Should I take it as read?

Hmm agree but was initially unsure what they'd said. My doctors reassured me today what it was and wasn't but I needed to double check for me. I honestly thought it was serious, my sister spotted the no in the letter I'd got. Sorry if I got it wrong.

Hopefully you are reassured now. My doctors printed off information for me on IBS and costochondritis which clarified my queries and stopped me worrying.  The info came from this site. There will be info on diverticulosis there.  If you print it off, at least you will have a written record of your condition if you forget what your doctor told you because it can get confusing.

Incidentally, my costochondritis is back after getting rid of it in 2014.  I hope it doesn’t get as bad as it was before otherwise I will have to take nurofen for it and wait it out.  That’s what I was told before!

Thanks Pippa, I do feel reassured and hope I'll be OK. Good luck to both of us.

Same to you.

Hi Michael I don't know what my doctor means but I think she said it hadn't got any worse, she said diverticulosis is common in older people. She said if it was anything serious she wouldn't have waited for a routine appointment to explain the results to me. I was just very scared - my grandfather died of bowel cancer and my dad had diverticulitis. Thats why I was scared feeling more reassured now though.

Hi Michael,

As a former G.P. can you answer a question?. I have ibs C ; I have read about probiotics but am slow to try them as I am a renal transplant patient and therefore have a compromised immune system due to the immunosuppressive I have to take. I assume if I take probiotics I would be consuming live bacteria and therefore asking for big trouble. Is that right?

Thanks for replying I do feel better having spoken to my gp. I still ask the real expert on here though as they live with it!

Do you know of any mild treatments for neuropathic pain that get rid of the pain but don’t cause side effects?  My doctor offered me low dose anti depressants but I decided not to try them because I was very concerned about the side effects.  Topical creams don’t do much for me.

Hi Pippa,

It’s interesting that you should ask that question because I have tried three of the more commoner agents for my severe IBS over the past 9 months. They were Amitriptyline, Gabapentin and Pregabalin. I spent many years prescribing these agents for many patients and then was faced with the decision as whether to try them myself!

From my experience as a prescriber,mthe majority of patients  seemed to experience some of the expected side-effects to varying degrees while a very small minority seemed to be able to tolerate them with little problem.

My actual experience as a patient over the past year was that I was in so much pain that I felt obliged to try some preparation for my IBS. You probably know that tricyclics antidepressants, esoecially  Amitriptyline, is used to combat the more troubling  symptoms 

of IBS, as is both Pregabalin and Gabapentin.

Quite surprisingly, I managed to tolerate Amitriptyline up to 100mg at night, but then developed cardiac side-effects, palpatations, and was obliged to stop. I am, however, in the group of patients with the highest likely cardiac side-effect profile, over 65 years of age, so I my reaction was not to unexpected.

My reaction to both Pregabalin and Gabapentin, occurred at very small doses so I abandoned them immediately.

Having said all that,  I know how unpleasant neuropathic pain can be, and in my capacity as a previous prescriber, have also seen how much these agents can improve physical symptoms.

In my own case, as it might be in yours,I was desperate for pain relief and chose to experience side-effects to reduce that pain.

It might be worth considering that option. You can start with Amitriptyline 5mg at night, by buying a pill cutter from your pharmacist and halving the tablet-the Tablet is not scored but you can safely do this as I did. With time you can increase the dose slowly. In my own case

constipstion was my biggest problem but my condition was IBS-C where constipation was the big problem.

I also asked my own GP to prescribe Pregabalin at 25mg at night, a relativelysmall dose, but felt quite intellectually numbed in the morning.

However, with all three of these three  drugs I have mentioned, you might less problems than I did. The bottom line is how bad is your neuropathic pain and how much do you want relief?

If you feel you need to try something, and providing that your GP believes there are no other reasons why one or any of these drugs should be contraindicated in your case, you can ask him/her to begin you on a small dose, as I did in my my own case.

I don’t think the fear of side-effects should put you off since the majority of these at initial small doses should be quite reversible, if you get them, once you have stopped the medication.

Regards

Michael

 

I have IBS too but it is very mild and I rarely need Buscopan which I sometimes combine with Nurofen.  Occasionally, I need Imodium.

Strangely enough, my IBS started because of the stress and pain from a botched blood test from a health care assistant who did not know what she was doing.  The blood test pain turned neuropathic and it has gone on for three years since the test.  The only difference is that it is now come and go pain but when it flares up, it feels just as bad as it did on the day of the blood test.  Intiitally, the pain was non stop for two months, all day every day.

However, it is very disturbing that most people have side effects from taking low dose anti depressants and anti convulsants.  I am hyper sensitive to medications, except for the mildest ones like Buscopan because of Asperger syndrome.which causes me to get clumsy, have loss of balance and poor hand eye coorination and eyes not working together.  I noticed, that these medications can actually cause blurred vision, dizziness, clumsiness and numbness along with tingling which I already get with the neuropathy.

The mood changes you can get also worry me because I can get very anxious due to my autism and my monthly cycle also aggravates this.  All in all, I think these medications combined with the autism and hyper sensitvities could be a very unpleasant cocktail for me and the side effects would outweigh any benefits if there were any. 

I was rather hoping you knew of a non toxic remedy for neuropathic pain such as a topical cream that I haven’t come across because so many of these treatments don’t have much effect.

I was told nurofen or paracetamol. If you take nurofen you must take an antacid, at least that was what I was told.

Nurofen can be harsh on the stomach.  I try to remember to take milk with them which also has antacid properties. I also take regular antacid tablets because of the chronic heartburn.

I am in a liquid called ranitidine which is a really powerful antacid. If I have to take nurofen I take this 1st.

I have tried ranitidine tablets and they give you 12 hours heartburn relief which really soothed my heartburn cough.

Request they are really good but what is a heartburn cough?

Oops I meant yes I agree

When the acid travels up your oesophagus to your throat, it can cause irritation and trigger a cough.  When you have silent reflux, you don’t feel the acid and the first you become aware of it is a persistsnt cough and clearing your throat.  If an antacid stops the cough, this is a sign the cough has come from reflux.

I see what you mean that makes sense. I often end up coughing away and have never been told by any health professional that it could be acid doing it that is persistent.

My dad had a persistant cough for many weeks after getting rid of a cold.  He went to the doctor and he was asked if he had heartburn but he said no.  The doctor suggested that he might have silent reflux and that was why he wasn’t feeling the acid but was feeling an irritation that was csusing him to cough.  He asked him to try antacids to see if it cleared the cough and it did.

Hi Pippa my doctor put me on an inhaler to help me to breathe as I was struggling after going into the warm after the cold. I have now discovered mould and damp in my housing association property - no wonder I have a cough. I'm fuming as our housing association think waiting 3 weeks with it in that state is a joke. I have put in for a move anyway for the sake of my health. I think they have caused this. I'll be putting in a complaint I think as it's disgusting. I already use ant acids frequently but not been told about a silent reflux.

Mould and damp will not be good for you.  Maybe your breathing trouble was caused by this.   I think a move is a good idea.  If you a have a persistant cough that is relieved by antacids, that is clue that it might be silent relfux.

I agree with you I wish my doctor and housing association is! Hmm very fed up.