This is my first time posting on here I normally just try and read the advice on other peoples posts to try and help my IBS symptoms however I seem to be spiralling out of control with them and I'm not sure what else to do/ try anymore. I'm hoping any of you might have been through something similar and be able to help. Please feel free to skip to the last three paragraphs if you don't want to read the context behind my query.
For a bit of context I'm 22 years old and have struggled with IBS since the age of around 13 which has progressively got worse as I've got older. Only in the past 2 years have I been trying to get a proper diagnoses/ some help from the doctors due to how bad it's gotten recently. I went through the basic tests bloods, ultrasounds, stool samples etc all of which came back normal. They then booked my in for a colonoscopy which I did the prep for (which was awful) and went to the procedure only to find it too painful to carry out. In short they stopped the procedure and told me I'd have to be put under GA to do it again due to the pain I was experiencing. I'm currently on a waitlist to get booked in for another colonoscopy with GA.
Before I had the 'failed' colonoscopy my IBS was bad but very much manageable with over the counter medications and from watching my diet. However after the 'failed' colonoscopy my IBS has taken a drastic turn which I believe to be because of the 'prep' for the colonoscopy ie the laxatives. I feel as though the laxatives taken for the prep may have aggravated the problem with my stomach more/ made my IBS worse however this is just my theory.
At present I'm currently experiencing a mix of IBS-C and IBS-D, by which I mean I will have a flare up and be in excruciating pain for between 2 - 3 hours on the toilet with at first loose stools that are hard to pass for the first 40 mins or so and then diarrhoea with gnawing pains running through my lower abdomen and mainly the left lower side of my abdomen the whole time, this is until it eventually calms down from waring off itself or from over the counter medication. Then I will experience IBS-C straight after for the next 4-6 days where I won't go to the toilet at all, my stomach may bubble and move and feel as though I need to go but I won't be able to. This cycle just carries on going round and round from IBS-C to a flare up with IBS-D one after the other. I am currently trying probiotics to see if that helps, but haven't noticed a difference yet. I eat very simple foods/ simple diet at the moment as anything too seasoned or with too much sugar etc seems to be too much for my stomach to handle and causes flare ups. Examples of my diet includes loads of peppermint tea ( which is really good at calming my stomach most of the time) porridge, unripe bananas, and something simple for dinner like a piece of chicken/ other unseasoned meat or fish on its own sometimes with potatoes if I'm more hungry.
I have become virtually housebound due to this as it's made my anxiety around my IBS so much worse than it ever was. I struggle to do day to day things like food shops and errands which I'm slowly working towards getting my confidence back in, but every time I leave the house even if its just a few steps away from my front door it's like I feel my stomach physically 'drop' as if I suddenly need the toilet to which I will rush back home to get to the toilet for fear of soiling myself, and as soon as I'm back in the house my stomach settles again as If I didn't need to go. I know this will mostly be a mental/ anxiety thing as it only happens when I leave the house but when I do manage to get out for an hour or so that 'dropped' feeling of my stomach is constantly there with me with whatever I'm doing which is really unnerving as it will be all I'm thinking about as well. "what if my stomach flares up while I'm out?", "What if I don't make it back to the house in time?", "What if I don't make it to a toilet in time?" "What if I soil myself infront of everyone?" as you can see this is mostly anxiety in my head which I have attempted to try and take anti depressants for - hated the side effects so couldn't carry on with them so have resulted in trying to fix this part of the issue mentally through therapy, medication and exposing myself to the things and situations I deem unsafe - the last part of this 'exposing' is proving to be the most difficult due to my thoughts and anxiety, but is also the most rewarding when accomplished.
I'm not sure what to do to get my stomach back to a 'normal' state with regular bowel movements as that is my main priority right now. Any advise at all would be greatly appreciated as I feel completely lost and just want a sense of normality back in my life and to feel like myself again. Really grateful to have stumbled across this community as well, it helps in so many ways to not feel as alone.
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Summerlovin1
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Your post interests me as I have alternating periods of constipation and a much softer bowel movement to follow, so perhaps our symptoms may be a little similar. I can have 3 to 4 days of constipation, feeling uncomfortable in my tummy, with occasional pain there too. I have tried Pico liquid to clear the backlog with some success. And in desperation a couple of times I took castor oil which left me exhausted but it cleared the blockage very well. Quite often I use a couple of suppositories, and they work for me .
