Does anyone else get IBS as part of a crash?

You're welcome, just ignore the hypnotherapy parts of the site!

Best wishes for some relief from it.

 

Yes, according to my current understanding of what IBS is - if you'd have asked a few years ago I would have said no, despite getting the same symptom clusters.

 

I had a lot of nausea and different types of awful stomach in my severe years. I don't get these types now, just nausea mainly from headache.

When my ME is very severe and I am bedridden, weak and cannot eat, I get diarrhea. Would love to know what changes cause me to go through these episodes.

 

Just a warning not to ignore constipation as just part of IBS associated with ME. September 2016 we went to stay with our daughter in London (We were going to see Tim Peake at New Scientist exhibition) and I got very constipated, with accompanying lower left abdominal pain. I was also feeling really grim, but had been for weeks after having to drive to Liverpool from Wales and back for PIP assessment.

Day after the NS show felt so ill husband took me to St Thomas' Hospital Walk in centre, where they made a preliminary diagnosis of diverticulitis and prescribed antibiotics and Movecol (spelling?). I had a high temperature, and elevated C-reactive protein. Was told in no uncertain manner that I must see my own GP asap when got home.

Referred for colonography under the 3 week rule. Nothing obvious showed other than diverticulosis, but they wanted to do sigmoidoscopy which I declined as the prep for the colonography had left me so flattened it took me months to get over it. Current situation is have to take the medecine every day or get constipated again. Consultant signed me off, but he'll see me again if I have further problems.

I am sure that most of the "IBS" I had intermittently was similar, as I remember the nature of the lower left pain from it. So you might want to at least consider getting IBS type symptoms checked out.

I'm laughing at meself for writing about all this on Christmas Morning!

 

@ladycatlover, I hope that everybody who had gut symptoms for the first time had them properly checked. Although it doesn't mean there is nothing if a doctor says there is nothing, it means there is nothing life threatening. That's important.

 

Yes, IBS symptoms were very proeminente during crashes/PEM.
I knew I was getting better when my IBS symptoms started to fade away
Nowadays I don´t feel them so strongly, low carb/gluten free/low lactose diet + probiotics helped a lot.
Nonetheless, I´m still tired and still get PEM/crashes

Answering to @MeSci : I get low fever and chills during my worse crashes.

 

By 'low fever' do you mean low temperature?

 

I had really bad IBS and found great improvement by changing my diet. To the extent that as long as I behave I don't have to worry too much. It is an issue on the rare occasions I am away from home as it's difficult to manage what I eat.

During a crash my gut definitely malfunctions. Nowhere near as badly as before getting it under control. I don't know if it's because of changes inside the gut itself or because the muscles in the gut wall are affected, or possibly both.

Of course when crashed it is also impossible to manage diet as well as I need to and that compounds the issue.

're temperature - hormones aside:
I tend to go from one extreme to the other - boiling hot and feverish or freezing cold. When I actually take my temperature it is always slightly low.

If I over do things I start to feel really cold very quickly. So cold my arms and legs actually hurt. I will also be very cold to the touch.

 

My theory is different bits start running at different speeds, creating havoc.

 

Thanks for this. It does describe my experience very well (although my diet has never needed much of a fix apart from more absolute preservative avoidance) but I would have said the same about my temperature until I started measuring it. I get so cold I can't warm at all and crash into hypothermia (all symptoms and temperature), requiring external heat, warm fluids, many layers and rest in the same way someone with exposure needs. Or I can feel really hot but my measured temperature is cool or normal.
But sometimes, especially when feeling active, frenetic even, I have a low grade fever. I don't often think: I have a fever, and measure a fever. I may feel feverish for an hour or so without having a fever these days (never before being ill with this). But taking my temperature at other times made me realise that I do get measurable signs of fever, not just symptoms. So maybe that part's not 'just ME', maybe I do need to make another effort to get intermittent fevers checked out.
Thanks.

 

It may just be part of the variation that is seen in ME. For example, most people with ME seem to have low blood pressure, but a few of us (including me) have developed sky-high blood pressure since getting ME. (I didn't have it for the first few years.)

 

I mean around 37,5-38º C degrees

 

yes ibs with crashes here-don't like it at all

 

For me I always used to be alternating constipation and diahorrea, with diahorrea being the worst symptom that peaked when in PEM.

since deteriorating a bit, the diahorrea has pretty much disappeared so just bloating and constipation when I crash (along with raised resting heart rate, feeling cold and the occasional outbreak of hives...lovely) .

I've given up trying to work out what's going on...there is no predictable pattern to it.

edit: just had a bizarre thought with regards to patterns in the toilet bowl...funny how the mind wanders...kind of like if Gillian mckeith decided to start reading her version of the tea leaves.

Sorry to lower the tone

 

I’m feeling exasperated by trying to manage different aspects of ME/POTS diet. I mostly benefit from low carb/high protein but also have trouble with fibre. Last night I had too much fibre and was awake a lot with IBS style symptoms. Today I ate mostly carbs in response and now I’m awake hungry (presumably from the blood sugar rollercoaster)

My gut instinct is gut stuff is quite core to ME (though probably not the cause) and most of us don’t have IBS as a separate condition.

But in terms of crashes I often feel like my body doesn’t have the energy to digest.

At other times of being very tired (not a crash just explainable exhaustion) more typical IBS symptoms have flared up. Eg if I was kept awake at night for another reason.

 

ME too IBs w crash