Ibs or chrons or ulcerated colitis?

Question

symptoms -

feeling sick (especially early morning ,and when eating food)

boaking

being sick

diarrhea

bloating stomach

loads of wind

noisy stomach

lots of mucous in stool

weigth loss

not being able to put weight on

no energy

started to notice sore kness

Answer 1

Only a doctor can diagnose and treat you. While you are waiting, try liquid Gaviscon to ease some of the symptoms.

Answer 2

Well, those symptoms are the symptoms of Crohns and Ulcerative Colitis which are sister diseases and under the umbrella of Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD). Both of these are actual diseases which can look like a small ulcer in the intestines with areas of inflammation surrounding it and causes the intestines to malfunction causing the pain and symptoms.

IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome) is actually a functional problem. So if the Doctor get in there and cannot find any actual disease then it falls under IBS. The important thing is that while someone with IBS can eat the same diet as someone as IBD the reverse is not true.

What you need to do if you are experiencing these symptoms is get yourself to a Doctor (possibly a GI specialist) and be tested for it. The tests for IBD are going to be Endoscopy, Colonoscopy. Sometimes blood work will turn up stuff and in extreme cases you might even have to have Encapsulized Endoscopy (the camera pill). These tests are not to be feared, they give  you medicine to make you sleep and forget so, they are a breeze to go through. The reason for going to the Doctor is if you have IBD you need to be treated for it. Oh, and Crohns is commonly found in adolescense or young adult hood.

Good luck and feel free to e-mail me if you have any more questions.

Answer 3

have you been taking any antibiotics for an extended period of time - say 3 weeks or more?

My husband is diabetic and was given antibiotics to clear up the sores that developed on his leg. He was taking these for 4 weeks. In the third week the diarrhea started and it took another 2 weeks to find out 2 things. One he had clostridium difficile and two - he also had an ulcerated colon. By this time all he wanted to do was sleep - all day.

Clostridium can start when all the good bacteria in the intestines & colon are killed off by an extended time of taking antibiotics. This allows the clostridium bacteria to grow.

Answer 4

I'm sorry you're having those symptoms. Since I just went through trying to figure out what was causing my severe gut pain, I wrote a Squidoo Lens about diagnosing gut pain: http://www.squidoo.com/DiagnosingGutPain -- I still need to add signs/symptoms for some of the diagnoses, and more possible diagnoses though. I had an arthritis attack after one of my gut attacks (guessing your sore knees might be arthritis).

- Do your symptoms ease up when you go without food?

- Have you,or someone close to you, traveled recently?

- Have you started a food journal, writing what you eat and marking the time, then writing in your symptoms, and the times they started?

I checked the Ulcerative Colitis page, and bloody stools seem common with all the various ulcerative colitis variations -- depending on where it occurs: "Common symptoms of ulcerative colitis include rectal bleeding and diarrhea, but there is a wide range of symptoms among patients with this disease."

http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/a...

(the link goes into the symptoms for the different areas where ulcerative colitis can occur.)

Crohn's Disease symptoms sounds similar to yours (but so do some others, so definitely get with a GP, or gastroenterologist to get the correct diagnosis):

http://www.medhelp.org/adam_pages/show_s...

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Q: What is the difference between ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease?

A: In both conditions there is inflammation of the intestine. But ulcerative colitis affects just the colon, while Crohn's can affect any portion of the gastrointestinal tract. Also, ulcerative colitis affects the inner lining only, while Crohn's can affect the full thickness of the bowel wall.

http://www.ehealthmd.com/library/ulcerat...

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Celiac Disease might need ruling out too (there's a blood test for Celiac, but it's not as accurate if you've already cut wheat gluten from your diet, so try to get it done as soon as you can):

http://digestive.niddk.nih.gov/ddiseases...

IBS is more of a "rule out" condition, meaning that once the other stuff's been ruled out, then it's probably IBS. There's three forms of IBS: diarrhea (IBS-D), constipation (IBS-C), and alternating between constipation and diarrhea (IBS-A). There's food "triggers" that cause attacks, and they seem to differ between the kind of IBS a person has, which makes it really difficult for new IBS sufferers to figure things out. The best site I've found that educates us for each kind is HelpForIBS.com -- skip directly to the triggers area of her site if you want to jump ahead: http://www.helpforibs.com/diet/trigger1....

And here's a good source on food allergy testing, just in case (not mine, someone that suffered anaphylactic shock from food):

http://www.squidoo.com/foodallergytestin... -- this page is a good reason for people doing an elimination diet with their doctor, rather than on their own. Imagine going off whatever food someone might be allergic too for a few weeks, then re-exposing themselves to it; it's scary how some people can be so allergic to food, and not know about it.

The food/symptoms journal I mentioned would be helpful for your doctor to start narrowing down the possible diseases/conditions. My Squidoo Lens page also has some other questions your doctors and nurses might ask, if you'd like to go in prepared.

I wish you all the best in figuring out what's causing your symptoms, so you can learn about treatment, or at least what to avoid.

Answer 5

I've got that too.

Miserable, isn't it ?