Living with IBS-C? Tell us about your experience. Take our survey here.

caret icon Back to all discussions

Please help

Hi everyone, apologies if this is a long one and very TMI but I would really appreciate some advice as I feel right at the end of my tether with this. I have suffered with IBS from the age of 17 (I'm 32 now) and it was predominantly IBS-D which seemed to be stress-induced.

Over the last couple of years it seems to have changed to IBS-M (mixed) and doesn't seem to have a trigger. It used to be that I'd only have a really bad attack once every few months, but it is getting more and more regular and I can't pinpoint why. I'm here to ask for help with food & diet to stop this from happening if possible. Here are my symptoms:

*Almost always happens in the middle of the night, and always after I haven't been able to go to the toilet for a day or two

*I wake up with excruciating pain in my lower abdomen, but when I go to the toilet nothing happens

*The pain steadily builds to the point I am absolutely saturated in sweat, literally dripping, and need to strip all my clothes off

*I feel extremely nauseous (haven't vomited yet but I feel it's on a hair trigger)

*The pain is too great to push for a bowel movement, I can't stay upright and collapse to the bathroom floor

*I lay there until the nausea & pain lessens a bit and drag myself to the toilet to try again. I honestly just want to die in that moment, the pain and nausea is too great

*This happens on a cycle for the next half hour until I'm finally able to have a BM

*The BM itself starts off hard with a rush of diarrhea behind it, almost like a cork blocking a bottle

*I then have intermittent cramps all night, backwards and forwards to the toilet with a little more diarrhea and gas.

*Feel very sore in the abdo area all day after.

I would be keen to know if anyone else has similar symptoms with their attacks, and how they cope with it. I'd also like advice on which foods I should eat to stop this bottlenecking from happening, as I think if I can stop the mixed BM's I won't have that horrendous pain experience as it tries to evacuate. I'm willing to overhaul my whole diet if it stops these harrowing attacks.

Thank you so much for your help and much love to anyone else suffering 💖

  1. Your story sounds so much like mine. I used to have these episodes every few months but now it’s a lot more often. A lot of times it’s in the middle of the night, I get severe cramps, start out with the regular BM but end up with diarrhea and then I’m OK again for a few days. I wish I could figure out what foods trigger it but I can’t. Stress certainly does not help situation! I’ve been dealing with this for 30 years and I’m so tired of it!

    1. Claireee - my symptoms are idential to yours - everything right down to being drenched in sweat and not able to sit on the toilet due to weakness. I have to lay in the floor and one time when I was to weak to get up on the toilet - fortunately I had a towel on the floor. The worst part is that now I have the nausea which has turn to full on vomiting with it. Like you, I had the same symptoms of needing to vomit but couldn't but now has progressed. In two more weeks we get to redo our insurance at work and I am going to lower my deductible so that I can get more health care in 2021. I will let you know if I figure this out. BTW - I really don't understand how we can have so much pain on both ends of the digestive track at the same time. Thanks for posting.

      1. ,

        I am so sorry you are going through this. It sounds so horrible. I was diagnosed with IBS along with Crohn's Disease back in 2011. I am not a doctor and am not trying to diagnose you, but simply from speaking to many others with both IBS and IBD, it sounds like you may have a partial blockage. I would urge you to see a GI to get proper testing to rule this out. A blockage can become dangerous if not taken care of. In the meantime, drink lots of bone broth or chicken broth. It will help soothe the gut. I would also avoid a lot of fiber. But again, most importantly, go and see a GI as soon as you can.

        I hope you feel better soon.

        Hugs,
        Elizabeth (team member)

        1. , this describes exactly what I have been dealing with. It has been awhile since you posted this, but I am hoping you receive this message. Did you ever find anything that helped or figure out what triggers this? I have been searching online for anything similar to what I experience and your description is identical to my symptoms.

          Please read our rules before posting.