Experiences with post-infections IBS?

[fleurdelis]

Hi all--I haven't been on here in a while; my health anxiety & OCD have mostly been under control for a while, partly because I was busy dealing with a lot of honest-to-God problems (family, pet-related, and financial). So I'm really frustrated that just as things were settling down, I'm back to the health anxiety cycle, and even though I'm really worried about colon cancer, I'm going to try to stay rational and just ask for tips on dealing with what is probably IBS (I'm 31F for reference, no family history, and lead a pretty healthy lifestyle: mostly vegetarian diet, and I'm a runner).

Basically, a couple of weeks ago, I had what I thought was food poisoning (though of course I'm now doubting that, smh): I'd had takeout and then had basically one evening of pretty bad stomach cramps and diarrhea. It came on suddenly and I was in a kind of cold sweat at one point, so it's possible I had a fever, but I didn't actually check. Made the mistake of taking Imodium, which I later learned you're not supposed to do if you might have food poisoning, but things seemed okay for the next couple of days. Then I started getting lower-grade but more chronic issues: loose stools in the morning and cramps low down in my abdomen. I was on my period at the time, and the cramps felt like menstrual cramps, so I chalked it up to that. Now, however, I'm no longer on my period, but still having problems: on-and-off pelvic cramps (temporarily relieved by going to the bathroom or--sorry--passing gas), lots of gurgling and bloating (esp. after eating), urgency and loose-ish stools basically as soon as I get up in the morning, on-and-off pain higher up and really all around my abdomen (the kind of stabbing pain you get from gas), etc.

Does this sound like other people's experiences of IBS after an infection? And if so, what did you do about it? I took some simethicone yesterday, which helped a lot with the bloating/gurgling/gas-like pain, but I haven't really found a solution for the crampier pelvic pain or loose stools, and even though I know it's unlikely to be anything serious, it's upsetting and I'd like it to stop :/

[Librella]

This sounds exactly like me. Morning urgency, loose stools, cramps, gurgling (just made a post about the gurgling). It’s lasted months for me. Since the beginning of this year. I had a lot of exams and tests and was finally diagnosed with IBS that flared up after an infection. Hopefully it won’t go on this long for you! I think not being anxious would help. Initially I thought I must have colon cancer or an IBD or something and was panicking. Most likely your gut just needs to return to normal after being upset, and it could take a couple of weeks. If it does last longer though you can do a stool test with your doctor to be sure the infection is all gone.