Sometimes my bowel movements appear just fine. And for perhaps a few days I can relax more.
Then, I find I am back to my looser bowel movements. Toilet visits several times during the day, and not trusting my bowels to allow me out of the house. And I have had a few accidents too. That’s when protective incontinence wear comes in handy for me - adult nappies and waterproof pants. Sometimes even during the day, as I cannot always make it to the toilet in time.
I forgot to mention in my first post, I do have Mebeverine tablets - sometimes I forget to take them.
I am sorry to read of your anxiety - I have experienced that too at times, and I have found it quite overwhelming and distressing on occasions.
Being on this site, it is so good to read of the experiences of others - always an opportunity for further learning. I wish you the very best with your IBS.
Thankyou for sharing, it’s nice to know that you’re experiencing something similar to me.
I have also tried similar tablets to mebervine called alverine also an antipasmodic I find it helps sometimes but not as much as I’d like.
I might give the caster oil and suppositories a go and see if I have any luck with those. Thankyou so much for that tip. It’s just awful having to practically induce your own IBS flare up because your experiencing constipation it feels contradictory almost 😅
I also wear incontinence pants / adult nappies from time to time mostly through the night when I’ve had a flare up. I like the reassurance they bring however wearing them throughout the day on bad days feels more like a burden in all honesty.
It’s very reassuring to know other people are in the same boat as me as it makes me feel less alone and less embarrassed as I realise more and more how common this is.
Thankyou for reaching out and responding, I wish you the best in your own journey and hope we both find solutions to our struggles
Well I am delighted to receive your message - thank you.
I think there is a private messaging facility on this site but I have not explored it yet.
I'll be very interested if there is such a possibility.
Regarding your message, I find the glycerin suppositories work very well for me. I use two or occasionally three, and they certainly get things moving. I moisten them a little at first to make insertion more comfortable. At such a time, i need to either be very close to my toilet, or to be in my nappy and rubbers.
The castor oil - may I gently caution that the taste is beyond vile - its oil !! When I have used it, I would mix it with a fruit juice or a tomato juice to help get it swallowed.
Thankyou for your additional tips I have made a note of these and will definitely be trying these out.
Thankyou for letting me know about the private chat feature, I did not know this was available, please feel free to message me on there if you do want to have a chat at anytime. 🙂
So sorry to hear of your issues. I'm probably repeating what others may say, but here goes: Do wear your protective pants when going out. Do try 2 glycerol suppositories daily - stay near loo til work. Do not regular fibre laxatives - I stopped doing that after researching (books and talking to consultants) BUT that approach doesn't work for everyone - whatever suits you best. Above all, do push to see a colorectal surgeon ASAP.lBest wishes.
Thankyou for your advice a few people have recommended the suppositories and have had success with those so definitely think I'll be looking into those more. Thanks again, all the best 🙂
Hello Summerlovin1, I am reading your message again - and it occurs to me you are very perceptive about IBS - I agree with you how taking a laxative or using suppositories as I do, for constipation, can be like another flare up . I am thinking particularly of the cramping and of the seemingly never-ending loose bowel motions, and the exhaustion of it all. You put it very well.
I am currently waiting to be contacted by CBT3 therapists as I was previously undergoing CBT2 online over zoom, however it was decided that I needed the next one up due to my condition etc. I have also tried hypnotherapy which I find very beneficial for more than just IBS, however my hypnotherapist lives a 45 minute drive away from me and with me finding it difficult to leave the house at present I haven't been able to go for a session. I'm gaining my confidence back gradually with leaving the house again; slowly but surely I will be able to go for another session again.
The hypnotherapy tapes is a good idea, I will defiantly look into that as I'm sure it would be beneficial for me to listen to them in the meantime. Thankyou for your response.
It sounds like you may be suffering from predominantly constipation with overflow diarrhoea. This is where liquid food gets backed up behind impacted stool and then seeps around it, which will cause the urgency. In fact, when I had this, this seepage could occur at any time and I was tied to the house.
The way to get out of this is to increase fibre, very slowly. Some people mentioned softening suppositories, though I don't have experience of them.
Here is my advice on constipation, in case of any use:
To improve constipation in the short term you can try ground flaxseed on your breakfast, starting at 1 teaspoon and increasing at 1 teaspoon every 2-3 days - you'll need to consume extra water with it.
