IBS

[Cypress]

I thnk I have a form of Irritable Bowl Syndrome. I had a hysterectomy in 2004 which seemed to be a successful surgery. However, since that surgery, I have had trouble with migraines. I noticed the migraines come on when I am congested in the bowel which is more frequent. I would say I had a sluggish digestion. When things get too backed up, I have a migraine. This can happen every other week.

My abdomen can be bloated and gurgling. I don't think I have food allergies. Maybe sensitivity. The results are I struggle to feel balanced, clean, and lively. I have a fog sensation often and don't function well at work. I seem to be always irritated and it's around digestion. Can stress and anxiety get isolated to the digestive system? I feel like I hold on or constrict the lower abdomen most of the time, yet I am puffy and bloated often. Ugh It's just on going discomfort. Is this IBS?

As much as I fuss about my digestion, I love to eat. I love to cook and enjoy almost every kind of food. Cooking is a joy.

[benhyr]

From my limited experience with IBS, it tends to be the diagnosis they give you after they've ruled out all other culprits (this may have changed for the better in the last 8 years though).

It could also be a food allergy... celiac disease... Crohn's disease... spastic colon.

But, in answer, again based on my limited experience (DW has IBS), it's generally brought on by something that triggers an imbalance that you just don't recover from. Anxiety and stress can trigger it (sort of self-fulfilling there since anxiety triggers symptoms which, depending on your location, can trigger more anxiety!)

Talking to a specialist might be in order. In advance of that, or instead of, I'd highly highly highly recommend keeping a food journal (this is what I ate, this is how I felt after) and be as detailed as is reasonable with the ingredients. You may start to notice a pattern!

[CathyA]

Hy Cypress. I have IBS.
About your hysterectomy.....may I ask how old you are? Was it a total hysterectomy? Are you on any hormone replacement? The reason I ask is that even if you had your ovaries taken out, many times women can still have perimenopausal symptoms until their pituitary and hypothalamus go through menopause, so to speak. I'm just wondering if you're having perimenopausal symptoms......which can include migraines, GI problems. My IBS was diagnosed during perimenopause, and drove me crazy. It felt like a small animal was living in my chest.
Have you had alot of antibiotics in the past? I wonder about that causing IBS too.

During perimenopause and after menopause, our GI tracts can be slow. I occasionally get fairly bad gastroparesis and nothing wants to move.
I've also noticed that I can't tolerate certain foods like I used to. I agree that keeping a food journal is important. You might try a couple weeks without dairy and maybe another couple weeks without wheat, and see if you feel better without those. I know that's really hard, especially if you've spent your life enjoying food!
You might be having a gall bladder problem too.

My IBS is sort of the opposite of your's.....I have diarrhea with mine.
Eat lots of veggies (especially the ones that don't cause gas....raw cauliflower is really hard on me). Have you tried Gas-X tabs when you get bloated? Gentle exercise can help get things moving too.
Unfortunately, alot of things are trial and error and you might just have to try a bunch of different things, to know what will make you feel the best.
Good luck!

[Cypress]

Thanks for the replies. The ovaries stayed in and still function. I think I am in menopause as this winter, I had a 4 week episode of mild hot flashes with night sweats. The herb Black Cohosh is helpful in minimizing the flushing and sweats. My dairy intake is limited to cheese on my pizza on Saturdays. As I say, cooking is a pleasure. My pizza is made from scratch including the sauce. The cheese is provolone, mozzarella and a blend of taco cheeses. I also have greek style low sugar yogurt every afternoon with applesauce and granola. Other than that, it's soy and goat cheese occasionally.

It seems I cannot quite get it all out at once and I "save" waste matter. I'll have a day where it all wants to come out and that's when I have a migraine. This is an aggravating weekly experience. I hate the needle in the eye sensation I feel when I wake up. I just wondered if they pushed around my intestines during the hysterectomy, could that moving things around have caused IBS? I have scheduled a colonic for June to flush my system. I keep promising myself I will go every 4 months but it ends up being every 6 months.

It is very hard to avoid wheat in the American diet. I eat rice cakes and rye bread, but I had bran cereal this morning and that is wheat. I can try and keep a food journal. I grow lemon balm herb in my garden. I will try to include a cup at night to help calm my digestive tract. I also read that eating Black Chia seeds routinely helps the tract with fiber and regularity.

I never thought about food tolerances changing as I get older. My taste buds seemed to have woken up and I want all flavors. And, of course, I am getting chubbier with my strong appetite.

