Loos talk

[j4]

Cross-posted from theladiesloos. I don't know how to do a proper x-post on LJ, so I'll just say that if you've read it there, you don't need to read it here.

I'm SO FED UP. Since the beginning of May I've had stomach cramps and pain/discomfort, like having trapped wind all the time. It comes and goes, it's usually grumbling away in the background, sometimes it's just a vague feeling of not-quite-right, other times (like right now) it's bad enough to make me just want to curl up in a ball and whimper. Even when it's not too bad it makes me feel bloated and miserable and utterly unsexy (it's really hard to feel attractive when you're constantly farting like an old dog).

I've been to the doctor a couple of times. The answer, basically, is "we've no idea what's wrong with you". He's done various tests and they've all come back normal. I've got an appointment booked for next Thursday, and this morning I was tempted to try to ring up and get a sooner appointment, but I decided there was no point -- the condition isn't going to go away before then, but it's unlikely to worsen any more than this before then, and besides, they're not going to be able to get me an appointment outside work hours, and I can't call in sick with trapped wind, for god's sake. It never seems like it's quite bad enough at any one time to justify claiming that I'm too ill to go to work. It just goes on and on and on, and it wears me out.

In the meantime, nothing seems to make any difference. It doesn't seem to matter what I eat, or when I eat, or if I eat; indigestion remedies do nothing, the stuff the doctor prescribed the last two times did nothing; it doesn't seem to make any difference whether I stand or sit or lie down. There's nothing I can do, and I hate being helpless like this, I just want to know what it is and whether it's finite and whether there's anything I can do to cure it or even alleviate it. If somebody said "Right, you're allergic to everything except rice and water," then even that would be better; sure, I'd never be able to enjoy eating again, but at least I'd know that I could do something.

In addition to the stomach pains I'm getting worse and worse moodswings and attacks of depression. It's like something just bubbling up inside, there doesn't seem to be any way to stop it, I just start feeling nervy and angry and queasy and then something somebody says will trigger me and I'll just be spiralling down into awfulness. I don't even know how to explain it when I'm not actually in that state, it's just like everything burning up inside me, like a red mist, and I end up crying and shouting and being angry and violent and miserable. It's more like a fit or something than a 'moodswing'.

The moodswings seem to be coming in cycles of about 2 weeks, in line with the cycle of my Pill. I've been on the Pill for 10+ years (on this particular one for most of that time), and I've suffered from depression for all of that time (and then some), but it's only quite recently that my life's been settled enough in other ways for me to be able to observe the pattern like that. And the depression started before I went on the Pill, so it'd never really occurred to me that they might be connected. As for the stomach problems in relation to the Pill -- I've always had wind and dodgy bowels when I have my period, but judging from recent conversations on here that seems to be quite normal; but this recent stomach thing is more constant and seemed to come on very suddenly back in May -- so it seems unlikely that it's a result of something I've been taking for this long. I'd be happy to come off the Pill, less happy to try changing to different Pills as I don't want to spend the next howevermany months changing from Pill to Pill and never being sure whether it's the change or the type of Pill or other factors altogether that are making a difference (if any difference is made).

I want to tell the doctor all this, but every time I go to the doc with any physical symptom he asks if I'm depressed, and I know that as soon as I say the magic word "depression" all the physical symptoms will immediately be written off as the hypochondriac imaginings of a neurotic woman, and if I refuse to take YET MORE fucking antidepressants it'll be considered evidence that I "just don't want to get better". (Despite the fact that EVERY TIME I've taken ADs they've not helped at all and given me bad side-effects.)

There just seem to be too many factors altogether, it's impossible to do any sort of controlled experiment, and it's understandable that the doctor just looks at this mess and thinks "Hmm, obviously just a hypochondriac, just wants attention." But I'm not making it up, and I'd be quite happy to never have any attention again from the medical profession as a whole, and I do want to fix it, but I don't know how to untangle it all. I hate it. I want to outsource my entire digestive/reproductive system to Elbonia while they sort out what's wrong with it.

Comments

[simonb.livejournal.com]

Your description of trapped wind is very familiar to me - its basically a symtom of IBS (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibs). There are times when I've wanted to have a small valve installed in my side so I could bleed off the trapped wind and reduce the pain-related pressure in my gut.

I'm surprised that your GP hasn't suggested doing something like an exclusion diet to rule out food allergies or similar though - its normally the first port of call for western medicine. Personally I'd look at changing GPs if you feel that your current GP is not taking you seriously.

One problem I've encountered is that whilst western-style medicine is very good with what is best described as critical care, it really falls down when it comes to systemic problems because the human body is an incredibly complex organism and we're nowhere even close to understanding how all of it works as an entire system yet.

WRT the LJ cross posting - AFAIAA its not possible to do a cross-post in the Usenet sense within LJ. Its one of the failings of most web-based discussion systems IME. Implementing a cross-post facility would potentially be tricky as well given security related stuff, tracking of comments, etc.

[j4.livejournal.com]

I really don't see how it can be diet-related. I've not made any changes to my diet, the stomach problems (at the level they're at now) came on suddenly and the only things I'd had to eat/drink recently were things I'd been having all my life; also, since they've started, it really doesn't seem to make any difference what I eat or even whether I eat.

I did ask my GP though, last time, and he agreed that from what I'd told him of the symptoms it was very unlikely that it was diet-related. He hasn't even mentioned IBS, either, despite the fact that it seems to be a very fashionable diagnosis at the moment. AIUI, though, IBS is a fairly vague blanket term for lots of symptoms with no other explanation, so perhaps the GP wants to try other things before just effectively saying "Yes, you've got a dodgy stomach that we can't cure, we can give it a fancy name if you like"?