These foods are also high fibre:
8-9 Prunes
2 tablespoon chia seeds (soaked for 10-15 mins in milk or non dairy milk with cereal or water)
Shredded wheat (or if GF: Nutribrex)
60g Quinoa
Wholewheat bread
75g Whole grain pastas (if GF: Buckwheat)
2 Hard pears
5 Dried apricots
90g Raspberries
1 orange (contain a natural laxative)
2 kiwi.
I find that I need to have 1 orange or 2 kiwi a day and then another high fibre fruit later in the day to help with BMs. Introduce new foods and any fibre increases slowly, starting with one new thing at a time, waiting for 2-3 days for a response and keep a food diary. You may not need to consume as much fibre as I do.
For breakfast I make a porridge of 4 tablespoon of oat bran and 4 tablespoon all bran (wheat bran), 2.5 small cups of water and microwave for 10 mins. I then mix in 2 tablespoon of chia seeds and 1 tablespoon ground flaxseed and leave to stand for 15-20 mins since the chia seeds need to form a gel. On top of that I place 8 prunes and eat. The best thing to do is to start with normal oats in similar quantities and, if needed, replace one of the tablespoons of oats with oat bran for a couple of days, carrying on doing this every couple of days until you get to 4 tablespoon of oat bran and 4 tablespoon of oats. Then start replacing with wheat bran in the same manner. You can then add the other ingredients one at a time. You might find you do not need the complete 'recipe' to have a BM. All these individual components are down to tolerance e.g. you may not tolerate wheat (see later about Alflorex), so it is best to keep a food diary (I do this on a spreadsheet) recording symptoms for up to 2-3 days after each change. I usually start with 1/4 to 1/3 of a normal portion size of anything new, incrementing every 2-3 days or cutting back to a previous amount for longer.
I also take 30 drops of ginger extract before bedtime to aid motility. You may need to work up the dose to say 7 drop increments each night.
Exercise can help with BMs. The government recommends 150 mins of moderate exercise (e.g. walking as if you are late for an appointment) or 75 of intense exercise (e.g. jogging) per week. I also have a bit of a walk around straight after breakfast to get things moving.
You need to ensure that you are drinking enough fluids (2 litres of fluid per day).
There is some good advice about constipation here:
There are also medications that help IBS-C (constipation dominant IBS). I suffer from IBS-C and have been prescribed Linaclotide for it. I also take Alflorex probiotic which has made me more tolerant to taking in the extra fibre I need for a BM.
Failing dietary measures, you can try Optifibre, which needs to be worked up to a dose according to instructions. You may not need the full dose - watch out for gas and increment to a level that is acceptable for you.
Some people are more prone to constipation due to their intestinal anatomy. Through colonoscopies I have been told that I have a long loopy (redundant) colon. This means that food takes longer to pass through and in the mean time the intestines have more time to suck out water from the stool, drying them out and causing constipation. I have found that I need to consume much more fibre than other people to have regular BMs.
I have also found useful having most of my food at meal times, leaving 4-5 hours of not eating between meals, eating my fruit snack before a meal. This means that your digestive system has time to process each meal. It also allows something called the MMC (migrating motor complex) to run which sweeps food waste from your small intestine into your large intestine. This only happens when you have an empty stomach. When people snack regularly, it prevents the MMC from working properly. I also find the larger meals help to push things along better than drip feeding through snacking.
Wow! Thankyou so much for this advice this is amazing!
I've always been scared of increasing my fibre intake too much as I know that it makes you go more frequently and I didn't want to go from having IBSC to IBSD constantly instead, this thought process is partially due to my anxiety around IBS, however knowing that you have done this and had much success with it is very reassuring.
Thankyou for your suggestions on different foods with high fibre as well as the explanations on what's actually happening during MMC and BM and your thorough descriptions throughout, this has helped me to understand the importance of this method and I will be implementing this as soon as possible. 🙂
I have one or two thoughts on this. Firstly, I’ve had issues with constipation for pretty much all of my sixty years plus years. We think we now know the likely cause - Hypermobility Spectrum Disorder (HSD) - which has almost certainly resulted in a bowel which can be somewhat sluggish. I started to get classic IBS symptoms of bloating and abdominal pain brought on by various different foods in my 30s and over the years things which can cause digestive issues in me has increased (got markedly worse in my late forties after a bad bout of Norovirus).