[CathyA]

I absolutely think all this could be from you being in perimenopause. Not to scare you, but I was in it for over 10 years! Not fun! I think its unusual to take the uterus without the ovaries, but maybe you had yours out when you were pretty young.

Not to be gross.....but I noticed that if I had stool in my lower bowel, it would trigger a migraine. So that might be what's happening to you. Be very careful not to rely on enemas, or your bowels will get even lazier.
I'm not constipated, but stool many times just doesn't want to come out. Probably because the intestines are muscles, and they tend to get lax around menopause. I've discovered that if I do stomach/abdominal pulses, it gets my lower tract moving. Just sit there and make your abdominal muscles go in and out, in and out. It works for me.
Are you drinking enough water?
I recently discovered Fage yogurt and its soooooo good. I was eating it every day, but discovered that it caused alot of gas/pain in my lower intestines. This never happened before with yogurt.....but its happening now. You might try not eating your yogurt for a week or 2 and see if that helps.

Another possibility is diverticulosis.

I use Almond milk now instead of milk for things like hot chocolate, cereal. You can find some Vegan things that don't use dairy.
I always thought my appetite would go down when I got older.........but it hasn't! And the metabolism is slower.........so its hard not to gain weight.

[Jemima]

Your symptoms sound like the ones I had with [what was misdiagnosed as] IBS. It turned out to be gluten intolerance, which I diagnosed myself after reading a book about how our human "improvements" to food are killing us. I went off wheat, barley, and rye for a few days and my symptoms cleared up immediately. Give it a try and see what happens. (Be sure to read labels. Wheat is everywhere - canned soup, many brands of soy sauce, many microwave meals that don't feature pasta.)

BTW, going gluten-free was actually fascinating because I like to cook too, and have a strong interest in nutrition. The different types of flour and how they can be used for better health was an eye-opener. Wheat is not the nutritionally best of flours; it's just been subsidized by the governemnt for a long time. Hence, widespread use.

[CathyA]

I agree. I think alot of us have a wheat/gluten intolerance. But doctors think it has to be frank celiac disease to bother with, unfortunately. Docs don't seem to know much about good nutrition, etc.

[Rosemary]

We've been off gluten for nearly 6 weeks now, with 2 more months to go on our allergy elimination diet, and it's not as difficult as you might think. In fact, eliminating grains entirely isn't as difficult as you might think, either. It's just a matter of focusing on all the myriad other foods - most of which are healthier, anyway - that aren't gluten-containing.

[Mrs. Hermit]

When I get bothered with slow digestion, I have a cup of decaf coffee. It gets things moving! Ground flaxseeds added to my granola help too. But my go-to is the coffee.

[SoSimple]

I had a bout of IBS back when I was going through my divorce, found that ex-H had dropped me from his health insurance without telling me, and I had a room-mate who didn't pay her rent for three months and the landlord then asked me to collect on it. Um, yeah. Just a tad stressful. Anyway, mine was of the running-to-the-bathroom variety; about a dozen times a day, in fact. I increased fiber, avoided fruit for a while (always disagrees with me just a tad), cut back on coffee and took peppermint capsules. Not sure which actually did the trick, but one of them (all?) worked for me. My doctor at the time suggested a low dose anxiolytic, but I felt that was overkill.

I can certainly second the ground flaxseeds. Absolutely guaranteed to move things along for me. DH has trouble with his digestion also and finds a lot of success with triphala and miralax in varied amounts depending on whether things are moving too slow or too fast. :)

[Wildflower]

You could also have adhesions from your hysterectomy. My Mother had that after her hysterectomy, adhesions (scar tissue) that had wrapped around her bowels making it hard for her to have a bowel movement.

[fidgiegirl]

I would also ask about the why of the hysterectomy, or at least raise a point to consider like Wildflower has . . . my SiL has endometriosis and basically the bad junk is still hanging around in her bowel after having had a hysterectomy, creating IBS-like symptoms.

I have been diagnosed with IBS. I have figured out my trigger foods and avoid them completely. A lot of people have tried to also tell me that I have a gluten issue or an allergy, but from what I've read, I now accept IBS as the diagnosis, at least right now. My gut doesn't digest certain foods, and that gives me diarrhea. If I avoid, I'm ok.

