New but familiar

Hello,

I was diagnosed with IBS in 2018. My symptoms were abdominal pain with diarrhea which turned into constipation. Started the low fodmap diet in 2021, and stopped eating gluten, and cut out sugar. My symptoms improved until recently. Now I'm having daily abdominal pain and I'm not passing as much stool as I was a couple of years ago. I'm seeing a third gastro specialist today to talk about symptom relief.

Thank you for reading. I will be looking around the forum to read others' stories.

[xjrs]

Welcome.

You might want to read through my (xjrs) posts on this thread related to restrictive diets and might explain what you are experiencing:

healthunlocked.com/theibsne...

[Hidden in reply to xjrs]

I read through your post. I consume many fruits and vegetables and whole grains throughout the day. Before changing my diet, I was mostly eating carbs, protein, and refined sugar. Changing my diet helped, but now I'm back to constipation and abdominal pain.

[xjrs in reply to Hidden]

Have you tried any probiotics, like the one I mentioned and increasing fibre for the constipation?

[Hidden in reply to xjrs]

I haven't tried probiotiprobiotics yet, but I have tried adding more fiber, specifically more vegetables, but have trouble with cramping and abdominal pain even when using low fodmap items.

The GI provider I saw yesterday prescribed Linzess. I'm going to try that and see if it helps. Thank you.

[xjrs in reply to Hidden]

Yes - I am on that (same product - different name - Linaclotide/Constella for me). The full pain effects of this won't be felt until week 10, so you may need to persevere. At week 10, this reduced my pain by 50%-60%. When I added in Alflorex probiotic (equivalent in Align in the US), this reduced my pain to zero and made me much much more tolerant to fibre, since it helps to digest complex carbs. I actually wish I'd tried the Alflorex first since this may have sorted me pain wise without the Linaclotide/Linzess, but I know this combo works for me which is why I stick with it. For me, the pain only comes back if I eat foods that I am still intolerant to or until my body gets used to them - but I can eat a much wider diet than I did before which previously was highly restrictive.