Does this sound like IBS? Or something more sinister?

[Spartan114]

o about 10 months ago I started a recurring pattern of the runs, about once a month I’ll have significant cramping followed by a blowout and then oddly my bowel habit will go right back to normal out of nowhere. Once I had a complete blowout followed by a normal bowel movement the same day. Often times there will be mucus in the normal movements afterwards too, not a lot like with the diahhrea but just more than normal.

My Dr has done several in depth blood tests on my liver and kidney functions (once the stool looked pale) everything was normal, several CBC’s and everything looked good. The only oddity was my B12 was ever so slightly low once, I think the low cut off was 300 and I tested like 298 or 297 which corrected itself a month later, still lower end normal but normal.

The Dr is thinking IBS as I have been under a ton of stress starting 10 months ago, we moved, I started new work, other health concerns popped up and I’ve been an anxiety riddled wreck for all of it. I can see the direct impact as once after seeing a specialist for other concerns I had a blowout and I’d image that did directly correlate to my anxiety with that appointment.

I would say I’m more gassy and bloated overall but I can’t say that for sure, it’s the kind of thing you don’t notice until you think about it and then you tend to be hyper aware.

So ultimately, I have had a blowout about once a month for 10 months now, the entirety of which I’ve been under immense stressors. I know there isn’t a definitive test for Chron’s disease or Ulcerative Colitis but I was wondering if I should push for more tests or just work on my stress and trust it’s IBS?

The Dr said he wasn’t terribly worried about IBD as my inflammation markers are all very normal. He also did a basic stool sample and that came back normal as well.

[Emily_MHManager]

Do you have any blood in your stool - either with normal bowel movements or the "blowouts"? Any pain? Is your appetite affected? Fever? Unexplained weight loss? Anemia?

Without any of those, it isn't like Crohn's or UC, but if it would make you feel better to get more testing done, then push for it.

I have IBS, and get flares with stress. I also have certain foods that trigger flares. When you get a flare, you should track what you've eaten in the 24 hours prior to the "blowout". You may even have some food sensitivities and not IBS, or you may have both.

Here are some basic guidelines for diets for IBS. Keep in mind your mileage WILL vary. I can eat some foods on these lists, and not others. Also, sometimes I can eat a food and be fine, and others, not so much. Some foods I can eat a little of, and that's it.

https://www.healthline.com/health/digestive-health/foods-to-avoid-with-ibs

https://www.webmd.com/ibs/ibs-triggers-prevention-strategies#1

https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/320876.php

https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/conditions-and-diseases/irritable-bowel-syndrome-ibs/5-foods-to-avoid-if-you-have-ibs

https://www.medhelp.org/gastroenterology/articles/Irritable-Bowel-Syndrome-IBS-Overview/233

You'll notice these lists all have the theme of "5 foods to avoid", "16 foods to avoid", etc. There really is no set list - you'll have to figure out which, if any, foods trigger you. I just wanted to give you a starting point.

[Spartan114]

I’ve nefer had the sweats or felt hot except once while actually in the act of a blowout which subsided immediately when I was done. So I would assume that was just due to basic cramping pain. They did test me for Celiac gene since my father had it to which I came back negative. Otherwise the only oddity in a CBC was my wbc was incredibly mildly low 4.45 when the cutoff was 4.5 and my MPV was 9.3 with a cutoff being 9.5 but no anemia, they did coagulation tests all normal etc. my weight actually went up a few pounds even.

[Spartan114]

I’ve never noticed blood, once I noticed a small tiny price of mucus that looked red but I had hemmoroid that was there at the time. Otherwise never noticed blood, the Dr did run a stool sample which I would assume would check for that? I think he said they ran a couple tests with my sample. Not sure what though but it all came back negative. Not much pain, when there is its crappy gas pain alleviated after passing it, nothing typically with the actual muscles or anatomy though.

[Emily_MHManager]

I'm no doctor, but if the doc did a stool test, most commonly, they are looking for blood, parasites, etc.

It sounds a lot like my IBS. It's up to you if you want to push for more testing. I was diagnosed after a colonoscopy, but I'd had diarrhea for a month.