u/CawfeePig

Context: My normal IBS symptoms are frequent, urgent, uncomfortable BMS. I'm rarely bothered at night.

For the past couple weeks, I've been having this intermittent problem where I wake up in the middle of the night with stomach pain. It feels like it's more in my stomach than my intestines, but also feels like it's around my belly button. Kind of hard to describe. It's similar to the painful stomach feeling you get when you're hungry and haven't eaten in a while, kind of like that burning hungry pang feeling, but it's worse.

Usually I have to sit up, and it kind of slowly drains away. It almost seems to be positional. If I'm on my back, I might get this panging, burning pain, and then it eases if I get on my side. I've had acid reflux and GERD over the years in a lot of different forms, and although while this could be related, its never presented in this way before.

The only thing I can think that's been different lately that could be causing this is that I've been taking metamucil for about a month and a half. I take it before bed (just half a tsp of the sugar free kind for now). This has only started happening the past couple weeks though and doesn't happen every night.

Anyway, I will tell my gastro doc about this but it takes forever to get in there and I'm currently on the cancelation list. I just wanted to see if this sounded familiar to anyone and what it might be.

This is probably wishful thinking on my part, honestly.

I'm in my late 30s and have had IBS-D since junior high. It basically affects my every day life and I can't find a solution to manage my symptoms well. Before it was such an issue for me, back when I was a kid, I do remember a lot of indigestion (I didn't know what it was back then) and I developed lactose intolerance before my IBS.

I've lived knowing I've had lactose intolerance my whole life, and I also know there are certain high fodmap foods that make me feel worse, although I typically stick to a pretty low fodmap diet in my every day life. I tried cutting out gluten once and it didn't help, so I do eat gluten.

But recently I've been thinking...I know fruit and vegetables make me way worse, and for whatever reason, when I eat homemade pasta I have a really bad morning the next day. I know a lot of people with IVS are sensitive to fodmaps, but is there any research on certain individuals who think they have IBS basically having another specific intolerance, like to fructose for example? If I were to completely remove crustose from my diet (hard to do) or use a pill like lactaid, could I significantly reduce my symptoms?

I have had the pancreatic enzyme test done, and my pancreas is fine. I also have had SIBO breath tests, celiac tests, and done a trial of bile acid binders, in addition to the usual colonoscopy/biopsy stuff.

IF this is a possible cause, is there a safe pill equivalent to lactaid I could try with each meal at night that's affordable? I don't like the idea of fodzyme powder. I just want to start with fructose.

My Apple Music profile has two recommended friends who I don't recognize the names of at all. I've done a lot of detective work and haven't gotten anywhere. Is there a way to see which of my contacts these suggestions are associated with?

This is a weird one.

So I just heard about the podcast "How I Write" by Dave Perell. I searched for it in Overcast after seeing a clip of it on Instagram, and the top two results have the same title and show art, so I clicked into each one to see what's up.

Each has the same episodes but slightly different titles and episode descriptions. The top result has the episode titles that seem to match YouTube/Spotify/Apple/etc, but most of them are missing episode art. The second result has the weird mirror world titles but every episode has clean looking episode art.

Does anyone know what could be going on here? I am stumped as to why this would happen and which feed is the legit one.

Went to the doctor a few months ago for shaky hands and she tested my vitamin levels. Turns out I have low (not deficient) D and B12, so she recommended I start taking supplements for them.

I've kind of taken them on and off for the last few months, and I have noticed a pretty big reduction in the shakiness. I recently had my levels rechecked, and D is in the normal range. B12 went up but is still on the low end.

Any time I take any new med or supplement, I google its relationship with IBS. I have really stubborn IBS-D that hasn't really responded to any treatments I've tried over the years.

When I google this, I see that B12 supplementation sometimes has a positive effect on IBS-D (lots of personal stories on message boards like this one), but digging further into it, it doesn't really seem like there is any reason this would be the case. In fact, my B12 is probably low because of my IBS-D. Not the other way around.

As I try to get into the habit of taking this pill every day to see if I can get a more normal number, I'm wondering if anyone here might have any insight on this.

I buy thin burger patties from the grocery. Usually either Laura's Lean or Simple Truth. I actually over cook them compared to what I read online: 14 minutes at 400 degrees flipped halfway. Then I stab them with a meat thermometer to make sure they are at least 169 degrees. Usually, they wind up somewhere in the mid 160s to 170.

When I bite into a burger, it looks pretty strongly pink for like 10 seconds and then fades back to brown. It's kind of striking. It looks like undercooked pink but then changes back. Sometimes, it lingers for longer than ten seconds.

I've read about persistent pinking but this freaks me out since I don't know what the difference is between that and undercooked pink.

I currently live alone and have an Apple TV that, like all my other Apple products, is fully integrated into my ecosystem. I'm about to move in with someone though, and now it will feel weird for a lot of my personal stuff to be on the main streaming box for our TV.

For Photos: Is there a way I can turn off access to my photo library on the Apple TV? I'm assuming there is a toggle to turn off iCloud for photos, but my photos aren't currently backed up anywhere and touching toggles like that always terrifies me that it will accidentally delete stuff.

Some context as to why I'm asking:

I'm a long time IBS-D sufferer. Lots of tests, medications, supplements, diets, etc. no answers or symptomatic improvement. One thing my doctor recommended that I have never tried for more than a month at a time at very small doses is a fiber supplement. Usually I take a few capsules (very low dose) for about three weeks before giving up. I've finally decided to try to be more aggressive and patient.

I'm taking psyllium, specifically the Metamucil sugar free powder, half a teaspoon every night, and I've been doing this for about three weeks now. No improvement in reducing bowel movement frequency yet, and a lot of extra gas.

My plan is to keep this up and slowly increase to see if there is a sweet spot. But it has me thinking...if disbiosis is one of my contributing problems, could continued use of Metamucil over a long period of time (6 months to a year or more) have any positive effect on my microbiome? I've read that it doesn't ferment so it's not good for repair, but I've also read that it acts like a prebiotic and can have positive effects. Not sure what to believe.