Horrible Gas Pain Questions

[ejh9696]

I have excruciating gas pain for over a week now. it's beginning to interfere with everyday life, and I'm curious as to what people more experienced with Crohn's think.

Some details- today is Wednesday the thirteenth and I've had this terrible pain since I woke up on Sunday the third. I had not really eaten anything different than normal on Friday or Saturday, I just woke up in serious pain. It's been off and on since then. I've bumped up my probiotic dose from one to two with breakfast everyday. I've obtained a prescription for Bentyl, which I started last night. i had to leave school today because I was in so much pain, then came home and went to the bathroom. I've had no increase in frequency and my BM's are pretty much normal consistency.

I'm curious as to whether I set this off with increased food consumption- I lift weights and started a bulk a week or so before all this in which I was eating 3300 calories. It seems logical that if liquid diets can rest your intestines, too much solid food could aggravate them. I was drinking Ensure for a while but cut that out when I found out it contained soy because soy mimics estrogen in the body. (I'm back to drinking it now, I'd rather have a little extra estrogen than be 145 lbs at 6'2 again.) But on the other hand, I'm unsure whether it's a Crohn's flare at all, as I'm still only going to the bathroom once a day. I've had one other flare about two years ago during my sophomore basketball season and there was a definite increase in frequency.

Would really appreciate any responses at all, this is really throwing a kink into my life. I was making really good progress weightlifting that I'm losing as a result of this. It's basketball season at my school and I want to be better so I can make the away games when they start in a couple weeks, It's scholarship search time and the pain is very distracting. I'm missing school sometimes and when I do go it's hard to concentrate. I work an internship that requires a lot of manual labor and my fellow intern is pretty much having to pick up a lot of my slack.

The pain seems to get better throughout the day, for example I forced myself to go to an orchestra last Friday night and ate at some soul food type place and felt good after. I've played basketball the last two nights with pretty minimal discomfort.

Any suggestions/ideas as to what could be effecting me? Like I said before, I'm unsure about whether it's a flare at all because my frequency has not increased or decreased and I don't have diarrhea. I'd hoping it's just a bacterial imbalance in the end, I have extremely bad psychological problems when I'm on pred, and the Bentyl side effects say it can cause mild cognitive impairment and drowsiness, which could keep me from driving as a senior in high school and possibly negatively effect my grades. I'm trying to stay positive but after ten straight days of agonizing pain that comes and goes 20 or 30 times a day, it's getting difficult to do so. Periods where it doesn't hurt actively feel good because it's such a relief.

I've read that some people confuse actual cramps with gas, I know it's gas because I pass it and it smells FOUL. My gas normally doesn't smell bad.

 

[valleysangel92]

hello, welcome to the forum, i see that this is your first post, could you give us a little background information about your condition? such as medications etc? You can post an introduction in the your forum section.

It could be that you've increased the gas forming foods in your diet when you increased the calories, for example, are you eating more protein rich foods like eggs? Or more high carb foods like pasta? If so, these could be causing a build up of gases including sulphur, which is what causes the unpleasant smell.

It is unbelievable sometimes how much gas can hurt, something that many people on this forum appreciate more than most other people. Some people find that peppermint capsules or peppermint tea can help to settle wind and ease the discomfort that comes with it, you could also try heat, hot baths/showers can help to release the gas, hot water bottles can ease the discomfort or you can buy heat pads that stick to your clothes or your skin that gently heat up and can last from 8-16 hours depending on the product. I would advise you to buy the proper brand products and not the cheap, own brand things that can be available, I made the mistake of going for the cheap version once and I ended up with nasty burns and torn skin.

I hope that this starts to ease for you soon, have you spoken to your GI about these new symptoms?

 

[ejh9696]

Thank you. This actually isn't my first time on the forum, I was on a while back but still hadn't really come to terms with my diagnosis and dwelled way too much on the gloomy posts instead of the success stories so I made myself quit.

I have "mild-to-moderate" Crohn's disease, only ever had one flare. I'm on Asacol, I believe 1600 mg a day, and Nexium, which I think is 40 mills. I take vitamins and culturelle daily.

The thing is about the diet- my diet was pretty much the exact same for a couple weeks leading up to this with no increase in gas. I had a lot of stomach pain, but no gas. i attributed this to increasing my solid food after stopping the ensure just being a bit too heavy a burden on my colon. But it was nothing too terrible, I could live with it, and I figured as long as the scale kept going up it meant my intestines were absorbing properly and there was nothing to worry about. Then I literally woke up one day and was in pain from this gas, zero change in diet. Now I've cut my food intake because it's obviously hard to work up an appetite through the pain and I'm still having the same problems.

