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Ibs
Former Member
Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
My doctor said ages ago that I may have IBS, she prescribed me a box of medicine and said if the problems continue I would need "investigating". Now I really don't like the sound of being "investigated" for this type of thing but it's quite bad now and I'm going to need more medicine and I think she will only give it to me if I get diagonosed.
What does this entail? I don't want anything invasive.
What does this entail? I don't want anything invasive.
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Comments
Keep a food and symptoms diary, and she might not have to go further.
If they mention it, stay calm and explain. Obviously they can't force you, but don't rule it out as an important method of diagnosis because of your past.
Have a look at this http://www.patient.co.uk/health/Irritable-Bowel-Syndrome.htm
It says you shouldn't need to have an endoscopy so try not to worry too much. (I think it is more commonly used to diagnose inflammatory bowel disease)
It's unlikely you'd get to that stage, though. First steps are usually a referral to gastroenterology where the consultant chats about your specific symptoms, and runs blood tests and possibly a stool sample. Then you take it from there.
IBS shouldn't cause inflammation. You are normally diagnosed when tests rule out inflammation. IBS is shit to live with, but it's a functional disease which is essentially harmless. Inflammation is a sign of a more sinister disease process which needs investigating further!
But like the others have said - theres blood tests, elimination diets etc which can be done before it gets to that stage.
Thanks. I think with a general anesthetic it would be okay. I've had that for some female stuff in the past and they agreed not to examine me at all when I was awake as it would cause trauma to me. Let's hope I don't need that though, I'm hopeful now that they can investigate in some other way.
Does being physically active help relieve it? Walking is important for lots of reasons, and can aid digestion and other conditions but I guess you'll already know about it, but do you go outside often or walk? Or is it solely medication that you're being treated with? Do you drink tea or coffee?
I love tea, I drink quite a lot of tea. I don't like coffee. My doctor said it is probably more to do with stress than diet though. I'm reluctant to start excluding food groups as I had anorexia in the past and not eating various things reminds me of that time. I do avoid apricots though as I know they don't agree with me.
I don't leave the flat because I have depression and anxiety, I have really bad acne (although have good make up to cover it but it takes me about 30 minutes to put it on) but I am being refered to a dermatologist as the gp says my acne is really very bad, also and this is really gross but sometimes like yesterday I have 'accidents' because of the IBS so I don't like going in public because of this. I am going to a family funeral Friday week so need to be well enough to get through the service without any issues.