Question:

Hi all! I’m a 36 years old man. I have stabbing pain in my colon almost one year. I’ve had talk with a few doc, and all say, probably I have IBS. I just went to a gastroenterologist, he also said I have probably IBS. But I don’t understand: I have NO diarrhea and NO constipation! My stool is OK (I eat many fibers: cornflakes with yogurt, etc.), I have "only" one symptom: stabbing, burning pain in my lower left abdomen, in a well-defineable point at the colon. Has anybody similar symptoms? – Stan –

Response:

Diverticular Disease, but there should be either C or D or vacillating between them. "Stan" <pi…@freemail.hu

wrote in message

news:97529c3b.0405121655.1689044c@posting.google.com… – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text -

Hi all! I’m a 36 years old man. I have stabbing pain in my colon almost one year. I’ve had talk with a few doc, and all say, probably I have IBS. I just went to a gastroenterologist, he also said I have probably IBS. But I don’t understand: I have NO diarrhea and NO constipation! My stool is OK (I eat many fibers: cornflakes with yogurt, etc.), I have "only" one symptom: stabbing, burning pain in my lower left abdomen, in a well-defineable point at the colon. Has anybody similar symptoms? – Stan –

Response:

i’m with you (unfortunately). i had a provocation 2 years ago. a real bad intestinal virus that left me in this state. no D or C. just the pain (left side abdomen, like a knife). i also get alot of ‘referred’ pain; my hip and back ot the left side. i’ve tried Levsinex (drug) with no help. i’ve also tried hypnotherapy. ha. my doc tells me to wait it out. yogurt? i’ve eaten gallons. metamucil seemed to help for a while. i take effexor (anti depressent/anxiety) for a condition that developed during the same time. it works on the brain and has helped me greatly for that condition. my doc says it also can have a positive effect on my IBS. i increased the dosage and got some help. (the gut nervious system is complex, almost like another brain.). but the pain is still there, sometimes debilitating. i have tried conventional pain killers against my doctor’s wishes. hydrocodone (generic for vicodan) has helped, but is definitely addictive.  i’ve cut down, but still take them. after a day of ab pain, its like a cocktail before dinner. what works even better is marajuana. this works 90% of the time. no hangover, no addiction, but you are stoned a bit which makes it hard to work (concentrate on details). naturally, i would like this to go away for good. it has affected my health negatively in other ways. please let me know how this started for you, and what you’ve tried. jay On 12 May 2004 17:55:53 -0700, pi…@freemail.hu (Stan) wrote: – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text -

Hi all! I’m a 36 years old man. I have stabbing pain in my colon almost one year. I’ve had talk with a few doc, and all say, probably I have IBS. I just went to a gastroenterologist, he also said I have probably IBS. But I don’t understand: I have NO diarrhea and NO constipation! My stool is OK (I eat many fibers: cornflakes with yogurt, etc.), I have "only" one symptom: stabbing, burning pain in my lower left abdomen, in a well-defineable point at the colon. Has anybody similar symptoms? – Stan –

Response:

I didn’t mention before, but I have referred pain too. Just like you, I’m also suffering from hip and back (waist) pain focused on the left side! I thought this is maybe some type of arthritis came from my diverticular problem (because first I assumed that I have diverticulitis or colitis or something similar colon-specific inflammation that spreaded over to the lumbar area), but my blood-test was good and no problem with my digestion (no bloody stool, etc.). How it began? Well, the last years were a very hard period for me. Flustered, hard-pressed months with a lot of stress and nerves. In those weeks when the stabbing pain first started, I have a very serious diarrhea what took for 3-4 days and then gone. Since then I hadn’t diarrhea again, but the stabbing, burning pain had been worse and worse. And about two months ago came out the above mentioned waist-pain. I will go to the rheumatology next week, and get an x-ray done from my vertebral column. I have tried many things to heal myself: camomile-tee course, specific diets (diet for diverticulosis, diet for colitis, etc.), sedatives (especially benzodiazepin-derivatives like Xanax), antispasmodics (mainly papaverin-derivatives like Dicetel), but none of them helped. At present I take Meteospasmyl capsule, but nothing changed. So now I don’t know what the heck should I do. Maybe after the rheumatology I will be wiser… I hope. Did you have colonoscopy? – Stan –

