Severe body pain temporarily alleviated by bowel movement

[[fe...]]

Hi all. I'm going through either a flareup of a chronic underlying illness, or a massive benzo setback and I'm trying to assess which one it is.  History: mostly severe GI symptoms since finishing taper 5 years ago, had massive window between start of 2022 and end of 2023 where I had no symptoms (it was great having my life back ❤️).

Then the setback started. End of 2023.

Can anyone identify with excruciating body pain that builds up over the day while stool is sitting in your colon, and then alleviates shortly after having a bowel movement?

I've searched high and low for this exact issue and I don't see it on benzobuddies or anywhere else online for that matter. I can only draw disjointed conclusions about fibromyalgia and leaky gut.  My joints feel like grinding glass and are inflamed, severe flu-like body pain on the scale of 102F fever but not actually running a fever, neck lymph nodes feel extraordinarily painful. I've been dealing with this for 9 months straight.

Each day is: I'm in agonizing pain for hours and feeling like I'm fighting off a nasty infection, I poop, then two hours later I feel better. Then 6 hours later from that, pain starts to build up again. Rinse and repeat.

Clean diet, low carbs, no sugar, no alcohol, gluten-free, very light exercise, good sleep habits, practice meditation, practice stretching, staying hydrated. Nothing changes the outcome except lowering my calories below sustaining levels. Every freaking day for 9 months with no improvement. I've lost 21 pounds to this because the more I eat, the more pain I'm in. Normal caloric intake brings the pain to a 10/10 and I become suicidal. So I stay slightly below sedentary caloric intake. I feel like I'm slowly dying.

All my blood tests, urine tests, CT Scan, and GI Map came back normal.  Multiple doctors are confounded.  Considering a colonoscopy soon.

Only good news out of all of this is that my insane reflux at the beginning of this 5 years ago has disappeared.

I can't tell if I triggered myself into a setback with stress and other triggers during my window, or if this is an autoimmune issue that somehow isn't showing up on tests.  I'm hoping this is a known symptom.

Blessings to you all. I hope we make it through this.

P.S. to mods: I thought about putting this into the Long Hauler group but it doesn't see much traffic. Trying to cast a wide net here.

Edited July 30 by [fe...]