IBS Support

[docbop]

Hi all, apologies if this comes across a bit rambly but feeling a little stressed out by some bowel troubles.

I’m in my mid-twenties and was ‘diagnosed’ with IBS roughly 7 years ago - generally speaking I haven’t had much issue with it, even with a particularly bad student diet during my uni years. However, I’ve been battling heavy GERD type symptoms since last September - been cleared of anything sinister via endoscopy but sadly haven’t improved much despite being prescribed a variety of PPIs - and in the past couple of weeks in particular I’ve been struggling terribly with abdominal pain and bowel woes.

It began with a period of being constipated for a few days, either having diarrhoea or just generally going a lot for one day and then reverting back to constipation. Currently my bowel movements are regular again for me - although there’s a lot of hyperactivity and general gargling/gas - but what’s troubling me most at the moment is this kind of jarring pain in my lower left rib area that feels like it’s jutting up into my chest combined with more infrequent abdominal side/back pain. Chest pain in general is a massive anxiety trigger for me - I’ve been cleared via ECG for heart problems, dealt with costochondritis in the past and know it could be because of the reflux but it doesn’t get any easier when it’s constant like it’s been for the past few days. I’ve also been getting the odd pang in the right abdominal region but these are the most infrequent of them all and I’ve been cleared for gallstones via ultrasound.

I’m seeing a gastro specialist in a little over a week which will hopefully put me on the road to recovery - although I am a little anxious about being brushed off - but any pointers, advice or reassurance from people who have suffered similar problems would be much appreciated as I’ve been feeling overwhelmingly exhausted by it all this week and am tired of wasting days just because of the pain!