Response:

sorry to be so long at getting back to you. if you like to email me directly you can use jv…@yahoo.com i saw a rheumatologist near the start of all of this and he thought i was nuts. i’m serious. he recommended me to a psychologist; the whole scene was a waste of time and money. i also saw a psychiatrist on my own. he gave me some relaxation tapes and technoques, but really, no positive results. i have found xanax to be helpful for some slight short term relief. but i think what has helped the most is an anti- depressent, anti-anxiety drug, effexor-xr. i’ve been taking 150mg/day dose since my problem started (i can go into detail some other time). last fall when my symptoms worstened, my doc increased my dosage to 225mg/day. then to 300/day which is where i am now. (i see my doc for a yearly physical next week) my referred pain has gone away about 80%. i did have a colonoscopy back then. (no tumors). the gastro md told me i had been thru a stressful (both body & mind) intestinal problem, and that it would either heal in time or not. my regular doc is very optimistic that it will be all over in due time (another year?). he’s the one that has me on effexor. please stay in touch via the email address i gave you. you are the only one i know with a similar problem. On 16 May 2004 14:59:46 -0700, pi…@freemail.hu (Stan) wrote: – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text -

I didn’t mention before, but I have referred pain too. Just like you, I’m also suffering from hip and back (waist) pain focused on the left side! I thought this is maybe some type of arthritis came from my diverticular problem (because first I assumed that I have diverticulitis or colitis or something similar colon-specific inflammation that spreaded over to the lumbar area), but my blood-test was good and no problem with my digestion (no bloody stool, etc.). How it began? Well, the last years were a very hard period for me. Flustered, hard-pressed months with a lot of stress and nerves. In those weeks when the stabbing pain first started, I have a very serious diarrhea what took for 3-4 days and then gone. Since then I hadn’t diarrhea again, but the stabbing, burning pain had been worse and worse. And about two months ago came out the above mentioned waist-pain. I will go to the rheumatology next week, and get an x-ray done from my vertebral column. I have tried many things to heal myself: camomile-tee course, specific diets (diet for diverticulosis, diet for colitis, etc.), sedatives (especially benzodiazepin-derivatives like Xanax), antispasmodics (mainly papaverin-derivatives like Dicetel), but none of them helped. At present I take Meteospasmyl capsule, but nothing changed. So now I don’t know what the heck should I do. Maybe after the rheumatology I will be wiser… I hope. Did you have colonoscopy? – Stan –

Response:

I went to the rheumatology, and I got bad news. As the x-ray picture shows, I have a serious spondylolisthesis, which means the vertebra slipped out of its place, and the bones pressing on nerves. This is the cause of my back- and colon pain. (Supposedly the pressed nerves radiate pain around the bowel.) Rheumatologist advised surgery. She said, if this vertebra-slippage continues then surgery is the only solution, it may stops the slippage (but no guarantee!). Nevertheless it is an irreversible backbone-distortion, so I can not lift, carry, jog, bend, and I can’t do hundreds of things anymore. So I’m in deep shit.. Are you sure that your lumbar vertebra is ok??? Done x-ray from it? (My public email here is full of spam, but I can send you another email-address, if you like.)

Response:

Hi Stan, I am sorry for your bad news, but believe me, you would rather have something that doctors can ’see’ than something like IBS dx, where the doctors don’t know what they are what to do with you. I don’t know what to tell you about the spinal problem, except that since it isn’t IBS,  you should look for a group like the IBS group with people that have the same dx.  They can get you to good websites and warn you about the risks of such a dangerous operation.   They will also be able to referr you to the proper doctors in your area, that specialize in this type of situation. I would get a second opinion.  Out here, there is Henry Ford medical hospital that had some commercial with a woman who had a back problem that other doctors told her would have her bed ridden for a long time, but when she went to HF, they had her up and going and lifting her little baby in a week.  So wherever you live, you need to get recommendation on the best in the field for what you need done.  In my opinion,  the spine is no joke!  I am sure you are thinking this way also, but I wanted to remind you of that, with such terrifying diagnosis. I hope it all goes well for you.  Even though it is a bad one, congrats on getting a proper diagnosis and out of the IBS dumping ground! God bless, KJ "Stan" <pi…@freemail.hu

wrote in message

news:97529c3b.0405230401.9450e8@posting.google.com… – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text -

I went to the rheumatology, and I got bad news. As the x-ray picture shows, I have a serious spondylolisthesis, which means the vertebra slipped out of its place, and the bones pressing on nerves. This is the cause of my back- and colon pain. (Supposedly the pressed nerves radiate pain around the bowel.) Rheumatologist advised surgery. She said, if this vertebra-slippage continues then surgery is the only solution, it may stops the slippage (but no guarantee!). Nevertheless it is an irreversible backbone-distortion, so I can not lift, carry, jog, bend, and I can’t do hundreds of things anymore. So I’m in deep shit.. Are you sure that your lumbar vertebra is ok??? Done x-ray from it? (My public email here is full of spam, but I can send you another email-address, if you like.)

