My Honest and Graphic Story

[Robert86London]

Hello Everyone, 

I found this forum and thought I add my story to this (I will be honest and graphic as I feel that is the only way to explain this stuff). I am a 35 yo male from London. About 2017 something strange happened. I remember I was at work. My work place was very stressful for me as I had a nightmare boss who was bullying me and I felt scared and on edge almost every day. So this one day I came to work as normal. I had my breakfast from the staff kitchen and sat down to my desk. After 30 min I got sudden pain in my stomach and a sudden need to go to the bathroom. So I went. I was flushed out, literally. Diarrhoea was watery and really violent. It took me 10 seconds to empty my bowels and the sudden pain just stopped the moment I was done.  I thought must have been something in the food. So I went back to my desk. Had a tea and started doing my work. Again 30 min or less after I had just tea I felt the same. Sudden cramps and urgent need for toilet. And again same as before diarrhoea and flush out. Again I didn't think much about it. Next day it happened again and day after again. At some point I started counting and I think the record was 7 times in bathroom. Same modus operandi as before sudden cramps and need for loo. Today we are in 2021 4 years later and I still suffer from it. I know there are times when I feel completely normally and I don't have the issues but more often sadly I am fearful of even going out of the house (specially in the morning). I will sleep ok all night long, I wake up and within minutes I feel cramps and need a toilet and get diarrhoea. Mornings are worst but not always. I remember in summer of 2020 (during the lockdown) I would also have issues after having lunch. I basically feel like I get diarrhoea and the IBS symptoms after eating or in the morning. There are days when I can eat everything and feel ok and then there are days when same things will make me go to the toilet within 30 minutes. It seams unreal for me. My gut didn't even managed to process the food let alone get it down to my rare end so quick. 

Other issues that I experience related to IBS are:

bloated stomach - sometimes I look like I am pregnant despite being a man. If I let my abs muscle relaxed while standing my belly just pops out like a balloon, 

winds - I can literally fart easily 15 times a day, and I don't mean a small one,

at very beginning of it I had lower back pains (again often associated to IBS),

mucus in stool, mostly at the very last bowel movement for the day,

I have seen a gastrologist back in 2017 as I got concerned about this, and the visit literally lasted 15 minutes at most. The doctor didn't even touch me and from what I was saying yes this is IBS. Told me to use over the counter medicine for diarrhoea and that's it.  

In December 2020 I noticed bright red blood on my toilet tissue and I have freaked out. I got A&E appointment and doctor checked me "per rectum" and said piles most probably. He touched my belly said it is soft and he doesn't feel anything. Told me to consult the GP. SO I went, got blood tests and a hidden blood stool sample taken. Tests came back ok, they just showed that I have diarrhoea and stool sample came negative (meaning no hidden blood in the stool). Doctors told me again this is not a cancer and no need to be worried. The problem is I am worried about it. I got very small amount of blood again in end of February on the toilet tissue. Less than in December. Called my GP and she told me to bring a urine and stool sample again to check if i don't have some issues with gut bacteria's etc.  

I am extremely worried and scared. This IBS (if that is it indeed) push me down towards severe depression right now. Doctors seam to brush me off their list and I feel nobody is interested in my problem as right now Covid is the only issue. I am worried this might be bowel cancer or something and I literally am scared each time I go to the toilet. I am scared I wont have normal stool, which I don't as it is almost all the time watery or a baby food like consistency. I have mentioned a colonoscopy but doctors told me that I do not qualify as my blood tests were ok and I am under 50 years of age so bowel or colon cancer are unlikely. 

How am I supposed to live like that?  I am fearing to go to toilet, when I am there I examine my stool for blood almost constantly, my depression and anxiety are over the roof, I can't eat normally (I had no fizzy drink or fast food for over a year which is good actually but still I wish to enjoy my food from time to time and I can't). I end up eating only plain rise, vegetables, white meat like chicken and fish mostly salmon. For breakfast I eat crispy bread with yellow cheese or some very mild, plain ham. I stopped drinking milk as it makes me go, I stopped eating fried stuff totally only eat boiled cooked things. My weight is same, I actually gained weight during lockdown in summer but then I went down to my normal weight again as I started working and moving around more. 

I am looking for some help desperately. If any of you out there knows some good gastroenterology specialist please let me know. I live in London UK.

Feel free to PM me if you suffer from the same problem or if you know any good specialist. 

Thank you for reading, stay well.  

Edited March 4, 2021 by Jeffrey Roberts
Removed email address.

[linda2021]

Hi Robert, I'm so sorry you're going through that. It's awful not to get a good doctor so I suggest find one here and have an online consultation. I had to visit 4 doctors to find the one who'd take me seriously. Have you tried anti depressants for ibs relief? Some work with constipation, others with diarrea, I believe TCA's might be good for you. I'm dealing with CIC right now and I'm gonna start or paroxetine. I have high hopes it might help because just like you, my symptoms began when I was going through a very traumatic and stressful time. Best of luck

[Andyy]

Hey Robert,

my story is very similar. I also got diarrhea out of the blue one day after lunch about 3 years ago but it didn't feel like food poisoning or stomach flu. I've had those before but this was just plain diarrhea, didn't feel ill. Before all my life I've been more on the constipation side and 99% of the time I had bowel movements only in the morning. I miss that. The worst part of my diarrhea is the urgency. Makes life very difficult, so much that I wouldn't say I have much a life currently.

