Travellers Diarrhea

[JT1992]

Has anyone ever been abroad before and came back with diarrhea? I actually managed to get through 12 hour flights and 3 weeks in Brazil with only a couple of bad episodes .. thanks to Imodium helping me through.

The day we were due to fly my stomach was so bad which was not unusual for me with anxiety and ibs D and I resorted to taking 4 Imodiums over the day.. I was fine the 2 days after coming back, and then on the 3rd it hit me.

I’m on day 4 of watery diarrhea. This is different to my ibs, normally I’d have the painful cramps and feel better after a couple of explosions and a rest for a couple of hours .. I’d know when it’s coming and when I need to be near a toilet.. this time it’s one gurgle and I’m running to the toilet. Most of the time barely making it in time. I’m talking 30 seconds notice. Constantly.. no cramps just a sore stomach like I’ve been punched.

Everyone keeps saying ‘it’s just your IBS’.. but I can’t even leave the house.

Has anyone had this and have any tips? Is it just a case of riding it out? I’m on day 4 now and assume Imodium is advised against if it needs to leave my system. Meant to be back in work tomorrow

Thanks everyone x

[b1b1b1]

You may have picked up a bug in Brazil. Try to see a doctor ASAP. Constant diarrhea can be very debilitating and this does not sound like IBS.

[daisie2013]

Yes definitely get it checked at the doctor's to rule out parasites/bugs etc especially coming from Brazil. Hope you feel better soon x

[xjrs]

Definitely advocate getting it checked out.

You could get yourself onto a probiotic such as Alflorex in case you have a bad bug that is dominating your gut.

I remember I also used to get IBS-D, usually on the last day of my holiday, just when I needed to travel home! I put this down, in the end, to eating stuff I wouldn't normally eat at home e.g. stuff with cheese. I later found out that cheese is a big no no for me.

[JT1992]

I’ve tried alflorex before and found it made me worse

Yep I definitely rely on Imodium before the flight home! My anxiety takes home. But I had been home 2 days already before it started and now on day 5. Will have to call the doctors although feel they will just fob me off as per usual!

[BabsyWabsy]

Loperamide (Imodium) seems to take a few days to work through my system, even if I only take one when necessary I can end up with painful gas and be a bit bunged up for 3 or 4 days. I agree with others that it needs checking out to make sure you haven't picked something up. Also, could your sudden different diarrhoea be overflow past an area of constipation?

[JT1992]

I’ve got a sample pot from the doctors now.. it was over a week ago when I took the Imodium and god knows how many times I have been to the toilet since then.. 50+ so i assume the overflow would have all been out by now

[iloveglee]

I got food poisoning in Brazil, and had to take immodium as we were travelling. It make things worse in the long run but no alternative. Nothing showed up after we got home, but my ibs, which I have had for many years, was make worse ever since.

I then had campylobacter a year ago, which again made the ibs very much worse, which according to the GP is very common. It will take time, I found that some foods I simply couldn't tolerate at all, for ages, and some I still can't after 15 months. Trial and error, and keeping a food diary helped a great deal. I just have to avoid those things that make it worse. Fortunately, it's not so many, and easily substituted with something else.

I found that when I could barely tolerate any food, I could tolerate bananas.

[JT1992 in reply to iloveglee]

How did you manage to overcome the IBS flare? I was already complaining of my IBS before I went, bloating, gas, mixture of stools.. but I am still having the constant yellow diarrhoea. Already done stool tests at the Dr's and doing more.. I am guessing it is probably my IBS gone wild but no idea how to help it

[iloveglee in reply to JT1992]

unfortunately any infection apparently takes quite a long time to settle down. I was tested 2 months after the initial infection and campylobacter was still there. The gp was reluctant to prescribe anti biotics at that stage but said if it continued he might have to. In the end it just got a bit better on its own. I kept a food diary again for a while to see if I could work out which foods were worse than others. Then gradually re introduced the main culprits. Even now there are some things I just can’t tolerate. Maybe in some cases antibiotics are the solution.

[JT1992]

Update - on day 7 of watery diarrhea now.. i will have a day where it moves up the stool chart to more of a type 6, then the next day out of nowhere type 7 again. I'm already doing low fodmap as I decided to try this after brazil to help with my IBS, so no trigger foods are being eaten.

I'm wondering if it is perhaps overflow from the imodium.. but I'm so scared to eat more fibre to try and solve this. I have never experienced it before, and now I am unable to eat in work as i know it will make the D worse.