Hello,
I'm a 41 yo male, healthy (don't smoke, not overweight, exercise regularly) who's suffered from IBS-A for many years. Had a negative colonoscopy 8 yrs ago. However over the past few weeks things seem to have worsened and I was wondering if anyone's experienced anything similar. About two weeks ago I had what I assume was a viral stomach bug (a day of diarrhea, chills and nausea). This only lasted about a day. Never had any bloody stool. Felt okay for a couple days. But then a few days later had terrible lower abdominal cramps and had the urge to have a BM every 30 minutes or so all morning. Since then have had pretty much constant crampy abdominal pain (mostly below my belly button but sometimes all over), bloating, some nausea, loss of appetite and even lost a few pounds because I just don't feel like eating. The diarrhea has resolved, now just having some intermittent hard / soft stools with some mucus. Also woke up one night in the middle of the night with cramps and had to have a BM and couldn't fall back asleep due to the cramps. Saw my GI and had normal stool cultures (no c. diff, crypto, giardiasis or bacterial infections) and a normal CBC. i have a colonoscopy scheduled for next week but I'm freaking out about something more serious (i.e. cancer). My wife thinks a lot of my symptoms are "psychosomatic" as I have a pretty strong history of anxiety. She thinks a lot of my loss of appetite and resultant weight loss are more because of anxiety and stress. I know it seems unlikely to develop cancer just 8 years after a normal colonoscopy but my mind likes to go to bad places Thoughts? Anyone else have a similar experience with a flare of post infectious IBS? Thanks!