I had a bowl infection when I was 19. This has left me with issues since then, I’m now 41. I’ve had lower abdominal pain and back pain on and off for 6 years. About 16 months ago I got diagnosed with IBS. I’ve had blood tests for PSA reading, physical exam of prostate, blood, stool and urine samples taken and an ultra sound of my bladder and kidneys. I have not really been given any advise on pain relief other than take bus span which does seem to ease symptoms. Just concerned it could be something else but I guess if it was more serious after 6 years it would have developed more.....
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If you are still getting pain, then you must tell your GI team of GP. Please remember, pain is like an alarm, it is saying something is not right here, I need help, and once you have got the right help the alarm needs to be reset (turned off).
Sometimes you can get pain without there be anything 'wrong' in your body. I have suffered with IBS for more than 20 years starting with food poisoning whilst on holiday. This has recently become night time intestinal pain which I feel as a pain from my mid to lower back starting between 2am and 5am. This is when the large intestine wakes up to process stool ready for the morning. I have previously had GERD (acid reflux) and the GP kept telling me this pain was acid reflux, but if it was I'd feel the pain between my shoulder blades and not lower down in my back. After having an extremely painful colonoscopy and CT virtual colonoscopy (where they fill your intestines up with gas), I was diagnosed with a long, loopy (redundant) colon and severe visceral hypersensitivity (intestinal nerve pain). This is where the brain interprets normal activity of the bowel as pain. This means that when your intestines are stretched with the passage of stool or gases, the nerves in your intestines send off alarm bells when there is nothing wrong. The brain should recognise this as normal activity and shut what they call the 'pain control gate'. This is why diet can help until the pain is under control i.e. less gas forming foods (fodmap diet via NHS dietician referral). This is due to a reduction in pain control neurons in the brain, which are the ones that control this 'pain gate', so it is actually a nervous system/brain disorder linked to IBS. This reduction can be due to trauma, PTSD, extreme stress over time, infections, neglect or abuse in childhood. The first line treatment is low dose amytriptyline (an anti-depressant), this has nerve pain relief properties at low doses and over a 6-12 month period may help the pain control neurons to regenerate. When a gastroenterlogist recommended this years ago, I thought I was being fobbed off and being told I was depressed, so it wasn't explained very well, since the low dose is not for depression. Unfortunately I couldn't tolerate this or gabapentin which is also a nerve pain agent. I am now trialing Linaclotide for IBS-C and intestinal pain which acts locally in the gut. I understand enteric coated peppermint oil may also have similar properties. It depends on what your specific symptoms are, so you need to see your GP and possibly get a gastroenterlogist referral. There is more information on functional abdominal pain here: iffgd.org/lower-gi-disorder.... However, its best not to do your own diagnosis and get more support from the NHS until you are happy with the diagnosis and its management.
1. Get back to GP if there is a significant change in symptoms. Better to be safe than sorry. I attended a gut health event with a speaker who is a GP who practices and works with Channel 4 on their Health orientated TV shows. Her amazing advice was to ask reception which GP in the practice is most interested in gut health. Those people do know and can steer you to the right GP. Not all of them know much about IBS
2. Have a look at the fodmap diet. It's not easy but it does work. You really need to find a fodmap trained dietitian to help you on that. Apparently 70% of sufferers benefit greatly. And I can vouch for it as I am one of them!
The fodmap diet can be a huge help with IBS. There are some good Apps that you can download to get you started. The Monash App will help you learn the good groups. The Tummi Fodmap App is the one I cannot live without. It's a smart food diary for IBS that helps steer you through all the stages of the diet.
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