Did I develop post-infection ibs?
Hello, all! I'n new here and hoping to get some advice or guidance.
I 28M suffered dysentery about 2 months which cleared up but still got some lingering digestive issues and I was diagnosed with ibs by my GI 2 weeks ago.
My symptoms are:
1) burping (mostly cleared up)
2) slight pressure in upper abdomen (its gotten a lot better)
3) sometimes very mild bloating and feeling like I need to fart and can't and it takes a while to finally be able to fart. (This is the only symtom that troubles me)
Otherwise I haven't experienced diarrhea, constipation, cramps, gas pains, urgency. My stools are regular and normal once daily in the morning.
My GI put me on a round of rifaxamin (2 weeks) and he's now put me on for another 2 weeks. Does he think I have sibo?
All this time I was thinking I just have some lingering effects from dysentery and with time I will recover completely but now my doctor has diagnosed with ibs and says I just have to manage it and I feel he's diagnosed me lazily and prematurely. He's really unhelpful and doesn't tell me what's going on and what's causing it.
Do people get diagnosed with ibs just after 2 months and is it possible that my symptoms maybe just lingering effects from the infection and I just need to give it time? Please I would love to hear about your thoughts and advice
I'm sorry that you got dysentery and are still dealing with some effects from it. While we can't diagnose you, everything you said sounds like some lingering effects from the infection to me (I'm not a doctor though!). Usually, an IBS diagnosis requires rounds of different tests (blood work, stool tests, in some cases colonoscopies or endoscopies, ...) and when everything comes back negative, you get diagnosed with IBS. In your case, it's pretty clear what caused your issues in the first place, so maybe 2 months just wasn't enough for your digestive system to recover? Especially since you're saying that all your symptoms are improving. It takes me 2 weeks sometimes to fully recover from a simple stomach bug...
Sometimes, an infection can thrown off your microbiome, which can indeed cause IBS. We have some info in this article: https://irritablebowelsyndrome.net/causes. Maybe this is what your doctor is thinking?
I would personally ask your doctor to explain why he's giving you antibiotics and if he's still unhelpful, get a second opinion if possible.
As for SIBO, there's a test to confirm if you have it, so it wouldn't make much sense to prescibe rifaxamin based on a guess...
Karina (team member)thank you for your message. Ive actually been to 3 doctors and they all don't think my symptoms are serious enough to warrant further testing. Also I live in South Asia so its not possible in my area to do a sibo breathe test. My current GI uses ibs as an umbrella term for all function digestive disorders. He thinks stress is irritating my bowels and hence I'm experiencing symptoms. Doesn't make sense to me since I've been a stressful person my whole life and didn't have any major digestive issue till the infection.
I guess rifaxamin was prescribed for the gas issue.
I'm not a doctor but its very discouraging that you go to specialists and they cant tell you anything. I dont think every long term digestive issue is ibs without any root cause and every bloating issue is because of sibo .
Anyways I plan on seeing another doctor or naturopath and see if they can explain anything.
Please keep us posted with how it goes getting another opinion. I agree completely, that not every digestive issue is IBS nor SIBO. Have you considered getting imaging done? -Elizabeth (team member) Not being taken seriously by doctors is so frustrating, I really feel you. 🙁
Speaking from experience, it is unfortunately possible to be an anxious person and not experience issues, and then starting to experience them at some point. That happened to me, not after an infection, but during a particularly stressful period in my life.
I hope that you’ll be able to get more answers from another doctor. Please keep us updated.
All the best, Karina (team member)
Regarding the gas issue, I dont experience any significant bloating. Just feeling of gas stuck in my lower abdomen. No gas pains. Sometimes there is increased flatulence while eating certain foods. Gas is odourless. I know members can't diagnose things but based on lived experience does this sound like sibo or just indigestion.
Its all very confusing and frusturating because without any proper understanding of the disorder and its root cause I don't know which actions to take. I dont have flairs of any kind or any trigger foods but I'm stuck here thinking going on a low fodmap diet will be helpful on the other hand a lot of high fodmap foods are gastroprotective and stimulate healing of the gut. I'm just confused and not really able to decide what I should be doing? Any suggestions or advice will be apprecited
I'm glad to hear that the trapped gas issue disappeared! How are you now feeling overall?
Karina (team member)its like the issue shifted now overall from trapped gas to burping. The trapped gas went away on its own in a night but now I have these constant burps and occasional nausea and vomiting. But thats getting better now. Maybe a few days and it will go away.
thank you both for your support. I consulted with another GI today and he doesn't think I have ibs at all and my symptoms will just get better with medication and time. He gave me probiotics and prokinetics.
As for getting imaging done, he also doesn't think any testing is required. I will wait a week to see how this medicine goes and then decide.
I do think maybe what I'm experiencing (trapped gas) are just gut motility issues and prokinetics/probiotics will help. I'll just have to wait and see.
Hearing its not ibs is relieving and at the same time not. I used to suffer from chronic pelvic pain for years which got better just recently once I realised its because of anxiety and worked on it. I'm not sure what I'm dealing with is infection induced indigestion or just my hypersensitive nervous system shifting symptoms from pelvic region to my gut.
I don't suffer as much from symptoms as from my feelings of fear and worry surrounding it.
You are so welcome. I hear you, it can definitely be nerve wrecking to experience symptoms and not know the root cause. I think it is great that you will see how the medication goes before jumping into anything new. I do hope it can be taken care of with this treatment. Best of luck to you, Elizabeth (team member) I’m glad to hear that the new GI doesn’t believe that you have IBS and that your symptoms will get better!
As for the pelvic floor tightness, I’ve had that and it did cause trapped wind for me, too.
Regarding the fear and worry you mentioned, I just wanted to note that as someone with health anxiety, I’ve often had strange symptoms for months that were caused by me hyper-focusing on something. Then, when I was able to stop thinking about it (usually after seeing a doctor and being told that nothing is wrong), the symptoms went away… Anxiety can play terrible tricks like that. 😔
How you found something that helps with your anxiety?
Hopefully, the medication you were put on will help and all this will soon be in the past.
Sending positive thoughts, Karina (team member)
