Hello RLR

I wondered if you mind helping me?  I posted a message on  the previous forum last year when I was having ectopic beats.  I had the diagnostic tests which all came back fine, and you reassured me that it was nothing to worry about that.  Thank you for that.  I am still having a few ectopic beats, but they don't really worry me at all anymore and I just think ' oh there's another one'.  They really have gone to the back of my mind now : )

The last time I wrote to you I was having a stressful time as our family business had collapsed and my husband was looking for work.  To cut a long story short we are now living 140 miles away from where I lived all my life. I am 36 years old. We are now living in the South of England, by the blue sea. Very lovely here, although I am far away from my friends and family.

Anyway, I have been looking for work here since we moved in January.  I did get a job, but it really wasn't for me so I left.  That was in March and I have been looking ever since.  I have been on my own in the house an awful lot while my husband is at work and feel frustrated because I don't have a job. I am looking every day and have been for several interviews but the right thing hasn't come along yet.  We have joined a local tennis club, where we have started to meet people, but this takes time.

My  health has been ok during the first part of the year although I think I have been anxious and lonely in my search for work.  Then in June this year, I started to get some discomfort in my lower left tummy.  This felt almost like something needed to be moved in my lower left side, felt like gas really I guess.  Anyway these abdominal pains have been going on for 3 months now and I have been to see my Doctor several times, and they have performed tests, such as full blood test, thyroid test, stool test, H.Pylori test, and I have had an abdominal ultrasound, upper and lower.   All these tests came back negative to my relief, but of course it hasn't solved the problem. The only thing the doctor said that came up on the ultrasound was that they could see a lot of wind in my tummy.

My symptoms at first were crampy, stabbing like pains pretty much anywhere in the abdomen, not constant and relatively mild, but at the same time upsetting for me as it makes me feel like something more sinister is wrong.  I had really quite loud stomach sounds and lots of flatulence.  My bowel movements seemed unchanged then.  However  I am still getting pinching/spasm pains in my stomach that last just a few seconds, sometimes just below my ribs on both sides, or in my midriff, or lower.  I can't really pinpoint it.  I have been having more changed bowel movements during the last 6 weeks or so.  Sometimes looser, sometimes a little on the constipated side but it is NEVER the extreme of diarrhea or constipation. There is no blood in my stools. Sometimes I will need to go a few times a day, but I do go at least once a day, nearly always with 30 minutes of waking up before breakfast. . This does seem to relieve my symptoms for part of the day until after lunch.  My doctor doesn't seem particularly worried and is 99 per cent sure that I have an irritable bowel, but as she knows I am an anxious type she will send me to see a Gastroenterologist to put my mind at rest.  

I am more or less thinking that this may be IBS, but in the absence of constipation or diarrhea, I am wondering if it still can be IBS with only mild changes to my bowel movements?  Being an anxious type of person of course I am worried it is something terrible.  I do have a first appointment with a consultant Gastroenterologist next Thursday, but am  getting myself really quite worked up about it and wondered if you could put things into perspective for me?   I am going on holiday to the States on the 29th of this month for 2 weeks and really  want to go with a clear mind and enjoy myself.  We are going to Arizona, Utah and Nevada.

In view of the negative tests I have already had done, do you think it is anything to really worry about?  Can anxiety cause mild stomach cramps/pain? It does  seem worse when I am more anxious than usual.   Is it the wind/gas in my tummy that I am super sensitive to?   If it was something terrible like cancer, would my blood tests have come back strangely? The pain never stops me doing anything because I don't want it to take over my life, but it has been there on and off every day for the last 3 months.  I keep thinking once I am more settled in my life that it will go away.    

I really hope you will reply and give me some feedback.  Many thanks for you time RLR.

Angie

Hi RLR,

Thanks so much for your reassurance, it really helps.  So just to confirm will this pain go away it time? or is it with me for good?  I keep remembering a time when I didn't have this annoying pain and wondering if it will ever return?  But I did feel like that with my ectopic beats and I learned to put them to the back of my mind though.  Is this a similar thing with IBS, mind over matter?  The difference is ectopic beats for me weren't painful just frightening.

I keep hoping and am trying to remain positive in the fact that once I know everything is ok, hopefully it will subside. Do you think  this is the right approach, to try and ignore it?  I do find for instance when I play tennis that I rarely have a problem when my mind is on something else. Can your mind really be this powerful?  

So just to confirm I don't have to have extreme diarrhea or constipation for IBS to be confirmed?  All info on the internet always say it does have to be present.  I am confused about that.

Thanks so much.  Any comments would be appreciated.

Thanks again, and I'm really looking forward to the States. It's getting chilly here now!

Best wishes,  Angie

Hello RLR

Thank you again so much for your comments. I will try my best not to worry about my health, and concentrate on enjoying the here and now.

Many thanks,

Angie