Frequent BMs, discomfort, and pain.

[temotesly]

I'm a 27 year old female and I've been experiencing varying degrees of this problem for as long as I can remember.

I am plagued by frequent stomach aches that result in the urgent need to have a BM. It could be one time in a day or as much as 7-8. It is sudden and comes out of nowhere, without warning and I have to hope and pray that when it does happen, I am near a toilet or I'll be in a lot of pain, and very nervous that I won't make it to a toilet. This has caused me to be scared to travel too far from home in case I am driving when an attack hits and there's nowhere to stop.

In addition to that, it seems as though my food doesn't digest. Often times I'll eat a meal, and I see it again in the toilet an hour later. Often times I've had to stop in the middle of a meal and have a BM. I know this is not normal at all but am not sure what is going on. My quick guess is IBS, but it seems like more than that.

Any thoughts? Thanks.

[Kaneda2112]

You're welcome. Hope you get some answers.

[temotesly]

I hadn't consider Celiac Disease before, but you may be on to something. I have a simple piece of French Toast this morning and was in pain most of the day. I really don't think that IBS would do something like that, but maybe I'm wrong.

Since I am uninsured and self employed, I will start making calls to make some sort of arrangement to see a GI specialist.

Thank you for the reply!

[Kaneda2112]

Have you tried keeping a diary to see if specific foods trigger BMs or the abdominal pain? Alot of folks on here might point to celiac disease - you could try cutting gluten to see of that helps. It's unusual that it only takes an hour for food to transit from your mouth to the other end.

Studies show the following average transit times -

50% of stomach contents emptied 2.5 to 3 hours
Total emptying of the stomach 4 to 5 hours
50% emptying of the small intestine 2.5 to 3 hours
Transit through the colon 30 to 40 hours

I know that these are estimtes of average transit times, and that there is a great deal of variability among individuals - but an hour seems pretty darn fast.

Nothing with IBS ever seems clear-cut. It sounds like you should talk to your GP and get a referral to a GI specialist as this is causing you distress.