Infectious IBS

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Hi

I found this forum so valuable when I went though 3 months of infectious IBS so writing about my experience in case anyone finds it helpful.

Got my first covid vaccine March 2021, 3 days after my first does I had severe diarrhoea and stomach cramps for one week. (Up multiple times during night etc)

Was fine for about one week and it all started again, bizarrely the diarrhoea was worse at night. Up at 2am, 4am, 6am etc couldn’t eat. Felt so unwell. No vomiting bizarrely just loose stools and cramping everytime I ate.

The doctor took a stool sample and did bloods.

Stool sample came back positive for campylobacter food poisoning.

He prescribed erythromycin antibiotics for 7 days.

Oh my god! They made me so sick I literally could feel them go down my stomach and vomited bile etc for 3 days but doctor said keep taking them for the full 7 days.

After 7 days I felt a bit better eating slightly more but still had loose stools. Thankfully the middle of the night episodes stopped. But had loose stools everytime I want to the toilet.

Took another stool sample and it came back clear that the campylobacter had gone.

I still felt sick, could not digest foods, loose stools etc. Doctor said to cut diary and go on a low fodmop diet.

Which I did but still had loose stools this went on for another 4 weeks. I lost 1.5 stone. Went from Uk size 10 to Uk size 8. I was so worried.

I paid to see a private gastro consultant he took bloods, more stool samples and booked me in for Colonospsy just to make sure everything was ok.

Bloods, stool sample and Colonoscopy came back clear.

Colonoscopy procedure was way less scary then I thought. I did it with gas and air and it was fine.

So basically after all this he said it was just a case of post infectious ibs that normally take about 3/4 months to clear.

Then bang on 3.5 months from my fists symptoms I returned to normal.

No loose stools, can eat all types of foods with no issues etc

So just writing this in case anyone was in the same position as me as I remember frantically going through forums to see if anyone had similar symptoms.

Below are some things I tried and noticed a difference when taking

Silicol gel before eating

Dissolvable fibre sachet once a day

Stomach massage ( I went to physio massage targeting digestive areas)

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Hi there thanks for posting this I’m sure it will help others in same situation glad you’re better now x😀