bowel movements that make me almost pass out because of pain

i too have had all the symptoms you have described.  my episodes do not usually happen that close together however they start with cramping then the sweating, nausea and passing out (i actually pass out, it's not just the feeling like i'm going to pass out).  i have had many colonoscopies and nothing has ever showed up.  the last episode (which was last night) was the most severe with the pain.  i haven't felt this severe of pain since labor pains 27 years ago.  the only difference with last nights' episode was that i did vomit on top of all the other symptoms.  finally after about an hour i finally had a BM but it left me so weak that i was not able to work today.  i don't think my issue is food allergies because these episodes do not happen after eating dairy or bread products.  i do have problems with constipation so i always contributed my episodes to that.  i too would love to know what causes this horrific pain.  whatever it is i would have to stop doing whatever causes them.

This happens to me once or twice a year for about the last 5 years.

I'm usually constipated but when this happens, first I feel abdominal pain and my stomach starts to grumble. Most of the time I can feel when I will have one of these pain fests before I go to the bathroom.  I always pass a hard stool first and then have very painful diarrhea that is excruciatingly hard to get out of my system.  I get severe abdominal pain, fainting/light headed, my body gets very cold but I sweat a lot, shaking and my legs go numb. The pain usually goes away after it feels like there is nothing left in my intestines. 

Everyone seems to get very hot and sweaty but I get very cold and sweaty. I have to turn on the heat and wrap myself in towels in the bathroom and as soon as i get out of the bathroom I'm so cold I have to cover myself in blankets.

I didn't realize this before but when I went to the doctor earlier this year while I was abroad, I found that I have sharp pain in the right side of my abdomen like one of the previous posters.  It's in my lower right side near my hip. I came back home and visited my primary care physician but she told me everything was fine..I've told her about this before, but she doesn't seem to have any idea what it is..

For those of you who faint, I've found that lowering my head to my knees makes it better. I think it has something to do with the blood rushing to your head.. i'm not sure why it works but it works for me.

I am amazed that so many others suffer with this.  I'm relieved but saddened all at the same time.  I'm almost 40, and have suffered with this for years.  I have been through a variety of doctors, and tests.  I had my appendix removed and then my gallbladder since that was found to not be working properly, but still this did not resolve the pain with passing bowel.  The issue is some weeks or days and sometimes for months I'm fine.  Then without notice, it hits me like a truck and I'm again in severe pain.  My stomach becomes swollen, distended and like everyone else here, I become hot, sweaty and almost pass out because of the pain.  I scream out and moan with pain so I don't pass out, but if I couldn't yell I know I would pass out.  It is worse than labor pain!!!  Once the bowel movement has passed, I feel fine, but worry until the next episode.  Through my doctors appointments they have diagnosed me with IBS, and Diverticulitis, but others that I have spoken to that have had IBS and Diverticulitis indicate they do not have this type of pain.  They have pain, but not pain while passing a bowel it is pain all the time during their episodes.  I also can't figure out a trend with triggers with food as I have tried to change things up.  I do not want to spend another round of tests again as I think the Drs. are just as stumped and not confirmed diagnosis.  :-(  At least not the doctors I have seen.  Good luck everyone!

I am incredibly amazed that i am not the only one that goes through this.. i was expecting to be searching for hours .. but no, first thing that popped up was this. I experience all the same symptoms. Identifying the most with Jennifer's post. Im 25, not lactose or gluten intolerant. And it only happens to me a few times a year. Always when im in a dead sleep. I feel that im about to have a pain attack because i wake up with belly cramps and a rumble/bubbling in my belly and i know i have to go sit on the toilet and wait... few minutes later i get freezing cold but start sweating profusely. then my legs go numb and tingly, i get goosebumps, and almost pass out. My head starts swirling and my vision goes black and i get very very nauseous. My cold sweats turn to hot flashes and i have to remove my clothing because im burning up.. and this only goes away when my intestines empty fully. It will start solid then become diarrhea that i strain to get out. Then i go back to freezing and have to wrap a blanket around me.. almost always its a 30 - 40 minute ideal from the minute i wake up till i feel better. ( i know this because its always in the middle of the night and i always have to work the next day.. so i started timing the episodes). Over the last couple of years i have noticed that the majority of the episodes occur around the time i have my period.. but thats not always the case. Sometimes it comes at random. And i notice that i started getting the episodes after the birth of my 2nd son when i was 21. I will be making an appointment with my Dr. wanted to see if i could get some answers through google first... good to know im not alone.. and sorry that we all go through this.