Response:

Hi KJ1, Thanks for your good wishes and advices! – Stan –

Response:

i am very sorry to hear about your spinal problem. i could say ‘at least its an answer,’ but i know its no help. find yourself a good chiropractor before considering any type of spinal surgery. ask around; get recommendations. if one doesn’t help, try another. their method of treatment can vary from one doc to another. take the xrays with you so you don’t have to pay for more. a chiropractor may not help, but he won’t hurt. and there’s always a chance that some good will come of it. some osteopaths (D.O.) treat your condition also. surgery should be considered as an absolute last resort. i am not a doctor and certainly not qualified to give you advice, but in some way i’m a friend and that’s where i’m coming from. if your ‘ibs’ symptoms came on spontaneously, then the bad news x-ray makes sense. i have my annual physical tomorrow, and i’m going to ask my doc about alot of things. i do not check here too often so you can still try me at jv…@yahoo.com but this way you get feedback from others. either way i’ll be in touch. what’s your next move?

Response:

Question:

Hi, Just had a colonoscopy today – diagnosed with ulcerative colitis.  Gastro Dr recommends low-fiber diet.  Problem is that most of these diets seem to have a lot of carbs – 215gm per day.  Has anyone had any experience with this?   I’d like to know it impacted your BG control.  My regular Doc is happy about my weight loss (20 lb in two weeks – but trust me it’s a "sh1tty" way to lose weight) with respect to my possibly getting of diabetic medication (yay).   With all the inflammation, however, my bg is way out of whack, and I don;t want to make it worse. Thanks for any Feedback, -Jeff DX 2 years ago 1000mg glucophage BID 10 mg glipizide BID (Just started to counteract bg spike from inflammation)

Response:

Just had a colonoscopy today – diagnosed with ulcerative colitis.  Gastro Dr recommends low-fiber diet.  Problem is that most of these diets seem to have a lot of carbs – 215gm per day.  Has anyone had any experience with this?  

When I was having radiation treatments they recommended a low-fiber diet to help control some of the side effects.  I couldn’t see a way to combine what they recommended on the fiber side with what I was OK with eating on the diabetes side.  It was short term — six weeks — so I basically blew off the low fiber and stuck with what I normally ate.  Immodium was definitely my friend. I think that if I were looking at something longer term, I would probably see a dietician to see if there was some combination that would meet the needs of both sides. — remove "spamtrap" for e-mail

Response:

Hi, Just had a colonoscopy today – diagnosed with ulcerative colitis.  Gastro Dr recommends low-fiber diet.  Problem is that most of these diets seem to have a lot of carbs – 215gm per day.  Has anyone had any experience with this?   I’d like to know it impacted your BG control.  My regular Doc is happy about my weight loss

I hope this is not your GI! Whenever I have a sudden weight loss, my doctor always asks me if I have any other symptoms. (20 lb in two weeks – but trust me it’s a "sh1tty" way to lose weight) with respect to my possibly getting of diabetic medication (yay).   With all the inflammation, however, my bg is way out of whack, and I don;t want to make it worse.

I have Crohn’s disease, and do low-fiber. I don’t know what diet plan you were given, but mine does not cause my BG to rise.

Response:

– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – Hi, Just had a colonoscopy today – diagnosed with ulcerative colitis.  Gastro Dr recommends low-fiber diet.  Problem is that most of these diets seem to have a lot of carbs – 215gm per day.  Has anyone had any experience with this? I’d like to know it impacted your BG control.  My regular Doc is happy about my weight loss (20 lb in two weeks – but trust me it’s a "sh1tty" way to lose weight) with respect to my possibly getting of diabetic medication (yay). With all the inflammation, however, my bg is way out of whack, and I don;t want to make it worse. Thanks for any Feedback, -Jeff DX 2 years ago 1000mg glucophage BID 10 mg glipizide BID (Just started to counteract bg spike from

inflammation) Dear Jeff, I was recently diagnosed with diabetes only at the end of August ‘02. I also have IBS for many years and was told it was ulcerative colitis.  So your post caught my eye immediately. I noticed that you are on Glucophage.   I absolutely could not take it at all.  It gave me non stop severe diarrhea, to the point that I feared lasting and dangerous effects.  The doctor switched me to Actos, which has helped a lot. I am on a low carb (almost a no carb) diet, and as you noticed, it also adds to the IBS situation, but it is definitely helping control my BG’s.   I find if I cut the fats a bit it helps to offset the IBS problems. Two things have helped me a lot.  First of all I now eat a small apple every single evening, very slowly, chewing it very thoroughly and enjoying it.   I think this has helped me most of all.  Perhaps it is the pectin in the apple, but it has literally changed my life. Secondly I take an herbal product called Intestinal Bowel Soother, which I get in the health food store.  This combination of herbs has been tremendously helpful. The good thing is that by; limiting fats, taking my herbs, eating my apple every day, switching to Actos, I am working well with the lo carb diet for my diabetes, but not irritating my already sensitive digestive tract and I am not needful of any other drugs. Good Luck, Evelyn

Response: