IBS and extreme anxiety
Had a total knee replacement 4 weeks ago and my IBS has been the worst.I have extreme anxiety due to physio therapy and pain,wondering if anyone else has been through something similar
, I hope you're recovering well from your surgery! I'm sorry to hear that on top of healing from your knee replacement you also have to deal with worsening IBS symptoms. I don't have experience with this, but it sounds like a normal correlation. As I'm sure you know, anxiety plays a big roll in IBS symptoms, and if you're feeling anxious every day about being in pain, it will eventually take a toll on your gut! Perhaps you can try some meditation! This would help to regulate your breathing and reduce your cortisol levels (which is related to stress and digestive issues). Here's a link for a guided meditation you could try. https://irritablebowelsyndrome.net/video/guided-meditation. This might even be helpful when you go to your PT sessions. When you start feeling that intense pain, you can use this visualization to help you breath through it!
Have you been seeing progress with your knee? How are you feeling today? - Kat (Team Member)Thanks I will try the meditation had a good day yesterday not so good today but hopefully tomorrow will be better
I hope you'll continue to feel better each day and that the meditation will help!
I don't have any experience with knee replacement, but for me, anything out of the ordinary will worsen my anxiety and IBS. I've had a very small surgery recently and even that caused enough anxiety to get so much worse. In general, anything that causes pain or even discomfort makes my anxiety worse because I can't get comfortable.
In addition to meditation, I'm wondering if EFT tapping (https://irritablebowelsyndrome.net/living/eft-tapping) might also be helpful for you? It's the best technique I've found so far for myself that tremendously helps with my anxiety.
Please keep us updated. Big hugs, Karina (team member)
