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Ibs

clairey87

What are the symptoms of IBS?

Reply 1

Mad Vlad

Here

Crampy abdominal pain with painful constipation or diarrhoea. In some people, constipation and diarrhoea alternate. Sometimes people with IBS pass mucus with their bowel movements. Bleeding, fever, weight loss, and persistent severe pain are not symptoms of IBS but may indicate other problems.

Reply 2

Sophdoph

I have IBS..PM me if you want to talk about it :smile:

Reply 3

Unregistered

clairey87

What are the symptoms of IBS?

there are none. think of any 'symptom' that someone can say but not prove, and you have IBS in a nutshell...

Reply 4

Fleece

Snake

there are none. think of any 'symptom' that someone can say but not prove, and you have IBS in a nutshell...

Umm i'm sure i could prove diarrhoea :-\

Reply 5

Fleece

I think i may have got it. :-\

Reply 6

RetiredAccount89

Fleece

I think i may have got it. :-\

THeres alot of evidence to suggest IBS is a functional disease. Everything is working except your head...

Of course tell that to anyone suffering with it and quite rightly they will rip your head off and poo down your throat.

Reply 7

Fleece

Well yes! Try telling that to the girl i was reading about the other day who couldnt even control her bowel movements her IBS was so bad!

Reply 8

Sophdoph

IBS is not just in your head!!! (But I won't poo on anyone..that'd be nasty)

Mine came about from being a premature baby = (in my case) very weak and sensitive stomach stomach and was aggravated by serious bouts of food poisoning I got in Zante last summer.

I was on medication briefly, tablets which help stop contractions in your bowel, but now I just try and manage it with diet.

You can't get it diagnosed without going to the doc, it's just a combination of symtoms which by themselves could be anything. I get lots of stomach cramps, weird feelings in my stomach and all sorts of other nasties which I wouldn't go into on here..but anyway it's not pleasent but controllable.

Some element of controlling it, is in your mind, having a good positive mental attitude will help, but it won't stop it altogether.

Reply 9

emporium

Snake

there are none. think of any 'symptom' that someone can say but not prove, and you have IBS in a nutshell...

Oh dear, you're one of those, I suppose you think ME is people being lazy too.... :rolleyes:

Reply 10

RetiredAccount89

Sophdoph

IBS cannot be diagnosed by a single diagnostic test or symptom. There are no changes to the bowel, or the enteric nervous system. The minute you DO get a real symptom it immediately means you have the wrong diagnosis. Anyone with IBS who fins a bit of blood in their stool for instance prob has IBD instead.

IBS is a rather dangerous diagnosis in my mind because its utter rubbish. theres nothing that can be done for the people suffering it because there really isn't anything wrong with them par se.
Having a diagnosis like this open to clinicians makes it more likely that someone with a real disease will be misdiagnosed and suffer unduly when they could be recieving treatment.

Reply 11

Sophdoph

Jamie

I was diagnosed by my GP and by my university GP, and by a hospital doctor, I can only speak from experience. I only had stool samples (which was yuk..) but then there is nothing else you can do to diagnose something like this. I may not be a medical student but I've spoken a hell of a lot, to quite a few doctors about IBS.

Reply 12

hallucination

I have IBS - the symptoms began after severe food poisoning a few years ago. :frown:

Reply 13

Juno

Some doctors seem to think IBS doesn't exist on it's own because it's actually a food allergy. I know one of my dad's friends had IBS for years but recently found out it was Coeliac Disease, and since she's been on a gluten free diet it has gone away.

Reply 14

trixx

If anyone knows anything that works please let us know

Reply 15

RetiredAccount89

Sophdoph

See my entire point is that the only diagnosis they can come up with is to exclude everything else.
There is ALOT to suggest that its quite a psychological disease. The guy here is an example - developing IBS after a bout of food poisoning. How do we not know thats not his mind going into a defence mechanism?
Don't think its possible to get diarheoa or nausea by 'thinking it'? try telling someone after they've drunk a cup of tea, or had cornflakes that the milk was rancid. they'll complain of stomach ache and sickness in no time. and they won't be lying, they will actually feel ill.
For yonks i couldn't figure out what was wrong with my stomach. it always seemed to play up when i went to see my g/f. And in the end i figured it out. I simply wasn't farting enough (because i think its a nasty thing to do in front of anyone but your guy mates), and the resulting trapped gas was enough to make me feel sick and bloated.

And as Juno provides an example, some docs just rely on the ambiguity of IBS to save themself having to delve deeper. Cos some docs are lazy gits.

Reply 16

Sophdoph

Yes the diagnosis is basically an easy way out as it can rule out an infinate number of other things, but I think for me certainly it's the correct diagnosis. I simply do just have an "irritable" bowel, it's hyper sensitive and I get a combination of symtoms after certain foods/certain times of the month/after certain activities that I believe, for me, define my "irritable" bowel.

Yes its ambiguity can be used as an easy way out, but since my doc has known me from birth and is a family friend, I'm pretty sure he wouldn't fob me off! I can't speak for anyone but myself, I am simply expressing my view and sharing my experience...maybe since I'm not a med student I should keep it to myself! :confused:

Anyway, Clairey here are some websites which might help, I knew I had them in faves somewhere but just couldn't find them:
http://www.ibsnetwork.org.uk/
http://www.ibs-help.com/?spg=PPC