And, to be honest, I'm with him on that. I really do want to try everything else possible before just giving in to the idea that I'll never be able to eat normally again.

[juliet]

I got diagnosed with IBS a few years ago, suffering symptoms very similar to what you describe. They prescribed me DRUGS, which I cannot remember the name of (think it began with a C), to take 3 x day. Did the trick. After a couple of months I came off them again (on GP's advice, as apparently sometimes once you've got it settled down it'll stay settled down), & it was pretty much OK again. I get the odd attack these days but nothing *like* what I had back then (agonising in-tears pain, most of the time, & an intimate knowledge of every publicly accessible toilet in Oxford :-/ ).

Aloe vera capsules can also be helpful.

I've also found the following sort-of massage to help: imagine an octagon on your stomach, with the bottom edge running just along the top of yr pubic bone, the top one along your diaphragm. Starting at the diagonal octagon-edge roughly where your appendix is (on the right), press your fingers into it quite firmly & hold for a few secs. Then move round one edge clockwise, & repeat. Go all the way round twice - basically, you're following the line of your colon round, & trying to encourage the trapped wind to come out (you may be able to feel it travelling round, in fact). This does tend to lead to farting a lot, but in a more controlled way, & it reduces the pain.

[simonb.livejournal.com]

FWIW I was fine with wheat for years and then I suddenly started having problems with my digestive tract back in '95. It took until around 2002 for me to work out that it was wheat which was a cause of it. I should probably note that I have to ensure that I eat food at regular intervals; if I don't then I can easily end up with trapped wind.

Its certainly possible that its not diet related and is something else. I have to wonder if something has happened to upset the balance of the bacteria which live in your gut - if that goes out of kilter its possible for lots of wind to be produced. You could try some of those friendly-bacteria drinks or eating natural live yoghut for a little bit to see if that helps at all.

Other options are to keep a food diary and see if there is any pattern to the symptoms. At worst you could do an exclusion diet to really rule out food, but they aren't easy to do.

As to not being able to eat normally again, I'm with you on that one. Its a right pain to have to deal with and its one of the main reasons I went back to eating meat again - its made a massive difference to how I view food. Hell, I'm started to play with cooking again which is a nice change from the "Hate food" thoughts I was having only a few months ago.

[filecoreinuse.livejournal.com]

I was also going to make an IBS post. Have you tried doing a week of the 'usual supspects' diet-wise and seeing if that helps? E.g. a week of no wheat or whatever.

[j4.livejournal.com]

No, I haven't, because if my GP thinks there's a chance that it's diet-related (and he was extremely sceptical about it the last two times I saw him about this condition) then I'd much rather do an exclusion diet with the advice of the GP or a nutritionist than make random shot-in-the-dark guesses at what might be causing it and cut those things out of my diet (which costs a lot of effort and/or money for X-free alternatives) in the vague hope that I'll be able to tell the difference between the condition remitting for a couple of days (which it does sometimes anyway) and the diet making a difference.

Have you ever tried to go for a week without any wheat in your diet, or without any dairy products? Would you go to that amount of effort just because somebody said "Well, you haven't tried it yet, have you"? I've been eating wheat and dairy products for 10 years and not felt like this for any of that time; the pain/discomfort doesn't seem to correlate with what I eat, when I eat, or whether I eat (and I have been watching what I eat fairly carefully even though I haven't been going on faddy diets). In the absence of any strong evidence, I don't think it's worth the hassle just to get an inconclusive result.

Having said that, a couple of months ago I did try cutting dairy out for a few days, and it made not a blind bit of difference (and 2 days should be enough to get the stuff out of your system) except to remind me how fucking awkward it was trying to follow a lactose-free diet. I'd really much rather try other possibilities before just saying "Oh, it must be a food allergy, better stop eating food".

As for wheat... it's funny how wheat seems to be the most fashionable thing to blame for any health problems at the moment. During my week in Switzerland I had tons of bread every morning, more bread later in the day some days, pasta a couple of nights -- far more wheat than I would normally have -- so I suspect if wheat was triggering an allergic response I would have been in agony for the entire week. As it was, I was better then than I am now!

[filecoreinuse.livejournal.com]

Whoa! *moves away from flamage* I was only throwing suggestions around, not saying 'how dare you moan when you haven't tried X which will obviously work'[1]. Perhaps you could add a bit of CSS magic to your LJ to put 'he is not getting at you, he is just asking' tags around my comments :).

You know your own body best clearly and it would never be my intention to say otherwise.

Although to answer one point, yes I have at points in my life been required to have a wheat-free diet[2], a dairy free diet, an alcohol free diet[3] and, for a great deal of time, a meat-free one as well — although that wasn't medically motivated.

[1] Geeks seem to have a terrible habit of believeing, without reason, that their own particular theorem is always correct; a trivial example is the editor war. I hope I don't do that too much.
[2] To which I owe the discovery of chilli and mashed spuds.
[3] Is such a thing can be said to be a diet.

[j4.livejournal.com]

Sorry. :-/ I'm in a bad mood anyway because I'm in pain/discomfort, and I'm getting pretty fed up of people telling me "oh, just cut wheat out of your diet" as if it was the easiest thing in the world -- particularly when there's absolutely no evidence that wheat is to blame... Not your fault, though, you were an unintentional trigger rather than a cause, & apologies for snapping at you.