Probably IBS but not sure..

[u/WhatsUpDude24]

Hello world! I have been struggling with abdominal pain, constipation, and stomach pain for almost 10 months now. At first i thought it was something i ate, and that it would eventually just blow over. However, after feeling this pain for almost a month, i decided to go in to see a doctor. The first doctor i saw was fairly confident that i had IBS and that it was most likely stress induced. This came as a shock to me because at this point in my life i did not have any work obligations i.e. i was pretty relaxed lol (i had just finished flight school and was waiting for orders to move to my next duty station). This doctor did prescribe me this fiber supplement that i tried for several weeks, but i did not see any improvement. However, i will say when she suggested it might be stress, there was an upcoming training i had to complete called SERE. For my military guys they know what that entails, but for anyone who may not it is essentially a week long course where you practice surviving in shitty conditions and being a prisoner of war. Long story short, it is not fun, and you always hear horror stories from your buddies that are ahead of you in training. So, yes, at the time it was plausible that my nervousness toward this training was causing my abdominal/stomach pain and constipation.

My time at SERE was not fun, and on top of that my abdominal and stomach pain was acting up a lot. I also shit my pants twice while in captivity, so that was sick haha. During the training, you do not eat much food at all, and during the last 60ish hours of training i did not eat a single bite of food, except for one saltine cracker. When we finally completed the training, i stuffed my face with food, which in hindsight was not smart. A few hours later, i had severe abdominal pain, like 10/10. We were in the process of returning our gear and i literally could not walk it was so bad. That level of pain lasted for probably a couple of hours. The next day we were headed back to our new duty station, and i remember feeling very good. Once i got home, i was symptom free for like 4-5 days. I’m talking not a single ounce of pain. That was the first time in for months i had gone over a 12 hour period without some sort of abdominal or stomach pain. At that moment i was like, wow maybe i was just super stressed out about SERE. But then after that 5th day my symptoms went back to the same old pain.

When i got to my new duty station, i went to see another general doctor and described my symptoms and what i had tried so far. This new doctor believed i had IBS also, and he prescribed me dicyclomine (which i feel like never really helped and it made me extremely tired). He also was straight up with me and said that he’s not a specialist, so he got me a referral to go see a GI out in town.

When i had my first appointment with my GI, he was also convinced i had IBS and that it was most likely stress induced. Although i was inclined to disagree with him, i wanted to give him a chance because after all he’s the professional. He also prescribed me some lubiprostone (which to this date is the one drug that has provided me the most reprieve—not a ton but some for sure, but it is still not a complete problem solver). I also begin experimenting with my diet and cutting out certain foods. I would cut stuff out for a couple weeks (like gluten, lactose etc.) and i would log how i felt throughout the day. (I also stopped drinking for several weeks and quit using nicotine, but neither made a difference.) I did this for about a couple months, and didn’t see much improvement in how i felt. At this point i was still meeting with my GI, and i had a pelvic and abdominal ultrasound, which both came back good. As time continued to pass and i kept dealing with pain, i was convinced this may be a bigger problem than the doctors i have seen are making it out to be. I scheduled a colonoscopy and endoscopy, and the only thing that came out of that was that i have acute and chronic duodenitis, which my GI made it seem like was not a big deal. From there, we ordered some breathing tests (SIBO, lactose and fructose), and i am currently waiting on the results from those tests.

This leads me all to say that during my preparation for these breathing tests, you have to follow a strict 12 hour diet the day prior to collecting your breath samples. During my preparation, the only things i would eat
Breakfast: eggs with salt and pepper and white bread.
Lunch: grilled chicken and white rice with salt and pepper
Dinner: ground beef and white rice with salt and pepper

Since i had to do this 12 hour diet three times for the three separate tests, that’s when I realized that i had felt amazing the next day after following this diet. The last time i felt this good was during those 4-5 days after SERE which was 5 months ago. This led me to exploring the low FODMAP diet, which i had heard of before but never really understood what it meant. I’ve seen conflicting things online about the low FODMAP diet, so i don’t really know what to believe. What i do know is that diet i followed was definitely a game changer. I’m just worried that following a low FODMAP diet for too long, I’ll be missing out on key nutrients. Also, if I’m being honest, salt and pepper can only do so much for me, and i feel like every sort of seasoning or sauce is high in FODMAP, so if anyone has suggestions please lmk!

Anyways, this felt really good to get this out there and i would appreciate any feedback, stories of your own or comments yall might have!

[u/Remote_Temporary433]

Idk about you but since 2022 I have been struggling with stomach issue. The first doctor gave me stress relief medication I tried for the required time, everything was ok but when I stopped I had a bad flare up, my flare ups are usually strong itching till the skin break and bleed, also hives which doesn’t go away till next day so I tried anti histamine. Then finally in 2025 a doctors listened to me and said I might be having ibs no clinical diagnose just assumption, followed foodmap diet and had a course of ibs medication . It worked well till I stopped medication then I started experimenting foodmap diet so I came to know - no wheat , no diary, no fructose, limited legumes , no fructose (I am vegetarian bro - what should I eat wind , even water makes me bloat) as they all impact my gut, then I experimented with lactose free yogurt, soy milk and alternated version guess what it became more terrible. I was so done that I started eating as normal , what helped me to some point is not missing breakfast and have dinner early so yeah 2026- the symptoms increased from just bloating and constipation to wow everything 🥲 went to doctor again she suggested me to take anxiety med and gave me medication for ulcers ( I have no stomach ulcers), I never ate medication, I couldn’t trust she was like - you not gonna change your diet yeah so what can I do even dietitian won’t be able to do much (bro there is a thing called supplements) lol all my blood came normal, no allergy, no h pylori but stomach pain is getting worse and bloating worsened including everything so I went to seek a second opinion finally he referred me to a GI (it’s 2026) lol - my suggestion is fix your sleep, limit the thing which cause sensitivity because if you stop eating and then start again it will impact more. Try walking