I am so shocked at the amount of responses to this topic. I have had these symptoms for about 2 years now and today was by far the worst. I thought I could be lactose intolerant so I tried my best to stay away from dairy products. Tonight I ordered a drink from a cafe and asked for lactose free milk. I was told thats what they used and an hour later I ended up in the ER. Whether they used the lactose free milk or not, I'm beginning to think this is not a dairy issue. I too get extremely bad pains in my stomach and start sweating but my body feels so cold at the same time. I usually take off my clothes because im too warm even though my body is shivering. It feels like someone is squeezing my insides and now the pain is so horrible i black out (which i also did tonight at the cafe). I get numbness in my legs, although tonight my whole body felt numb and as if I was getting "pins and needles" all over. The fact that these "reactions/attacks" happen frequently makes me worried, especially since they are progressively getting worse. Please post if you find anything out from any of your doctors! At least I know I'm not the only one with this problem.

Look up vasavagal syncope

When you feel symptoms coming you must immediately lay down flat on your back and prop your legs up above your heart.  I've tried this and the symptoms pass very quickly and I didn't have the energy drain or the sweating or light headed ness.  Good luck to all

I too get cold... extremely cold, but sweat like crazy. My symptoms are the same as yours. the urge then the noise, then the pain... I go the the bathroom and if takes forever..then the dizziness, severe pain, grumbling noise, cold sweat,.... a few hard stools you think you're done then wham more cramping, more dizziness, cold sweat and then diarrhea... afterwards I feel sick, frozen, and exhausted... this hsppens to me like once year. my physician has no explanation for me..

I had an ultrasound done and a blood test, both coming back fine. After seeing my Doctor today he suggested that I look up "Abdominal Epilepsy" even though it is extremely rare, there may be more cases then they say. So my next step is going for an allergy test and getting an EEG scan. Even if we all have something different, I hope we all can figure it out. 

My episodes are almost exactly like Jennifer's. Once or twice a year for the last 20 years. Cold sweats, as I call them, lying on the bathroom floor, agony. Last night was the worst episode - eventually I got up and was trying to get to the other bathroom where I would have room to lay on floor - instead I fainted. I have no recollection of the time between leaving one bathroom to get to the other, but then I fainted and hit my chin and jaw on the living room coffee table. That woke me up and I layed on the living room floor and had terrible diarhea. I'm sorry for the gross description. I had to call and call for a family member to hear me and help. Very scary. You kind of wish you were dead during the time this is going on. I think it is worse pain than child birth. I'm extremely weak today, as I always am following these episodes.

I've had those a lot too. But I've been eating gluten free since October and just last month I had that problem but I think I also had the stomach flu where it was in the middle of the night on the toilet. Had to fan myself with the door and get a cold wet cloth for my head

It happened to me this morning and has happened before. Not a pleasant thing for anyone to experience. I break out in  an intense sweat and feel like throwing up as I am on the stool.Other times I have thrown up a mucous and have been on the floor in pain, sweating defecating throwing up and in intense pain. Everyone here seems to have similar stories but no one has an answer certainly not the killers in white jackets that know nothing except how to do tests and say duh we don't know whats wrong but take this prescription and see if it helps. duh! Healers? not a chance. Killers, you bet.  Mine occured a couple of days after eating a burger which I never do any more because I avoid wheat. Perhaps it was the bun make with that frankenstein cross bred wheat garbage that improves the farmers yield but has much more gluten than it used to. Just one example of how corporate criminals have infiltrated the farming industry.

Well just to follow up, (I replied 3 months ago above), I have taken dairy out of my diet and I feel much better. However, after my appointment with a gastroenterologist a couple days ago, he told me the symptoms I have do not sound like lactose intolerance. He said I must just have IBS, however I'm not stupid, IBS is a very broad diagnosis. So he sent me for blood work just in case and said we will go from there. It seems no one has an answer and they simply label it as IBS because the "episodes" I have only occur approximately once every four months. I'll continue to not eat dairy since that seems to help...

Oh my gosh so glad I found this forum.  Started happening to me about fifteen years ago.  Wake up from a dead sleep with stomach pain and rumbling intestines.  Go the bathroom and have a very loose bowel movement, and sometimes make it back to bed and have to get up and have another one and by about third one, I start sweating profusely, room starts spinning, ears ringing and if I can lay on the floor or put a cool cloth on me it can sometimes pass.  Happens a couple times a year at least.  No explanation for the diarrhea (no unusual dietary intake), and the next day it's like nothing happened.  Sometimes I've passed out very briefly but always while lying on the floor.

