IBS Support Group

Do you have to have a referral to go back and follow-up with a GI doctor you have already seen?

It sounds like a malabsorption problem of some kind - have you lost weight during this time? When is the last time you had your blood drawn to test for basic levels of vitamins, potassium, that sort of thing?

I agree with you about that nurse practitioner. Once you have another office set up, I would call and ask to speak with the head nurse or office manager and relay that, and follow it up with a letter addressed specifically to the doctor you normally see. Explain very concisely what happened and you regret you will no longer need their services. You will likely never hear from them, but the people in charge need to know what is happening.

Hopefully someone else can add more information. When I hear diarrhea happening so soon after eating, I always think someone has just had their gallbladder out, so I'm not much help there.

But yes, it could definitely be digestive. That would be my first thought...there are others who will be around especially during the week who will be able to give you more insight, so make sure to keep checking back.

Thank you. I have actually gained a few pounds and my pants fit tighter around the stomach. Gaining weight doesn't seem to match the way I've been eating and my activitiy level.

I'm not sure about blood draws. I know I had a ton while I was in the hospital at the end of august but I don't what they were for.

Now you've really got me screwing up my face. When my diarrhea started, my weight started dropping. I wasn't going as quickly after meals as you are, but I just gradually dropped and dropped. I was 108 when I got preggo, 153 when I delivered (D started right after delivery) and 92 2.5 years later. I may have gone up a pound or down a pound here and there, but mostly I just steadily declined. I would expect you to be dropping at least some, but probably even faster since you are obviously not even digesting most of your food.

Okay - someone else step up here. If I keep talking out my you-know-what...

I have my blood taken all the time, and I have no clue about 90 % of what they are testing. It's so bad now, I figure if something is wrong, someone will call. Not the best attitude, especially if you are still looking for a diagnosis, but once you have one like mine, you have to leave it off somewhere...plus my main specialist sends me a card after every one, so I have some documentation...hospitals are the worst. Unless someone actually says, "Hey sick person, I'm having your blood tested for A, B & C!" you will never know unless something is broken! And even then, you might not know until the nurse brings you a pill or an IV bag and you ask what it's for!

Okay I am going to try to step up to the plate here, but I am not sure I will do any justice to your situation. I am wondering if you have been tested for any food allergies? I am also wondering if you have seen the gynecologist, as you mentioned having trouble with your ovaries etc. My guess is that if it was a cyst or something you could certainly gain weight from that. I have heard of people gaining weight from IBS but, like lilmiss, I think IBS is a crap diagnosis and I cant explain why someone would gain weight, unless they were horribly constipated. I, like lilmiss, have lost a significant amount of weight during my illness, from 140 to 115 right now and I am 5'7". I really REALLY want you to see a new doc, a GYN or a GI or even a PCP, but someone. The constant diarrhea is quite dehydrating and you dont want to end up in the hospital. Has your thyroid been tested? That could also cause diarrhea like yours. Do you have any other symptoms? Even things you think are unrelated, let us know.

Hang in there. Sorry I can't be more specific with the help here.

Also, upper right side back pain sounds like gallbladder to me. Have they checked that? Have you had an ultrasound? Gallbladdder issues could explain the pain in the upper right as well as the diarrhea. I have the pain in the upper left stomach- and I also have the inflammed stomach- that could be causing that pain.

I thought insurance companies had to accept ob/gyn's as primary-type docs for women now. Could yours give you a GI referral? Or, could you see yours, explain the situation and have him/her intervene with your crappy GP's office to get the referral until you have a chance to get a new GP? (Sorry, I'm the manipulative one. However, I don't know much about referrals.)

When looking at endocrine issues, definitely look at hypothyroidism. Also check Cushings. Whenever you see a doc next, ask for blood tests for these as well as anything else they think could be causing this. (Because you can have diseases that present as mostly GI, but aren't GI at all, or vice versa.)

I agree with Renny and Lilmis

I have an intolerance to corn. which is in everything!!!! if I eat it I am in the bathroom like you within twenty minutes if not less.

Have you tried a food journal? It may seem silly but writing down what you ate and when the symptoms appeared will help with this.
This was how I found my corn intolerance.

isn't there another Primary care doctor that your insurance accepts? It should not be too hard to change that.

My first thoughts were gallbladder and/or food intolerance. I'm wondering what the modified atkins diet involved for you... For one thing, if that meant adding artificial sweeteners or sugar alcohols, those can all cause nasty reactions for some people. My other thought is the low-carb diet is probably much higher in fat. Fat stimulates the digestive system generally (though that certainly isnt' the whole story here), so it could be aggravating a system that's already sensitive for another reason. The other thing is if you have gallbladder issues (or had it removed), your system may not be handling fat well. GB troubles often cause pain through to your upper back, usually upper right.

The other thing I'm wondering is what caused the stomach inflammation they mentioned. Did they test for Heliobacter infection?

You may want to ask for a copy of your test results for your records. Take a look at them and see if anything sounds unusual (they're not as hard to understand as you might think). Sometimes they don't mention little things that are "off" to the patient, and there could be clues.

Stinks that the NP had her own agenda like that - and "knew better" than your neurologist & the medical board (ha). I'd agree that the doctor should probably be told that she did that. Of course, if you may need to go back there again, you'd want to be delicate about it!

