I am new here and hoping for some help. Have had stomach issues for a number of years but in the last 3 years it has got a lot worse. Pain under ribs mainly left side, pain in chest and sometimes moves to upper back. Lots of burping especially after eating or drinking and some acid. Loose stools in the morning sometimes diarrhoea.
Have had gastroscopy, CT, ultra sound, Barium Swallow and SIBO breathe test, all came back clear. Consultant looks at me like I am making it up but the pain can be dreadful with peaks and troughs but alway present.
Could it be IBS? Anyone else experience similar symptoms?
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Old-Owl
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Your symptoms all sound like ones that can come with IBS, but you need to go through the whole process with your doctors to get a proper IBS diagnosis, to rule out anything more serious that they can test for and that can cause similar symptoms. IBS is not a very helpful diagnosis anyhow, it's just a vague catch-all category for anyone with some combination of a wide set of symptoms who's had all the tests to rule out other things. It doesn't mean they actually understand what's causing your problems. So I hope you give that consultant a nice glare back on all our behalf (I joke, but seriously, if they're really looking at you like that they're being unprofessional, they're supposed to believe what we tell them about our symptoms. I've been so unimpressed with the consultants I've seen as well, it's depressing if you can't laugh about it.)
There seem to be a number of different underlying issues that can cause IBS. If you get an IBS diagnosis you will probably be sent to a dietitian and advised to try a low-FODMAP diet, because that has a fairly good success rate, and to try and figure out what foods are setting off your IBS (if what you're eating is contributing to the problem, which it might not be.) You might already be aware of foods that make your symptoms worse, or you might not. Another thing that might make them worse is stress, which is another common cause of IBS.
Sometimes IBS can be set off by an imbalance in the gut microflora, which might be caused by antibiotics or a virus, or by stress or generally not living/eating/drinking healthily, or SIBO as you mentioned. Mine seemed to have been caused by connective tissue problems which must have been resulting in pressure/distortion on my digestive system. I think it's important to understand what is causing your IBS in order to have the best chance of treating it appropriately. If you look around at old questions and answers on this forum, you'll find lots of helpful information. xjrs on this forum has a set of helpful tips you can ask for, I also bookmarked this post healthunlocked.com/theibsne... as seeming knowledgeable and helpful.
Hi thanks so much for you detailed reply I really appreciate you taking the time. I have tried various diets over recent years including low foodmaps and have concluded that the cause is not what I eat but maybe the process of eating. I start the day in better shape that I finish the day. It’s like my system can no longer deal with the food going down. Thanks for the link.
That sounds similar to how I was, there were certainly foods that were harder for me to digest than others but no diet I could find would completely clear up my symptoms, and yet they also didn't seem to respond (in the short term at least) to my stress levels. I thought that's how I was going to be for the rest of my life, but now my digestion's back to normal, so I hope you can get there too.
My connective tissue condition is not resolved, and I still haven't had a doctor confirm it's a connective tissue issue, so I could be wrong, but it's what I think. Someone mentioned TMJD (temporomandibular joint disorder) on this forum once, and I looked it up online, and as soon as I read the description it clicked for me that TMJD fit my current symptoms and medical history in a way that the IBS diagnosis had never done. Typically TMJD affects the jaw area, sometimes also shoulders, but what I have affects me all over, right down to my toes.
My IBS resolved itself, over the course of months, after a course of Atrantil and with the self-directed physiotherapy I was doing (and am continuing to do) to try to untangle the mess I can feel my connective tissue is in. I think it's quite likely the latter that fixed it, but I can't be sure the Atrantil didn't help, since it did seem to help a modest amount after I took it for a few weeks.
New here and going through this process myself now, though I've had gastro issues for as long as I can remember. The 'ruling out anything more serious' thing worries me as I think that classifying something that has a daily impact on your life as just 'less serious' results in attitudes like the OP just experienced (physicians thinking you are making it up) or a lack of treatment because all they have identified with the testing is what it isn't.
I also get pain under my ribs and a lot of belching, especially in the morning or after I eat and constant build up of gas in my oesophagus as well as my bowels. I sometimes get reflux too, sometimes just liquid but at other times can be very acidic. I used to get really bad trapped wind, making my whole abdomen very bloated and hard and it was very painful. This eased up quite a bit after the belching and reflux started, and I can't help thinking they are maybe connected, that there was so much pressure on the valve that it just kind of got weaker over time and a positive consequence of that was the gas being released, with a side effect of reflux.
You're right, it wasn't the best choice of words. As I understand it they're looking to rule out life-threatening conditions but I could be wrong, I haven't paid that much attention to what they're trying to test for. IBS is very life-changing and serious. As far as I'm aware it doesn't usually kill people.
Your theory about the belching and reflux makes intuitive sense to me, though my knowledge of biology is very rudimentary. I have a hiatus hernia and my (possibly incorrect) understanding is they are caused by part of the stomach wall bubbling out past the muscles that are supposed to hold it in, so it would make sense if that could be caused by excessive gas building. They're also supposed to be associated with reflux - my gastro consultant thought I should be permanently on omeprazole because of my hiatus hernia, but as far as I can tell I only rarely experience reflux so it didn't make sense to me to drug myself constantly to reduce my stomach acidity, and when I tried omeprazole for a few weeks it made no noticeable difference to my symptoms.
