications are definitely exacerbating my IBS, not to mention so much emotional stress. the GI and rheumatologist i'll feel better if i get anxiety under control and i've been trying for a longtime it feels impossible without giving into benzos. thank you for your advice guys ☺️