18 months ago I had a similar episode and wasn't so lucky.  When I woke with stomach pain I was already having the sweating profusely and ringing in ears that signaled I was about to pass out.  Got out of bed and passed out at the foot of my bed.  According to my husband, I attempted to get back up to my feet (I recall none of this) and then passed out again where I was out for several minutes, eyes open, slight moaning, and bowels released (hope you weren't eating while reading this).  When I "came to", I was able to clean myself up, take a shower, and eventually go back to sleep (took awhile because I was freaked out by it). 

I've had several "near misses" since then where the lying on the floor thing solved it, or at least kept the damage from passing out to a minimum.

It happened again two weeks ago and I was even unluckier.  I woke up in the middle of the night with the pain, went to the bathroom, had a loose bowel movement, and then a couple more, each time lying on the bathroom floor in between because I was feeling the sweating and the ear ringing thing.  The final time I got up off the toilet and sat down with my back against the wall thinking "maybe it will pass" and the next thing I remember, I'm lying on my back trapped between the wall and the toilet.  I evidently tried getting up again while I was "out" only this time fell and darn near fractured my pelvis according to my doc.  My husband heard me fall and came in and I was out for a couple minutes, eyes open, slightly moaning.  And my bowels let loose again while I was out (I was shocked there was anything left I'd already gone so much before).  Oddly, I had several additional loose bowel movements throughout that night but no repeat of passing out.

Now, I'm terrified every time my tummy rumbles that it's going to happen again and I'm suffering tremendously from severe anxiety.  My quality of life has been about zilch.  I've been sent to a neurologist (saw one 18 months ago with no result) and a GI doc (which is where I think I need to be going) and an endocrinologist (no idea why I'm being sent there unless there is some thought it's metabolic?).  Neuro doc appointment is today but the other two aren't for another month.

I have no known food sensitivites, and cannot find any common ground in the foods eaten prior to an episode.  I'm terrified I'm going to end up really hurting myself one of these times and the fear of a repeat occurrance is destroying my quality of life.

Hi, since this post has gone into 2013 I would like to talk about my experiences. Im 27 this year, my IBS started when I was 18. For years it was never this severe, id find it hard to go to the loo and sometimes wouldnt go for a week or more. I used to eat alot of cereal and so at first thought I had a high fiber count. Anyway, the past few years I have had this on and off. I get a severe stabbing pain in my bowel area forcing me to run to the nearest loo. I usually get a cold shiver running down my body, though I also have sweats. I feel nauseous, dizzy and sometimes I have to make some noise, the pain is that bad. I have vomited once whilst I was on the loo as I felt like I was going to pass out it was that bad. In the past I went to hospital once due to the severe pain. They gave me morphine which helped but at that time I couldnt actually do anything (1 or 2). Theres odd times that I have had pain not so severe and not needed to go, I sometimes take diazepam to stop the pain which it doesnt always ( the diazepam is for my anxiety tho) Last week I woke up with a terrible pain in my bowel, I went to the loo, had small movement, then went back to bed as the pain died off. This happened three times before it stayed with me and I was on the loo for around 1 hour. As I said earlier I got a cold shiver, my face was burning up I got dizzy, I passed out at one point before banging my head on the floor. I woke up same again. Had my gf call a doctor to come asap. By the time they agreed to come I have finished. The pain was over although I was left with a sore and weak bowel for days. As I write this I have once again finished :S I know its not nice. The pain was terrible again. As soon as it started I knew I had to get what I could out of me asap before it got worse. Unfortunately it stopped, I went away and 3mins later it started again. Ive been sat here so long now that my bum hurts lol and my legs have red elbow inprints on them. Im glad its over again. I hope I have described as well as all you have.I would also like to add that if you get blood in your stools, it can be a sign of bowel cancer. I know this because it runs in my family and my dad had it. If you catch it early enough, you can have surgery to remove a cancerous pollok from your bowel. Also I would like to say that most doctors are useless. IBS is a syndrome and syndromes are usually lots of different things that make it what it is. Medication for IBS is useless. Im going to get tested for allergys as I now believe it could be lactose. Hope this helps. Dont forget you are not alone.