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Irritable Bowel Syndrome
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Posted 3/7/2009 3:43 PM (GMT -8)
Here I am in California...3,000 miles from my home in Philadelphia.  Been out here--since 2 days after Christmas-!  Weather great-  doing my "writing thing"---BUT--Ohhh. this IBS!

For reasons of brevity (& the personal nature of it)--I'm feeling very depressed.

I have all my meds here...my Valium..Lipitor.Tenormin...Protonix...---AND.."AS NEEDED"...my IBS meds!  (Nulev- Librax-Donnatal--immodium)

OK---since early January..over two months...my IBS..-D...acting up.  Some mornings...as soon as i get up--boom...right to the bathroom...& it never feels I've completely evacuated in my bowel movement.  There's always more.   Three..or four times....in AM.---

Two weeks ago---started w some Librax...& a morning Immodium---that helped!    Then..i stopped ..(i'm taking Valium..Tenormin...i don't wanna take too much....feeling tired as it is)-

ANYWAY--last 3 days...it's that chronic....cramping pain...across the stomach (the typical "spastic colon" pain,...NOT severe--just bothersome,..gas....i take phazyme..)--but the constant crampiness!   Then going to the bathroom....BM...is loose...!

MY QUESTION...i could & WILL start taking SOMETHING to "slow down" the ..muscle contractions....some kind of.."anti-cholinergic.....BUT..i must decide on ONE!

Should I..

1) Go back to taking Librax?  (rx..says 4/day..i NEVER take,,.4.....TWO at most---heck..I'm already taking Valium.....& with the LIBRIUM in Librax..i'll feel like a Zombie!  BUT--maybe one before breakfast

.& one before  dinner--with one Imodium...thrown in?

2) Should i take the AM..Imodium....AND....a NULEV...every 6 hrs..like one about...noon..& one about 9 PM......?   (I am LOADED up w NULEV...that dissolve under the tongue...mint taste--they stopped making them..but ..i have plenty!

In other words....lIt's a choice between ONE of...two...anti-spasmodics...NULEV..or LIBRAX---

And...in my diet...thet say to "increase fiber"...WELL..that makes it WORSE!  (mornings when i eat Grape nuts..w blueberries...or another hi fibre cereal...forget about it)--

I'm going back to BREAKFAST of Ginger or Mint tea,..& a bagel......& Swiss cheese sandwiches & soup!

PLEASE---someone...ANYONE get back...w suggestions!     You who have this...know what it feels like!

My wife calls every day--& says..i should come back...end of March..(I have a script meeting...w a producer--TGhat's why i'm out here)--Anyway---WHAT do you say?   LIBRAX..or NULEV? 

ONE Imodium..or more?     Swiss cheese sandwiches?  Cut out the fiber?  HELP!   Regards & thanks  for any help----Robert

Posted 3/7/2009 5:01 PM (GMT -8)
If it makes you feel any better, too much fiber makes my diarrhea worse. It also makes my constipation worse. Go figure!

I don't know anything about anti-spasmodics much, but I see you have Lipitor on your list of drugs. My husband was about crippled taking a statin drug. He got frozen shoulder in both of his shoulders, and physical therapy only gave him back about 60% of the useage in one of his shoulders. They hurt all the time and he couldn't do any sort of exercise or lifting with them. He thought his days of medieval fighting (we're reenactors) was permanently over.

Then I found a website by a reputable doctor who is adamently opposed to statins, thinks they're really dangerous, worse dangerous than cholesterol, and he had a whole list of possible side effects, and I found some descriptions of people having similar crippling joint pain. Also, my husband could hardly sleep. Right after I found this website, MSN had an article on how statins can cause sleeplessness. I showed him both, and he quit taking the statin. His sleep pattern returned to normal almost at once, and a month or two later he noticed a definite improvement in his shoulders. He's been off of it about a year now and his shoulders are about 95% functional (without any additional physical therapy) and they don't hurt constantly.

I THINK that statins have bowel problems associated with them as well, but I can't remember. This is the website with all the side effects and all the science on it: http://www.spacedoc.net/ They are linked to depression and memory loss.
Posted 3/8/2009 9:40 AM (GMT -8)
My primary doc once recommended macaroons. Cocanut(?) ones. There was a study about different foods that helped people with IBS-D and it showed that they helped some people. Personally increasing my fiber just makes my guts more cranky.
Posted 3/8/2009 3:32 PM (GMT -8)
I don't know about peppermint oil, but peppermint tea is often recommended on here for upset stomach/nausea. I guess it calms the stomach down--and that same action can calm the intestines down as well.

I know dehydrated banana chips are definitely an anti-diarrheal food. Bananas themselves are slightly constipating, but when you suck all of the water out of them, so that they soak up water in your guts after you eat them, they'll give you serious constipation if you're normal and eat more than one or two handfuls of them. The first time I got into them, and ate them like candy, I thought I was never going to poop again, LOL. Now, sometimes, I'll get them and eat them before a trip to help with my D problems.
Posted 3/9/2009 3:38 AM (GMT -8)
Keriamon - never knew that about banana chips before! Of course I'd worry about blockage too....so I don't eat them usually. I just eat the real thing. But have you ever tried Trader Joe's banana chips? They are soft and in between the texture of fresh fruit and other banana chips (hard). I was surprised actually. Hubby ate the entire bag in one sitting but I did try one (the Trader Joe's chips....). Hubby didn't have any trouble (then again, he has a normal gut, the lucky guy!)
Posted 3/9/2009 7:59 AM (GMT -8)
Oh, I like my banana chips CRUNCHY! Lol. In fact, I hate bananas. But the chips don't have the same taste (probably because they're fried in coconut oil :-O ), so that's why I eat them sometimes.

We also feed them to our medieval fighters because they're not messy like real bananas, and they are a source of potassium, which they can lose through sweating.
Posted 3/12/2009 3:38 PM (GMT -8)
I would try cutting out all dairy and caffeine for awhile. Take lactose pills with your swiss sandwich or find something else to eat. I swore up and down that I wasn't lactose intollerant but cutting out dairy REALLY helped me. For an anti-spasmodic I take hyosciamine which is the generic of Levisyn. I heard that there was a shortage of that though. Hope you feel better soon!!
Posted 3/12/2009 8:27 PM (GMT -8)
Fitzy, I had to order the Hyoscymine from Canada because the cheap generic was not longer available. They wanted almost $90 for something I used to get for $7. Have you filled it lately? I paid $45 including shipping but could only get it from one source up there and it took 3 weeks. Just a heads up.
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