Two books I found very helpful were Eating for IBS and also The First Year: IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome) - An Essential Guide for the Newly Diagnosed, both by Heather Van Vorous. One thing that might be quite useful to you is that she includes a list of all the tests that must be done in order to rule out other things which is currently the only way to diagnose IBS. I do agree that in many situations it's a "catch-all" diagnosis so you may want to take a look at this list.

Good luck. Not fun!

[pinkytoe]

My mil has something similar though hers is accompanied by intermittent pain. It began a few months after her hysterectomy and she has been told it is probably adhesions from the surgery. It has been a real trial and error for her as certain foods seem to aggravate it. By now though, she can control it with tummy massage and avoiding the problem foods.

[fidgiegirl]

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51ES8VW36HL._AA300_PIbundle-1,TopRight,0,0AA300_SH20_.jpg

I also forgot. These pearls (http://www.amazon.com/Enzymatic-Therapy-Acidophilus-Pearls-Capsules/dp/B000BQ8ATQ/ref=sr_1_1?s=hpc&ie=UTF8&qid=1306633542&sr=1-1) have given me a lot of relief from gas and bloating. They have assisted with regularity. My FiL reports similar results.

[SoSimple]

Seeing as others have mentioned it, I'll also add that I was treated for endometriosis about 15 years ago and the primary symptom seemed to be GI "distress" in the first few days of my period. Once I'd had a bowel movement (sorry - that's probably TMI) I'd feel somewhat better, but until I had, the mornings for the first 4-5 days of my period were utter, awful, painful misery. And it would get gradually worse during the day until the evenings were almost as bad as the mornings.

Went to the doctor after I'd passed out a few times from the pain/discomfort. First doctor helpfully informed me that "women take longer to mature, so you may just grown out of it". I was 25 at the time. Oh, and he added that "when you have kids, it will correct itself". (I had no intention of having kids at the time, and in fact never did). Yeah. Changed my doctor after that.

Anyway, the point of this is that hormonal fluctuations with perimenopause may have triggered some endometrial-type adhesions that will mimic IBS. I found the symptoms to be similar, in many ways, except the endometriosis was predictably tied in with my period.

[Cypress]

I actually requested this book, The First Year IBS, from paperbackswap. I also selected a natural treatment for IBS. Those should arrive soon. I found a IBS forum where one person wrote extensively about constipated IBS (Sorry might be TMI too) with several natural ways to help things move along. I started ingesting chia seeds by mixing in with my yogurt and baking into my muffins. It's a natural source of omega's and very healthy for you. I also started drinking some aloe juice for soothing the digestion.

I think this is somewhat related to the hysterectomy. That took place 6 years ago. I planned a reiki session with a very talented practitioner next week. Some of this is probably related to low level anxiety. There is a lot be anxious about in our society and the bad weather over the past few years in my area hasn't helped. I am just getting older and feel I have had enough of ice storms, blizzards and tornadoes.

I started drinking lemon balm tea picked fresh from my herb garden this week. I say that helps me sleep thru the night. I am sure this will help very much. For the longest time, I have thought if I could only take 6 months off and simply rest. Enjoy waking without an alarm clock, taking long walks, cooking, reading and having no goals except enjoy each day being relatively quiet would help me so much. It's a dream.

[Nimble]

short term health insurance coverage (http://www.mnui.com/products.asp?prod=amigo)

I thnk I have a form of Irritable Bowl Syndrome. I had a hysterectomy in 2004 which seemed to be a successful surgery. However, since that surgery, I have had trouble with migraines. I noticed the migraines come on when I am congested in the bowel which is more frequent. I would say I had a sluggish digestion. When things get too backed up, I have a migraine. This can happen every other week.

My abdomen can be bloated and gurgling. I don't think I have food allergies. Maybe sensitivity. The results are I struggle to feel balanced, clean, and lively. I have a fog sensation often and don't function well at work. I seem to be always irritated and it's around digestion. Can stress and anxiety get isolated to the digestive system? I feel like I hold on or constrict the lower abdomen most of the time, yet I am puffy and bloated often. Ugh It's just on going discomfort. Is this IBS?

As much as I fuss about my digestion, I love to eat. I love to cook and enjoy almost every kind of food. Cooking is a joy.
Good abdominal health is a real blessing. I would know. I have had some of the same symptoms you have had. My stomach seems to have trouble churning food as well. I'm note sure if you experience that. I might see if this kind of stuff is covered on my limited health care to see if I can get it checked out.

[fidgiegirl]

@Cypress, I hope you are feeling better soon. (((Cypress)))