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

[karen2205]

Trapped wind sounds very much like an IBS symptom to me - I get it combined with continual farting. My own strategies for dealing with it (it being IBS as a whole - I don't get the trapped wind thing too often) have been:

(a) writing down exactly what I'm eating & subsequent bowel motions to attempt to work out what causes particular symptoms

(b) trying to avoid dairy. I've switched to goat's cheese. I'm not doing particularly well at this - it's very hard to avoid dairy 'cos lots of things you wouldn't expect contain it. But I'm not at all sure that dairy is causing my problems, having attempted to avoid it for a while, so I'm going back to eating a bit of it.

(c) kind of related to the above - trying to find out if I'm lactose intolerant, by drinking a pint of milk and seeing what happened. There are proper tests for this so it's something worth suggesting to your GP.

(d) wheat is the other thing thought to cause IBSy problems. I will get round to trying to avoid wheat for a while to see if that makes a difference. The same is true of eggs.

People who find they get mood swings from the pill often get on better with patches or a vaginal ring because they've got lower doses of hormones. An IUS/IUD may also be an option. I get on very well with Cerazette (desogestrel) which is a progesterone only pill.

Mood swings every two weeks and anti-depressants not working/giving you side effects makes me think that you've not got straight forward depression (I'm not saying that you're not depressed - just that it's not the 'normal' sort of depression). Have a google for 'rapid cycling' - obviously I'm not a doctor, but you might end up finding some label that matches your own symptoms that you can take to your GP.

[j4.livejournal.com]

I'm not doing particularly well at this - it's very hard to avoid dairy 'cos lots of things you wouldn't expect contain it.

It's much better now than it used to be -- for a start, you can get dairy-free alternatives in supermarkets. I was lactose-allergic when I was tiny, & thus on a lactose-free diet for the first 12 years or so of my life. After that I decided to try the dairy stuff again & was apparently fine. I suppose this could be a very belated recurrence of the dairy problems...

patches or a vaginal ring [...] an IUS/IUD

Arghh. No, no, no, absolutely no to having great lumps of stuff stuck in me. I feel sick and dizzy and tearful from putting a tampon in. And just hearing friends' accounts of having coils fitted has made me feel queasy and faint.

just that it's not the 'normal' sort of depression

There's no "normal" sort of depression. It's basically a blanket term for lots of different symptoms, with lots of different (possible) causes. ADs certainly don't work for everybody, and they give most people some side-effects.

I also don't have any sort of mania inbetween the mood crashes, which sort of suggests that bipolar disorder ("rapid cycling" or otherwise) wouldn't be a very helpful label.

[juliet]

No, no, no, absolutely no to having great lumps of stuff stuck in me.

Does that apply to things in the arm as well? Because the implant might be one option, if not - that's lower-dose as well (& progesterone-only).

BTW, this is the NHS guidance to doctors on IBS, which if you've not already seen it may be helpful. I am pretty sure that mebeverine (down the bottom under 'anti-spasmodics') was what I had (so, er, not beginning with a C, then :-) ). They also mention peppermint oil as an OTC remedy - try peppermint tea of a morning?

[j4.livejournal.com]

I'd be fine with the implant from a having-things-stuck-in-me point of view, but at the end of the day I suspect it's effectively just like trying a different pill (it's the same hormones, innit?) and it's harder to stop (I assume you can't take it out yourself!). :-/

Seen the NHS thing, but thanks for the confirmation of what you were prescribed. I'm always a bit wary of trying to self-prescribe because I know the doctors (quite reasonably!) don't like it, but I'll bear it in mind.

In the meantime I will drink more peppermint tea. At least it tastes nice, even if it (like everything else) makes no difference...

[juliet]

Well, it's progesterone-only rather than oestrogen & progesterone (unless you're already on the mini-pill, which is progesterone-only as well), & it's significantly lower-dose than any pill can be, because of going straight into the bloodstream. But yeah, you have to go back to the clinic/GP/whatever to get it taken out if it doesn't work out.

With the moods & the stomach (& the fact that they're almost certainly interconnected in *some* way - feeling icky not good for mood even in the better bits of your mood-cycle, stress etc bad for stomachs), if I were you I'd be looking at coming off the Pill altogether for a few months to see what effect that has. I nearly did that myself (well, didn't get my implant replaced) recently, but in the end the doctor & I decided to see if having a new implant would fix the problems instead. Which it seems it may have done, touch wood.