It happens with everything I eat, except insoluble fiber. I can stop it by eating insoluble fiber first, but that makes my stomach hurt. Also, when I do have "normal" stools from the fiber, they are long and narrow, and usually tan in color. Only have a few minutes warning before it starts trying to force its way out

In the modified atkins diet, you eat as much fat as possible, then try to have everything else be made up of protein. There are no sugars of any kind. Its the atkins diet with no protein, fluid or calorie restriction (also soy needs to be completly avoided). The only processed foods that fit into what I could eat were rootbeer and pork rinds (only tried once). Everything else was natural - meat, olive oil, swiss chard, cheeses.

At first I just seemed to get sick after eating meat, so I stopped eating it. Now it doesn't matter what I eat - I get diarrhea right after. As a single person, I usually do only eat one food for a meal. This happened with a banana yesterday.

I'm also almost always hungry any more, but I barely eat anything and am full. Then a bit later the diarrhea and the hunger return.

The problem with the insurance is that the primary doctor has to be changed before I can see one, And to be entirely honest, this was pretty much my last straw with believing doctors have any intention of helping me. When my epilepsy came out of remission, it took me 4 doctors before I found one who would consider that could be the case instead of swearing to me that I was just trying to avoid working because I was afraid of graduating (for the second time and continuing the job I had been working at for 3 years). Then I get my EEG, and the seizure activity is so severe they were amazed I could carry on a conversation - less than 12 hours after the last doctor told me I couldn't possibly be having any seizures. Stuck with that doctor for a while until it became quite obvious she was not the least bit concerned about life threatening side effects the medication she put me on, and the next two doctors I tried weren't about to go against her (finally had to stop it on my own). Oh yes, she also lied to me, claiming my medication was no longer manufactured so that she could switch me to one for which she was getting a kickback. Even though that meant I had to go two weeks without any medicaton, stopping it cold turker, since the one she switched me to wasn't available in the entire district. And no number of pharmacists calling her would get her to write me a prescription for the medication I had previously been taking (and managed to get an entire year after she told me it was no longer manufactured..) And thats just the tip of the ice berg in doctors I've had to deal with since becoming disabled as an adult. I could probably write an encyclopedia on my horror stories. Haven't found one good doctor yet - contact my childhood neurologist via email for things that are really important because I know I can't trust any of the doctors I currently see

Hi I'm new to this site but I have to say that you sound like you could have Habba syndrome. This is a defective gallbladder that doesn't react to food the way it should. I found out about this on another website and it has taken me a year and a half to get a definitive diagnosis. The medication I am on now is called cholesystramine (powder). I don't know what the effect will be as I have only just started taking it.
Anyhow, if you haven't been tested for that yet, go for it. Here it is called an HIDA scan with CCK injection - it may be called something else elsewhere.
For more information look at www.habbasyndrome.com .
Best of luck!

I know this is a older post but i thought i would start it up again. I too have these symptoms. I can see the food ive eatin in my stool anywhere from 5 to 20 mins after i've eatin. And its mostly diarrhea. The bad thing is the terrible pain before the bowel movement, its so bad that i curl up in a ball and cry. I've had my gallbladder out. I had a ERCP for sphincter of oddi dysfunction. I've had pancreatitus. It's not cronic but i have had it more than once. I have had blood in my stool but the last few test have come out normal. I just dont know what to do. I'm 32 now and this all started happening when I was 16. I've seen a few doctors over the years but sometimes i get sick of being a pin cushion and never getting any answers, I quit going. I cant go on a dinner and movie date without issues. But most worrisome is that now im starting to feel tired and weak. I just dont know what to do anymore. I dont have the money to play musical specialist.

Hi iyori79,
I've had minor stomach pain and very unpredictable bowel movements since I was a small child however, the last 2 years I have been having the same pain and diarrhea onsets that you mentioned. It's always the same stabbing severe stomach pain that radiates into my back. It causes me to hunch over it is so painful. It will usually pass but is followed by another one which can go on for hours any sometimes days and weeks. Sometimes after eating or before going to the bathroom it is the worse. I had these symptoms so bad last Nov and had so much pain and bloating that I could no longer function properly, I was living on the couch (couch because I couldn't lay flat in bed as it would make the pain worse) in pain for almost 2 weeks so I went to the ER and they did a CT scan and they said there was a very large amount of fluid around my appendix and that it probably ruptured so they took me into surgery to remove it however, when they got in there they saw it was just inflamed but they went ahead and removed the appendix and all the fluid in my abdomen but they couldn't understand where the clear fluid was coming from. It was tested to see if it was infected and thank God it was not as the results came back with no infection. I was given 2 different antibiotics which seemed to help ease the symptoms. Besides a meal here and there upsetting my stomach and causing pain and bowel movement changes (like I've had my whole life) I've been okay since Nov until this week.... The severe stomach/back pain and the diarrhea after every meal is back. I also have a few small patches of bumps on a few areas of my arms and legs as well as a dry mouth and my pee seems to be a bit darker then it normally is. However, I think these symptoms are more caused by the diarrhea and the stress caused from worring about what to eat and waiting for the diarrhea to hit the anything else but I could be wrong. There is several people fighting this battle we are not alone. I've been reseaching this for a few years and there are so many different things it "could" be and it sounds like you've been tested for a lot yourself. I just wanted to share my story and keep in touch with others to see how they are doing. I plan to make an appt. with my GI specialist and I will keep you posted. Best of luck to you!
Take care,
Shirley_Girly

Hi iyori79 ,
I have the same issue. I plan to make an appt with my GI very soon. I will keep you posted.