So much for my history, but one thing I have learned since the Norovirus really mucked things up is that it is really, really important to ensure that you are still getting all the nutrients your body needs whilst on a restricted diet; not doing so can complicate things further. So, have you been checked for your levels of Vitamin D, Vitamin C, Vitamin B12, Folate and Ferritin. If you haven’t ask your GP to do so and explain why.
One other thing to bear in mind is that a sensitive gut can be temperamental in what it will or will not accept at different times. For years I ate mango with no problem (good fibre content- important for a bowel such as mine - in a fruit which has lower acid levels and my stomach tolerate). Then last year I went through six months of markedly changed bowel habit for no apparent reason. A colonoscopy was requested at once (colorectal cancer history in my family) but all looked normal. It’s only recently that I’ve worke out that mango, which had never caused problems before, is now, at the very least, a major contributory factor. I can still have it, but I have to be careful about amount and frequency.
Hope some of this helps and you find a solution to your issues soon.
I'm not too sure that my nutrient levels have been checked but I will be querying this with my GP on Monday, thankyou for the tip. I definitely think I could be deficient in some vitamins as I've been on quite a restrictive diet for some time now, but I'll get this checked as soon as possible if it has not been done already.
Thankyou for also informing me on how temperamental a sensitive gut can be in terms of what it will and will not accept. This really resonated with me as there are some foods I could eat and be absolutely fine with no longer than a year ago and today I'm unable to have even the smallest amount without it causing a reaction!
Thankyou for also sharing your story with me, I love knowing I'm not alone in this process and every post I read and every reply I read gives me more reassurance every day.🙂
Hi, unlike most who have answered your post, will share with you all what I have found.Firstly had ibs most of my adult life, now in my late 60s. Similar symptoms to you, alternatively c and d with cramps and lots of pain. Tried FODMAPDIET for years which didn't really help. Yes and the linseeds and fibre route. Prescribed medication that didn't help. Expensive hypnotherapy that didn't help although stress did play a part for me. For years anxiety about leaving the house, difficult to manage with 2 children.
Until I got an autoimmune condition and was forced to try a 100% gluten free diet. Took many weeks and months to gradually improve so it was gluten all along but there was another food irritating me and tried dairy free too again took a long time several months but now I can eat spicy food, onions etc. I try to eat only small amounts of grains, stick to lots of fruit, veggies, meat, nuts and small amounts of beans, pulses and corn. Batch cook so I know exactly what has gone in. It is hard with regards to eating out. Coeliac test was negative which does not pick up gluten sensitivity anyway. We really need to go with how our bodies feel, specialists unless you are lucky, do not know how we feel.
But being tied to the house with ibs is not uncommon. It is estimated that 1 in 10 of us have a gluten related condition.
Thankyou for sharing your experience and tips, I will definitely have another look into this, I have gone down the 'gluten free and diary free' routes before, separately though not at the same time and not for as long as you suggested so I'll be having another venture into this as it sounds like a possible cause for my reactions. Thanks again
It's your diet. It's too restrictive. And besides the chicken, you're not eating any actual food.
Porridge is not food. Grains are not food and cause more problems than people realise. It's amazing how many people still believe the lie that grains are healthy. Unripe/ripe bananas are just sugar dumps.
You don't need medication, nor do you need fibre. Needing fibre to make us regular is a complete lie cooked up by producers of bread and cereal. Fibre irritates our intestines and causes inflammation which leads to discomfort and disease. I consume zero fibre and I have zero problems going. 🚽👍
What's missing from your diet (besides real food and more meat!) is fat. Fat is not bad. There's a big ball of fat sitting on top of your shoulders. Every cell needs fat.
The fastest and simplest way to say goodbye to IBS is to eat fatty meat, *preferably beef*, or lamb, pork, turkey. If you want to stick with chicken (or turkey) then be sure to add fat. Animal fat. It's healing and will keep you regular.
We're made out of what we eat. Your body is trying to repair itself and keep its systems running, and all it has is porridge, bananas, potatoes, and meat to work with. It needs the meat, not the plants.
We need animal protein, animal fat (tallow, lard, butter), salt, and water. Nothing else.
Eating plants and grains puts a strain on the digestive system. Eating meat and fat doesn't.
Also, the meat and fat will have a calming effect on your mind. You won't experience the fight-or-flight feeling that comes from a poor diet and leads to anxiety.
Sorry I think your reply , and all your replies , are unfounded nonsense disguised as superior knowledge delivered in a patronising way . We are all different . Your suggestions can actually be dangerous
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