My parents emailed my GI for me because I've been busy, he gave me the Bentyl prescription which I started last night and has thus far not helped at all. He said if it persisted it might be a flare. I got labs done today and am waiting for the results. I'm hoping it's not a flare for the sake of my long-term health, but it would be kind of nice if it was just so they could treat it and I could stop being in pain. I honestly don't think I've ever experienced pain like this before, I've been in worse pain for short periods but constant fluctuating pain for ten days is enough to push it into the winners spot. I doubt it is a flare though, I've lost very little weight, no D, anything. I'll take the heat pad suggestion into account though.

I appreciate your response. Anyone else's responses would be very appreciated, this is really taking a toll. Hitting the gym was what made me feel better because I could see tangible results and know I was beating this. But this is keeping me from doing so and it's messing with me.

 

[Twiggy930]

My son often has problems with bad abdominal pain but does not have increased BM frequency or diarrhoea. His lab work always comes back normal as does his fecal calprotectin tests. We have not had much success in the way of solutions to this problem but I can give you the list of things we have tried.

FODMAP diet (thinking of trying this again)
Iberogast (herbal supplement)
high doses of vitamin B2 (to prevent abdominal migraines)
probiotics
guided meditation (doesn't hurt but never works)

I hope you find a solution to this problem, if you find something that works let us know. My son's pain is also interfering with his day to day life as he is missing a large amount of school.

 

[UnXmas]

I'm sorry to hear how this is interfering with your life. Try not to worry too much about the implications - this has only persisted a short time so far, and might well be gone quickly too.

I believe you're right that even though most people would think of it as just gas, no big deal, gas can be terribly painful.

The symptoms that appear with a flare can vary from one flare to the next, though, so there is a possibility that this is what's happening, and I think it's a good think you got the blood tests done, and I would follow up with your doctor in order to confirm the pain is from gas and whether or not you are flaring.

Unless there's an obvious correlation, I wouldn't spend too much time trying to work out whether your diet is causing the problem. I find a lot of the symptoms we get happen spontaneously, due to factors outside of our control.

I'd also second the suggestion of a hot water bottle - I know it's not the most convenient thing, but in situations where you can use it, holding a hot water bottle to the site of the pain really helps. The warmth relaxes your muscles and helps with many kinds of pain.

Another thing I've found with gas pain is that moving around and just changing position can help. Again, it's not something you can do while you're out and about, but when you're home, walk around a bit, then try lying down and drawing your knees up to your chest, lie on one side for several minutes, then turn over and lie on your other side. When I was in hospital recently, and had a lot of gas trapped in my stomach (I'd just had surgery and nothing was moving through my intestines properly - even gas was just getting trapped inside) the nurses had me doing these position changes and I was sceptical when they suggested this (I wanted pain killers!) but I was surprised to find how effective they were, for me at least.

These are short-term measures which could hopefully ease your pains, but I think if they persist you should definitely see your doctor and explain exactly the problems you're having. Even if you're not flaring, anything that interferes with your life this much deserves thorough medical investigation.

 

[ejh9696]

Got my test results back today. C-Diff infection, most likely brought on by the Nexium lowering my stomach acid to the point it wasn't fighting bad bacteria anymore. Flagyl 3x a day for the next two weeks. I already feel a bit better from the pain but I began having diarrhea last night. Had it 3x today, bloody the last two. I think part of it may be due my stupidity, figured everything puts me in excruciating pain so I might as well enjoy the moments I wasn't. Had a sausage and cheese omelet a few hours before the diarrhea began, noticed the little pepper flakes from the sausage floating around the toilet today. Omelets never bothered me before but I knew going in my stomach was already inflamed and more sensitive than normal so this one is entirely on me, LOL.

The nurse calling to give my results said it was a good thing it's not a flare. Hopefully this course of antibiotics knocks it out. I've seen some horror stories but I've very rarely taken antibiotics so I highly doubt my case will be antibiotic resistant. From then it's time to apply for scholarships, lead the student section at my school's basketball games, and get back in the weight room. Probably gonna go to my morning classes and go home for the rest of the week because they're all in the morning and try to get back to a regular schedule next week. Thanks for the advice and support.

 

[Crohn's gal since 1989]

I've been suffering from bloating and painful gas each evening since my resection. I decided to try the peppermint tea. So far I have been drinking one cup an evening after dinner. It has really helped a lot with the gas and bloating!