I hope you are able to find some solutions that help you.
Just wandering if they confirmed if you also have acid reflux instead and were on non-acidic food diet? A lot of acid reflux sufferers have burping, gas, chest pain and pain below ribs. I was on another thread (reddit) and a lot of people there seem to have reflux and IBS. I think I have both though I am waiting to get a couple of test done.
Hi yes I have previously been diagnosed with reflux/GORD and have previously been on PPI but came of them as they weren’t helping. I think that IBS and reflux go hand in hand. Find it difficult to accept IBS diagnosis and there is no test for it so it’s not very conclusive. I guess I am not alone in this. Thanks for your reply.
Yes, I do think that IBS/Gerd/SIBO seem to be somewhat related. Check out reddit too, under r/GERD, r/SIBO, r/IBS... there is a lot of info there too and you will notice a lot of people are struggling with the above and they also suggest what has worked/not worked out for them.
I have reflux as well, though I've not had any testing to identify the cause of the reflux. I suspect that the reason antacids and proton-pump inhibitors don't always help is that this only reduces the acidity of what is coming back up - it doesn't stop liquid and gas coming back up. Old-Owl like you I am also finding it difficult to accept IBS as a diagnosis because I don't think it is one - it is just recognition that you have gastro symptoms and that certain other things (like cancer and inflamatory bowel disease) have been ruled out by testing. There are a lot of other things that can cause chronic gastro symptoms where the biological cause is known or at least the mechanisms causing the symptoms are much better understood. On my list of possibles is: connective tissue disorders (I have some joint and skin issues that make this a possibility and they can affect the gastrointestinal system as well, especially reflux and delayed gastric emptying), gastrointestinal endometriosis (I've always had bad period cramps that make me faint or vomit if I don't take painkillers, but I'm not sure about the periodicity as I can have a gastro flare-up inbetween my periods as well) and gastrointestinal epilepsy (I zone out and also sometimes have a wierd pulse in my abdomen which can twitch for hours, if it happens at night I get no sleep). I've already had a SIBO test but that was negative, due to have a lactose intolerance test shortly. I'm finding that I have to push for further investigations as otherwise I would just be left with a diagnosis of IBS and nothing to go on in terms of biological causes of my symptoms.
Hi 👋 you have my sympathy as you sound pretty much in the same position I am.I am 52 and have suffered for over 20 years with bowel and stomach issues. I have had colonoscopy,3 endoscopy’s,a barium test and a capsule endoscopy all of which came back negative.Yet I suffer with so much pain pretty much on a daily basis although some days are better than others.I have days where I am going to the toilet up to 6 times within a few hours with really bad griping pain. I get a lot of trapped wind pain usually in my left side.Then this past few years I have started having a horrible burning pain under my left rib that reaches up my chest into my neck. I suspect that is acid reflux but am unsure as it all feels connected somehow. I am on buscopan 3 times a day and esomeprazope once a day for the acid.The consultant at the hospital just puts all my pain and symptoms down to ibs!So atm I’m just plodding on trying to cope with it all and not let it get me down.Sometimes if I’m having a really rough few days I’m tempted to go back to my gp but then I think what’s the point as they can’t really test for anything else.Hope it helps to know you’re not on your own in your suffering.Sometimes it’s just reassuring to read some of these threads.Hope you feel better soon 😊
Hi Julie, thanks for your reply. It really does give some comfort in a strange way to know my symptoms are not mine alone. I am going back to consultant next week but like you say after so many tests I am really not sure what else they can do. Think I might have another go with Foodmaps as a lot of what I read says it should help. Just so frustrating and uncomfortable most of the time. After 3 + years I am starting to accept it and trying to learn to live with it but won’t give up looking for an answer. Take care.
Old-Owl, maybe thiamine has something to do with your stomach issues. Do a search on "IBS thiamine". Thiamine needs magnesium to become bioactive.
This link offers a good visual of the brain gut axis. The sphincter muscles are also connected to the vagus nerve. Be aware of the anti thiamine factors that diminish thiamine. I hope a study of this information will help you.
S2017, you will get a big return on time invested. These links provide info on causes of loss of magnesium and thiamine. The B vitamins work better together so spend time on each of their roles. The fat soluble thiamine forms offer benefits worth checking out. In addition to IBS look into thiamine's importance to the brain.
I am going to go through the other 2 articles as well and compare this to some scientific studies done. I'm am so so thankful for this! I find that we are always treating symptoms rather than the source of the problem though I do acknowledge that it is not so simple and as straight-forward but any improvement is better than none. Please don't stop posting if any new information comes up.. it helps more people than you know.
Hi,I'm going for an H Pylori blood test next week, because my burping problem, had it for years, I don't have reflux though.
I went to Docs to chat about my ibsc and mentioned this burping (well it's more a consistent grumbling) that can go on for a while. I often wonder if I suffer aerophagia and swallow too much air when eating and drinking!?
My other problem is right side tenderness, but then the rest of me is blocked up. I've had loads of tests and procedures done.... I'll let you know results if H Pylori test.
Hi thanks for your reply. It sounds like it could be linked to Hpylori. I have had a endoscopy and they ruled out Hpylori for me but I hope you get a result so that you can do something about it, good luck.
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