Since then I've been very involved in studying the condition and trying to find a solution. This diarrhea has to have a cause, I'm almost sure.

I've been diagnosed with SIBO (small intestinal bacterial overgrowth). It has been recurrent and treating it only resolves bloating and gas to a good degree but doesn't stop the diarrhea.

I'll be going in for a colonoscopy later this year. I am looking into new things constantly.

In the meantime to be able to leave the house I like to take loperamide 1-2 capsules. Works well for me for about 12 - 24 hours. Wonder if you have tried it? Might need two times a day.

Feel free to message me if you'd like to chat.

 

[kennykeny837]

@Robert86London: I pretty much have the exact symptoms as you and my symptoms seem to have started also in a very similar way . I am sharing my story in detail in the hope that we can find some kind of a pattern here .

I'm a 33 year old female , my symptoms started at the age of 26. (A little bit of a background here on anxiety- I have been an anxious person pretty much my whole life(my anxiety leans towards OCD ). However it has been manageable until I was 26 , I've never had to take any medication for it and I have NEVER had IBS associated with it )

Here is how my IBS symptoms started  September of 2013- I had just started a new job and I think the stress of the new job triggered  severe anxiety attack/OCD attack. I consulted a psychiatrist and he started me on Prozac for OCD. In about a month's time post medical assistance I felt fantastic wrt anxiety but suddenly started noticing IBS symptoms. I remember very distinctly how it started. I was at office , my team and I and just finished lunch and we were back at our seats. I suddenly heard loud noises from my stomach , felt an urgent need to defecate and had to rush to the toilet. This was the first memory of it . From this point on , this became a pattern . Post prandial diarrhea everyday. As the years passed , it just became worse. I got an IBS-D diagnosis from a gastroenterologist and he said nothing can be done .I have tried multiple medications to treat this , antibiotics , antidepressants (another one in addition to Prozac that i was already taking  specifically for IBS-D called amitriptyline ), antispasmodics , probiotics - nothing has worked .

I have always wondered what caused the onset of my symptoms , especially at a time in my life when my anxiety was under control with the help of an SSRI . I keep looking for answers , I find none.

My current symptoms as of today (8 years later) - As soon as i wake up , need to defecate. I have 2-3 loose BM s in the morning before I feel a "complete evacuation". This is an ordeal that can last anywhere between 1-2 hours .So mornings are terrible . Post this morning ritual , I am ok for the most part except that in the evenings I start passing gas that pretty much continues through the evening , into the night .I do not  have any kind of pain associated with my symptoms .

The whole situation takes a toll on one s mental health. I wonder if there is a way out of this . How can a perfectly functioning body start malfunctioning all of a sudden with life destroying consequences? Wish we could get some closure on this if not a cure ...

This is my first post on this forum and I decided to write to you because I found an almost exact match between symptoms and onset. Please feel free to msg me or reply on this thread , should you want to discuss this further .

- Regards

Kenny

[Esjie]

Robert, I am sorry you are going through this.

I feel very much the same as you; I'd like to eat the food I ate before IBS. Healthy food every day for 30 or so years. My diet has been narrowed down too, yet it seems no matter what I don't eat, the flare-ups still happen. The only thing that can often calm them is eating REALLY constipating food like white toast, more white toast, white boil in the bag rice, and hard boiled eggs.
But if I do that too many times I get a bit constipated, so the following day will gently try some peeled grapes or a few greens etc.

I love vegetables, and can often eat them so am lucky as I had been getting times of normality.
But I never know when another IBS drama is going to hit me. I got 32 days of zero symptoms, from May through to some time in June. Then a bit up and down with slighly loose stools, but nothing bad.
Then a couple of weeks normal some time in July.
I haven't the first clue what causes either flare ups or the normal times. They don't really seem related to what I eat or don't eat.

I had a lovely meal some time 3rd week of July with a friend. I ate everything and they were all the foods I can't normally touch. Next day I was absolutely fine! And the day after. So I do not get it.

I'm retired so don't have much stress. But I admit to finding even small stresses unnerving me badly nowadays and I never used to be like that, even 3 or so years ago. I get shaky and feel sick to my stomach when even a small stress (like having to go out , the car having a problem, the computer having a problem, having to make a difficult or even a long phone call....etc) starts to overload me.
I have had a lot of bereavement in the years leading up to IBS. The grief was very painful and still is, moreso at some times than at others. So I wonder if that has upset my body and gut. I express my grief, and cry if I need to so don't think I'm "trapping my emotions". No-one to hear or worry about it. I live alone now.

I get that pregnant bloated lower belly too, and horrible, horrible mornings that can last for hours in  a flare-up.

I pass a ton of gas when I first get up. That's on a good day. If I do that, I know the day might not be too bad maybe. I can even laugh at  myself. But those days when it's a dash from bed to loo and I feel just horrible, shaky, scary, uneasy are truly nasty.

I don't want any drugs (antidepressants or whatever) They might help my gut....or they might make me worse. We are all so different in  our response to drugs, and I always have a bad reaction to pharmaceuticals, with one or two exceptions.