I have had severe acute bouts of diarrhea for years (along with panic attacks and anxiety). I'm getting a pretty good handle on my anxiety and haven't had a panic attack in years now, but the diarrhea bouts have persisted. I finally decided to go to a gastroenterologist and she wants to do all these tests to rule out other possible causes. When I went for the colonoscopy a month ago I refused to let them sedate me (because of fear of losing control with the drugs), so they did the procedure with me awake(which was VERY painful, but I survived). Now she wants to do an upper endoscopy of my stomach and I just know I can't swallow that tube awake!! She also gave me a drug called NuLev for my diarrhea attacks but I'm afraid to take those too! I assume my diarrhea is stress related, but I still don't know for sure. Has anyone else had these fears of the sedatives? Has anyone else taken this NuLev?

Dear Catdoc5:

Man, you went through that test without anesthesia! I could never do that... I'd rather be asleep - the hell with wanting to control the situation - I'd rather sleep while they "intubate" my rear end

As far an an endoscopy, I can't blame you I could NEVER swallow that thing: no way Jos�... I'll choke on it. I can't hold anything in my mouth for more than 10 seconds without wanting to barf....

Ok' I've never tried the drug that you're taking about so I can't help you with that (look it up in the internet). My advice: I think that you should start trusting your doctor a bit more; if he or she gave you that medication, he/she must have explained why it was prescribed and what you should expect as far as side effects and etc.

Here is what I've learned from my own experience.

First of all, my doctor gave me something called "Protylol" (name used in Canada). It's an anti-spasmodic so that I don't get those painfull belly aches all the time. It helped a lot (I no longer need it...)

My IBS is always bouts of constipation followed by bouts of diarrhea which gave me hemroids right up to there ...

My doctor suggested that I cut everything that has artificial sweetener in it because is causes cramping. I also had to cut down on cafeinated products (tea, coffee, pop, etc.) and milk. My doctor told me to take Metamucil every day; it's highly recommended for IBS sufferers because it prevents constipation and reduces diarrhea because of it's high "bulking" contents - of course, the Metamucil that I take is the one that has no artificial sweetener in it. I take both the little apple wafers and the orange powder. It has helped me tremendously, in fact, I have not had an IBS attack for a while now...

As crazy as it may sound, cutting down on milk (except for yogourt) has helped me. Yogourt contains "good" active bacteria that will replenish your intestinal flora after a bout of diarrhea. Either that or if you don't like yogourt, try to take "yogourt" supplements (also called acidophilus or lactobacillus acidophilus) found at health food stores and even at Wal Mart's! Take the one that has at least 5 billion active bacteria in it and take one capsule after each meal. You'll see a difference!

I hope that this helps. Sorry if I haven't answered before, I visit this site less often since my ISB is under control.

Good luck to you!

Sylvie

[This message has been edited by jamija (edited 07-14-2002).]

Hi catdoc5~
I have had the endoscopy and from what i understand its terrible without the anesthesia. I had the anesthesia and it was fine. Awoke feeling great and it was done.
As for the nulev,im clueless.