IBS C

[Amb194]

What are peoples advice for sleep? Dont think I've slept through the night in nearly 3 weeks as I keep waking up with stomach and back pain.

[xjrs]

Wow. These are the same symptoms as me and it took me some months to track down the cause. Have you been formally diagnosed with IBS i.e. have had all the blood tests done etc.? Have you been referred to a fodmap trained dietitian to take you through the fodmap diet? This was my first port of call and it helped with the pain for a while until it became chronic (even on the fodmap diet). I am not a doctor but it may be one of two things (but a GP or gastroenterlogist needs to provide a formal diagnosis). If you feel the pain in your back higher up between your shoulder blades or in the middle of the chest, this is potentially GERD (acid reflux). If you feel the pain from the middle to the lower part your back, this could be visceral hypersensitivity (intestinal nerve pain), which I have. For me the pain can start from between 2am and 5am. This is when the large intestine wakes up to prepare for a bowel movement in the morning. For me, the pain resolves on standing or propping myself up fully on pillows. The nerves in the intestine become hyper sensitive and send signals to the brain - instead of the brain thinking this is the normal operation of the bowel, it interprets this as pain. This is due to a loss of neurons in the pain control centres of the brain which can be caused by severe stress, PTSD, neglect or abuse in childhood. The first line treatment is nerve pain agents such as 10mg Amitriptiline - I couldn't tolerate these and I am now on Linaclotide for IBS-C and intestinal nerve pain, which is helping with the pain. I have also heard that enteric coated peppermint can help. A trip to the GP is probably required next. Good luck.

[Amb194 in reply to xjrs]

I've seen a gastroenterologist and been told I have IBS C, now on week 2 of linaclotide 290mg and have been going every morning to the toilet up until yesterday where I now have constant diarrhoea every hour. The gastroenterologist suggested a fodmap diet and talked me through it and I'm on week 3 of that now and only seem to be getting worse the pain various from middle to top of back and also noticed past 3 days I'm suffering from heart palpitations and a tight chest and going hot and feeling sick. But the back pain is awful, I sleep propped up as lying on my back is to painful and use a hot water bottle through out the night too.

I've been the docs about the pain and they said i need to give the linaclotide atleast 4 weeks before i see a difference but surely if I'm going the toilet I shouldn't be in so much pain still

[xjrs in reply to Amb194]

Sorry to hear you've been suffering so much. When I started linaclotide I was tied to the house for at least 2 weeks. It was increasing my motility substantially, meaning I needed to rush to the loo, but leaving my stools hard, so I was unable to pass them easily. I would then get overflow which looks like diarrhea but is actually liquid food creeping round the edges of impacted stool. However, yours sounds like actual diarrhea, which can be a side effect. I got over mine by pairing it with Magnesium Oxide to soften my stools, but it sounds like this isn't required in your case. The hyper motility of the drug did slow down substantially when my body got used to it - in fact to the point now where I am using it only for pain relief and not constipation. So hopefully the diarrhea will slow down for you as your body adjusts. The pain relieving effects don't kick in until 4-6 weeks and the maximum pain relief effect is around 10 weeks. However, pain from the middle to the top of the back can be GERD (acid reflux) for which they normally prescribe PPIs, but you could try something like Gaviscon when you get an attack if not tried this already and see if it helps? Are you on any other drugs at the moment? The palpitations are the odd thing (I got that when I was on 10mg amitriptiline). Though it would be good for you to discuss all of this with your GP. I would have thought that you could still get intestinal pain even though you have diarrhea since food is still passing through it (although the position of your pain doesn't sound like intestines).

[Amb194 in reply to xjrs]

Also to add to my reply, the back pain only started past few days so maybe another trip to the gp is needed but this time of year I'll be extremely luckily to even be seen now unfortunately

[xjrs in reply to Amb194]

It is possible you are getting some early side effects from the linaclotide which might settle. You've still got tomorrow and Friday for your GP - can you phone at 8.30am and get an emergency appointment? Good luck.

[Amb194 in reply to xjrs]

At work tomorrow but will try Friday! And last time I tried gaviscon I was sick haha so no luck there, also usually take ranitidine for indegestion but cant seem to get hold of it in my local shops.

Yeah I've never suffered this long before usually pains gone within 4 days . Just need to be patient I've even tried breathing exercises to keep calm as the pain gets me stressed. Just seems like doctors arent really sure about what to say regarding ibs whenever I go!

Thankyou for all your advice really appreciate it