IBS?? Please help. Diarrhoea, nausea, sweats, faint.
Posted , 3 users are following.
New here, and new to IBS full stop actually but currently sitting on the toilet in despair (sorry for the overshare especially so early on) I’m really looking for some advice/support.
I’m a 32 year old female from the UK.
I’m lucky enough to have private health cover via my employer and I have only recently been speculatively diagnosed by a gastroenterologist as having IBS after years and years of gastro issues. He is in the process of ruling out anything else it could be, including anything nasty although he doesn’t expect it to be. (I have a colonoscopy and upper endoscopy on Friday) before he definitively lands of IBS as a diagnosis.
However I really want to understand if my symptoms/experience is like anyone else’s as right now I’m really not convinced it’s IBS (based on my understanding of IBS) because of the frequency and nature of my gastro issues.
So to start at the beginning…. For around 8 years I’ve experienced sporadic bouts of sudden and painful diarrhoea that is accompanied with very intense awful cramps, nausea and the feeling that I will faint.
What usually happens during one of these ‘episodes’…. I will eat a meal and within about 15 minutes my stomach will begin to growl, gurgle and pop and mild cramping starts.
Knowing the warning signs now I’ll go to the toilet and almost always it starts with passing a few normal solid stools but within about 5 minutes or so the cramps will intensify to the point I cry from the pain and the normal stools will be replaced by explosive very watery diarrhoea.
I will get very hot to the extent I need to take all my clothes off; I literally don’t care where I am, public toilet, someone’s house, the clothes have to come off as I feel so hot and sick. I’ll also crave the feeling of something cold on my neck so I try to find something cold in advance now, I will also get a few really big waves of nausea, start to shake and have an overwhelming feeling that I’m going to black out/faint, although I never actually have.
The whole experience usually lasts around 20/30 mins but the reasons I’m unconvinced it could be IBS are the following
it doesn’t happen all the time, I can go months without this occurring at all and then it might happen multiple times in a row or on a more frequent basis for a while before disappearing
it only happens once each time! So whilst the ordeal lasts around 20/30 mins and is always horrendously painful I get that one bout following the meal and then it’s done until the next time. I can continue with my day/eve, continue to eat and drink without pain and sometimes even pass a normal stool a few hours later
it doesn’t seem to happen after breakfast or lunch, only in the evenings after dinner. I can only think of 2 occasions over the years where it has happened after lunch or any other time of the day except dinner
there seems to be no rhyme or reason as far as what I’ve eaten etc I’ve tried keeping diaries, excluding things from diet etc it makes no difference. I have even experimented with EXACTLY the same thing, one day I’ll eat it without so much as a twinge, next day EXACT same meals but the diarrhoea will happen
A few other things that might be worth noting is over the past year I have lost my appetite completely but I am fairly certain that is stress related. Probably also completely unrelated but I’ve had tail bone pain for many years that no one can find a reason for and breathlessness that 2 of the top respiratory doctors cannot find reason for.
Even when I don’t have diarrhoea I do seem to have a very regular bowel, needing to go to the bathroom 2/3 times a day and often the second I wake up in the morning.
The only thing I’ve ever found over the years and hundreds of hours of searching that I thought my symptoms sounded like was ‘dumping syndrome’, until I realised this is only relevant to people who have had weight loss surgery which I haven’t, I have always been slim.
But the sudden and intense need to go to bathroom following a meal that is accompanied with nausea and sweating and faintness BUT only ever occurs the once, I feel fine as soon as it’s passed and can leave the bathroom and continue as normal, until the next time which maybe days, weeks or even months in the future.
I’d really appreciate any guidance, help, support, signposting.
0 likes, 2 replies
sasical72 chloe57905
Posted
Hi there,
Before I go on to explain about my similar symptoms, let me tell you that I found a couple of medical articles that, although very rare, one can have dumping syndrome without having had bariatric surgery.
Anyway, my symptoms are slightly different but just as baffling as yours. TMI ahead but it's the only way...
So I can be quite happily going about my business when I suddenly get this strange feeling, I get boiling hot, I start to feel short of breath, sweat, fast heart rate, shaky...all this while I feel my bowels rumbling getting ready to poop. Then I go to the loo, poop, mainly feel like I will drop dead, no joke and then about 30 mins later it's as if nothing has happened. Until it happens again, that is.
I went through a period when I was pooping about 3-6 times a day and I was getting these symptoms at least once a day.
Then I was better, pooping less and with less symptoms and now I seem to be getting worse again. No rhyme or reason to mine either.
The only thing I have managed to establish is that when poop is more mushy and sticky (sorryyyy) it's worse and when poop is well formed I have less symptoms.
So, basically I have not helped in any way but maybe given you some clue?...
Marina_Dee chloe57905
Posted
I know you have said you have tried cutting out various things but your symptoms are exactly what I get if I happen to have any form of dairy in my diet. I now have spent years eliminating food with any trace of the stuff , and take lactase tablets if I am unable to check. I guess you have already done this but just thought I would mention it.