This is my first post, and it has nothing to do with eating, so I'm already breaking the rules, but I do not see a general 'IBS diagnosis' board so don't hurt me  .
I was diagnosed with IBS. Yesterday. This is after months of tests regarding terrible pain that occasionally flares up and takes over my abdomen. My best, though uneducated, guess was a hernia, since the trigger for this pain seems not to be food, but walking-type exercise.
In other words, when I walk or hike or stand or cut the grass, etc. for a 1/2 hour or so I am likely to have this pain flare up. When flared up, it is sensitive to the touch and concentrated mainly just to the right of my belly button. Pushing on my belly or clenching my stomach muscles "tweaks" this area (even when a flare up is not occurring.
I have had a CT scan, Endoscopy, Colonoscopy, a small bowel x ray regimin (mmmm, Barium), and an ultrasound. Everything is peachy. So the diagnosis by process of elimination, is IBS.
So I have spent hours yesterday and today researching IBS, which I knew nothing about. I found this website and bought "The First Year" IBS book at Borders, which I've now read a lot of. I am thoroughly convinced that I indeed have IBS-D.
What I'm struggling with is: is this indeed the cause of my pain. In general, when I think of pain associated with IBS-D I think of regular, diarrhea-based cramping pain, much lower than my belly-button. This is NOT that. It is indeed difficult to describe, but is more of a muscular-feeling inflammed sharper pain. Like I said before, I thought it was a hernia because it feels muscular. It is tender to the touch, and when flared up it hurts like HELL to clench my stomach muscles (such as one does in the bathroom). But CT scan say: no hernia.
So since I haven't associated this pain with my frequent diarrhea, nor with eating or not eating, and since it in no way feels like "cramps" associated with diarrhea, my first reaction to the diagnosis was anger and disbelief. However, reading Heather's story of unbelievable pain, I could be totally wrong, and IBS could be the complete answer.
The other thing that doesn't fit, or that I don't see described anywhere, is the fact that walking or hiking triggers this pain in me. If I sit around all day I do not get the pain. But I have gotten it at football games, on National park hikes, and just cutting the grass (and I have like... 3 blades of grass). I know that exercise and yoga are recommended treatments, but I am honestly scared to walk my dog for fear of an attack (not of diarrhea, but of sharp side pain).
I guess the third thing that doesn't seem to fit is that the pain is centered to the right side and most IBS website have specifically mentioned the left side.
Anyway, what do y'all think? Thanks.
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Is this pain related to IBS?
