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 💖