Please help! Excruciating Colonoscopy pain and Small colon?

I've been having chronic diarrhea for a little over 1 month and am in the process of finding out what is causing the problem.  Prior to this chronic, daily diarrhea, I had diarrhea occasionally starting after my son was born about a year ago.  It was like irritable bowel syndrome.  Very mild and occasional.  I took a probiotic and also tried citrucel.  After doing that it became a chronic daily problem.  I wake up every day with stomach cramping and loose stool that is mushy and diarrhea like urgency.  I have had urine, blood and stool tests and also an abdominal and pelvic ultrasound.  All normal.  I just got a colonoscopy yesterday to rule out Chrones, colitis, and any other problems like that.  Colonoscopy was normal.  I have a few questions.  I know I want to be tested for food allergies and malabsorbtion problems to get those ruled out before I just accept a diagnosis of IBS.  What tests should I ask for?

My next questions are my most important.  I had a very miserable colonoscopy.  I was given the maximum amount of drugs and was still screaming throughout the procedure.  I remember extreme pain, feeling like I was in labor with no epidural...And remember doing a lot of crying and begging the doctor to stop because the pain was so excruciating.  I also remember them telling me to calm down because I was scaring the other people there...pretty much undermining the pain I was feeling too.  The doctor wasn't able to speak with me afterwards, I was still drugged and pretty distraught, but he told my husband that I had a small colon.  He basically said that he had trouble getting the camera through and that the bends in my colon were tight, like tight corners that were hard to get the camera around.  He said it took much longer than with any other patients.  He gave me a prescription for Bentyl and Lomotil and said I have IBS.  My question is, was the fact that my colon is small the reason I was in such horrible pain?  And what part could having a small colon play in my other symptoms of chronic diarrhea and cramping, if any?

[ggreg]

Gosh, so sorry your colonoscopy experience was so painful.  For the life of me, I cannot understand why gastros don't go ahead and BELIEVE a patient, and have a protocol in place to where they add in another drug that will for sure knock the patient out.  Anyhow, if you have to have another colonoscopy in the future, go to a diff gastro group, and tell them in advance you had problems with the last one as relates to pain relief.

Now, I have several ideas about what's going on with your bowels.  All this started when you had a baby, then got worse when you tried a high fiber supplement (could be it bulked up your stool TOO much!).  So, becuz your digestion was fine before baby, then with the twists in your bowel reported by the gastro, could be carrying the baby somehow pushed and twisted your bowels, and for whatever reason they did not ease back into the normal position after giving birth.  These twists would prevent a normal stool from forming, stuff would get stuck and make your belly crampy, and you'd wind up with diarrhea.  I realize you've already had an ultrasound, but could be this was missed.  Then there's a chance hormone changes that take place during pregnancy also did not settle down, and that can sometimes cause diarrhea.  Lastly, if you have been taking ANY medicine at all, any pill of any kind since your pregnancy, have the prescribing doc review side effects and make sure some drug you're taking isn't doing this to you (that happened to me).  Even some brands of vitamins can do this.

For the first two possibilities relating to pregnancy, I think you should visit your OB-GYN this time, even tho it's been a year since your son was born.  Tell them what's going on, perhaps they may have heard of this happening in their practice before, and let them handle the situation from there, they can order a scan, draw blood, do referrals for you, in general I think they will try to help you.  In the meantime, drink an extra glass of water each time you brush your teeth, your two new medicines will tend to dry you out.  Daily eat wheat bread, oat cereal, and/or salad, to help bulk up your stool.  And hon, I really feel for you, I hope your OB doc will be responsive.  Keep us posted, maybe others here will have better ideas than mine.