Is this anxiety,or IBS, or BOTH?!

[snowwhite]

Okay,so, today I woke up with lower left quadrant pain, down by the lower intestines (descending colon) area .. I've had that before on and off, but not this bad or a while now. It starts out in that very specific area only, and then sometimes seems to spread throughout the LEFT side, intestines. Well,this is also what it did today, HOWEVER, I also started to get these lousy sort of "stabbing" sudden pains in my UPPER LEFT back area..right inbetween the spinal cord and the LEFT shoulder blade. Now, I know for a fact that gas can give you shoulder blade pains (I've had that), but this is IN BETWEEN the shoulder blade and the spine ..so, I don't know if that could ALSO be gas, or IBS, which I am loaded with! (along with PLENTY of anxiety!!!).

Today proved to be a HORRIBLE IBS day...holy cow! Once I had gotten up today, with that lower LEFT quadrant pain ALREADY there, the back pains started....probably with about a half an hour. They were sort of like shooting pains, but not...hard to describe...but they WERE sudden and rather striking! All the while, my intestines were going NUTS!...VERY BAD.
Ended up with diarrhea ALL DAY...with my intestines just churning away ... with that typical horrible LEFT side intestinal pain!

BUT THEN, just to make matters worse and scare the daylights out of me...naturally, there were a few times when I was in the restroom, agonizing with this bad IBS, that I'd get one of those stabbing upper back pains and all of a sudden it felt as though my heart skipped a beat, or sort of "moved" which would be impossible, I know ...but that was the sensation.....well, that's all I needed, I freaked out, and thought i was haivng a heart attack!..(bec. as you know, for women, they say that the symptoms of a heart attack are diff. than for a man...for women, they say it's not uncommon to have upper back pain, more than the typical chest grabbing pain) ........ so, that went on for a few hours, on and off..... I would have to say that MOSTLY when I'd have the LEFT UPPER back pain (in between the spine and shoulder blade) that I DID NOT have any heart symptoms..........just a few times. But that was enough to "convince" me that this was all leading up to a heart attack! OH man, this has been one lousy day! My husband was here, thank God, and he plainly told me he's had the exact same back pains, in the exact same place, and then would have weird chest "pains", or "feelings' in the heart area, or in between the breasts.............. he says, it's gas (esp. since I've had this horrible horrible IBS attack today!) ....


Okay, sorry for this long post....... i'm just beside myself here,...I'm quite a bit better now, thank God.....the pain and spasming in my lower LEFT intestines (colon) seems to be subsiding, however, it still feels SORE there, anyone else have this, with IBS? As far as the UPPER LEFT back pain, well, it's on and off,...not as much as earlier...thank God! I don't know....I did notice however, that earlier today in the midst of this horrible IBS pain, that I'd get that UPPER LEFT back pain when I sat in certain positions...not always, sometimes I'd get it just standing up........but I did notice that.

Thank you all for reading all of this, and if anyone here has anything like this, please....let me know! I am hoping all of this is anxiety, bec. I know darn well, just how much anxiety can do! .... things, you'd never dream were anxiety!

Thanks all...

[NoPoet]

Hi, while your symptoms do sound a bit like IBS, if you're this wound up and anxious you won't believe what anxiety can seem to do to your body.

Definitely have a word with your doctor as IBS can be improved by avoiding foods you are intolerant towards. I would start though by taking a behavioural approach. You should consider asking yourself: "If I have IBS, what would actually be so terrible about that?" Yeah, IBS can be horrible, I don't mean to minimise that, but you've got to put it in perspective.

ISB will not kill you, which is probably the underlying fear here. It is unpleasant, it can be painful and debilitating during attacks, but it can be controlled and managed. Chasing pain around your body with your mind will wear you out and you won't really formulate a good way to cope with it if you are constantly worrying about it. Let go of the pain, it will not get worse just because you're not thinking about it. You aren't protecting yourself from harm by concentrating on your symptoms, you're allowing the symptoms to do their worst.

Your best bet is to seek a doctor's advice in case there is something practical you can do to help yourself, and armour yourself with contempt for the symptoms because they do not indicate a terrible threat, they're just the signs of a nasty condition that can be met and beaten.

"It's ok lose to opponent; must not lose to fear!" - Mr Miyagi