[nods re self-prescribing] OOI, what did you get prescribed the last couple of times, do you remember? If it/they was/were anti-spasmodics, then that avenue's maybe been tried already...

[extends sympathy if desired]

[j4.livejournal.com]

I was thinking of trying coming off the Pill for a few months (though I'm dreading the possibility of going back to 9-day-long periods with anxiety and panic attacks) but if I'm going to do that I'd rather do it with medical guidance -- or at least with some reassurance from the doc that it's unlikely to make anything worse. Or at least awareness of it so that it's on my medical records, frankly, because I'm sick of having to tell doctors the same things over and over again.

Last time I got prescribed super-strength Gaviscon (which I think is just for heartburn/indigestion); the time before that it was some pills that according to the leaflet were supposed to be for Reflux Syndrome. (Can't remember what they were called, I'm afraid.)

The Gaviscon is bright pink, chock-full of sweeteners, and tastes like sorbitol-and-vomit. Blehhhhhh.

[juliet]

Both of those sound - odd, since they're both heartburn remedies, & that doesn't sound like what you've been describing - you're talking about gut-stuff, not stomach-stuff. Did the doctor say anything about why he was prescribing that? Anyway, neither of 'em are antispasmodics, so that's still a possible option. Whilst I do understand about the wariness with self-prescribing, I don't think there's anything wrong with asking the doctor if you can try a particular class of treatment. (especially one that *does* match your symptoms whereas what he's already prescribed *doesn't*, really, unless I'm missing something, which is of course entirely possible, am not a medical professional, etc etc.).

It does make sense to make sure he knows about coming off the Pill, as well, yes. Although I am sometimes dubious about how much doctors actually *read* medical records :-(

If he's inclined to be unhelpful about, e.g., the depression/its interaction with physical symptoms, are there any other doctors in the practice you could try? We have 3 in our practice: one of 'em is *awful*, doesn't listen to you in the slightest, useful only if you have something like bronchitis & just want antibiotics (although even then, his focus is on getting you out the door & I don't doubt he'd miss anything more serious); one is OK, & one is *great*. It's very easy to get appts with the first, very difficult with the latter two. [sigh]

[j4.livejournal.com]

All I can remember about what he said about the stuff he was prescribing was that it was basically a case of "let's try to treat the symptoms while we wait for test results". Maybe the wind symptoms were what he was focusing on? He did poke my stomach a lot and seemed surprised at where the most painful areas seemed to be.

I don't know really how unhelpful he is about depression etc. because I haven't really been treated for that directly since moving to this practice -- I just get twitchy when he always asks "are you feeling happy etc. generally?" Probably unfair on him; I'm uneasy more just because of a history of Crap Doctors than because of anything he does. To be fair to him, he's usually quite good at explaining stuff if I actually remember to ask; and he was willing to accept "I don't do that any more" re the scars on my arms, rather than asking lots of questions. So I suppose I probably should mention the moodswings and stuff, it's just I feel like I always end up saying "There's this and this and this and this and it's all tangled up" and the normal GP response to that seems to be "Here, take Prozac". :-/

[sparrowsion]

He was very reluctant to treat with ADs when I was seeing him with depression, and pulled me off them as soon as it became clear that they weren't making the slightest bit of difference. This was pre-Prozac, though.

[j4.livejournal.com]

Hmmm. Interesting datapoint -- thanks!

I should still be able to pop over to yours tonight to collect the rest of that stuff (the books in the boxes in the library, was that it?) but not sure when as I've got a doc's appt for 5pm now & I don't know if I'm trying to give Rachel a lift as well. I'll SMS and let you know when I'm coming if that helps. Or let myself in if that's okay?

[rejs.livejournal.com]

Mebeverine is frequently marketted as Colofac (the box in my desk drawer bears both names), so maybe that's where the C comes from.

[beingjdc.livejournal.com]

I get on very well with Cerazette

Out of interest (sorry for post-hijack, have nothing useful to offer except bleh allergies are awful) but did you have to go through any hoops to get this prescribed? I only ask because while it's miles better than the other POPs, it costs the NHS four times as much, so I thought they may be reluctant.

[karen2205]

No, I was offered the choice of a different POP that only allows you to be three hours late with the pills and this one which gives you twelve hours grace. It made more sense to pick Cerazette. It also has the brilliant side effect of no periods whatsoever (doesn't happen to everyone, but it's quite common). When I looked it up in the BNF I noticed the price difference and was slightly surprised at how willing they were to offer me the choice between the two.