is it really IBS? help

[shellbell94]

so for the past year and a half i've had diarrhea, like with EVERYTHING i ate. i would starve myself for days if i had to go out of the house. i only would eat one small bland thing (toast, cream of wheat/rice, etc.) when i did eat, and itd still give me diarrhea.
everytime i went to the doctor they said it was IBS and i needed to up my fiber and eat activia or some bull reason. which in the end made my symptoms even worse. i lost 70 pounds in the last year without even trying. just from diarrhea. well in november a new doctor i went to was like hey, there has to be something else goin on, so they sent me to get an ultra sound. and it was normal. nothing found. so she ended up sending me to a specialist and he had me get both an endoscopy and a colonoscopy. both turned up normal. so he also came to the conclusion it had to be IBS.
well he put me on this pill, Diphenox./Atrop (Lomotil) and thankfully its kinda helped. kinda. all it does is constipate me for a couple days and then ill like have horridly painful bowel movements and then diareah. but i HAVE to take this pill to be normal again.... it honestly kills me to do this. i get stomach pains constantly. i do not think this is really the answer for me....but when i dont take it, even if its just for one day, i go back to extreme diarrhea. and unfortunately i cant go back to my doctor because im too sick to get a job to pay my $7000+ medical bills....so i cant afford to go to another appointment.
has anyone thats been diagnosed with IBS had this bad of a problem with it?? is there any way ill ever get better?? any advice would be welcomed....im only a 20 year old girl....i feel like my life is over before its even begun.

thanks

[UCSenior]

CalGal is right.  You can help establish your own diagnosis by omitting some of these foods from your diet.  Don't eliminate them all at once though because if you get better you will not know which one caused the problem.  Just do one food group at a time.  And remember, it might take a while before you notice much of a difference.  I would start with omitting Gluten.  That's not easy because a lot of food contains gluten.  Just don't eat anything that contains flour.

You might also want to try taking Psyllium husks to thicken your stool so you don't lose too much fluid.  It is sold in the health food section of your local grocery store.  Start with 1 tsp with meals and at bedtime (4/day).  Mix it with jam or honey to make it easier to get down.  It is a natural product and cheap.  Here in Canada I pay $4 for a tub that will last me for a month.

Good luck.  I really sympathize with you and wish I had the magic answer.

[CalGal]

Consider doing some inclusive food testing to see if there could be problems resulting from foods. You may want to consider doing some self-testing with gluten, but also consider that dairy products are another category and many with non-celiac-gluten-sensitivity also cross-react to proteins in dairy. So if you come off of gluten and still are eating gluten and get no positive results, you should also discontinue the dairy - in all forms - and see what happens for a couple of week.

Four of the more problematic food groups are gluten (wheat, rye and barley), eggs, dairy and soy. But they're not the only ones that can cause problems. Nuts seem to be a good 'runner-up' in the problem category.

I'm sorry to say in some cases it can be difficult to self-diagnose, but it's worth a try.

In addition, ask questions of other family members and see if any of them have food issues. It could help you in your search for some relief.

[cnoevl21]

did they test you for a gluten allergy? Cuz if you have that, it could cause really bad diarreah, and what you are eating (cream of wheat/toast) is very high in gluten. I'd maybe try cutting out gluten and even dairy and see if that helps at all.