Is This Really IBS?

Howdy,

I've had GI issues most of my adult life.  It usually was brought on by stressful things and lasted maybe a day, most of the time one trip to the bathroom solved the problem.  I went thru a phase where I would get a stomach ache (not really nausea, just an ache), burp a lot, have heartburn and again a trip to the bathroom (or two) did the trick.  I've struggled with GERD for at least 20 years so bad I've gone to the hospital thinking I was having a heart attack.  Now I seemed to have morphed into stomach ache, trip to the bathroom, more stomach ache sometimes another trip.  It seems to be something in the digestive tract as Gaviscon seems to offer some relief for the stomach ache part.  Still not nausea, but I sure don't feel like eating.

This is also lasting for days stretching into weeks which is different than before.  It used to be a day or so now it’s almost permanent.

My main question to this group is do your symptoms include breaking out in a sweat?  I frequently do this (sometimes big drops of sweat) and I know there's a trip in my near future.

My doctor has diagnosed IBS by ruling everything else out - endoscopy, colonoscopy, imaging of the abdomen, blood work, urine work, stool work.  So I guess that's what I have but I'm a little concerned that he started me on iron pills (based on the blood work), I got really constipated and he put me on Linzess which didn't do squat for the constipation.  I stopped taking the iron pills and presto, trains running on time again.

Any comments or thoughts?

Thanks,

Greg