ibs and me

I've been reading others' posts and thought I'd tell my story of ibs and me.

ibs wasn't called that when I was diagnosed. It was mucosa colitis.

I was in nursing school in Philly when I started to feel sick. I never had a funny tummy so this was strange. School was hard. We were guinea pigs for the school since we were the first year that was going to have a BA after our names besides R.N.

The school put us in with pre med and dental students at Temple University. They loved us because we brought the grading curve down so low that you couldn't fail.

In high school I had chemistry and biology so i felt sorry for the girls who hadn't.

We sometimes ate in the hospital staff canteen and I think that that was the start of it. I got food poisoning. All I remember of that night was clutching my stomach and waiting for the elevator. The housemother wasn't very concerned so I suffered that night.

I believe that that bout and the pressure of nursing school gave me ibs.

I went home at Christmas, told my parents, and then saw the family doctor who ordered tests. I won't go into them. :)

During this time I had the worse stomach pains and was throwing up dried blood.

So I was diagnosed with muscus colitis. I was given Donnatal and Librax.

I wasn't given any specific diet, just to stay away from foods that might cause a bout.

The problem with that was, my trigger foods changed. Milk was okay then it wasn't. Water caused problems too when I was suffering.

Through the years it came and go due to stress and eating foods that triggered the bouts.

I still get bouts and am now on Colofac. I've tried peppermint capsules but I kept burping peppermint.

For nausea, which for years I just accepted as part of the whole thing, I now, when needed take Motilium. My gp says to take them only when really needed because too many of them can cause liver damage.

I now have arthritis and have been given paracedomol, which is like Tylenol in the states, with codeine. This sometimes triggers a bout of ibs. My gp won't give me anything stronger because of the ibs.

I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes in May 2004. I was given Metformin. Oh boy. For healthy people they might get a slight side effect of runnng to the loo. For those with ibs, well, my son kept his Gameboy in the downstairs toilet and my scores for Tetris really improved. This went on for 3-4 months but it has settled down.

Another problem came up and that was unexpected bouts of diarrhea. One minute I was fine, the next oops. It is very embarassing when you are walking around a store or in town. Thankfully I belong to the ibs group bulletin board and they helped me.

http://www.ibsgroup.org/

I hope this might help someone else realise that they are not alone. And that they can ask me questions, which hopefully I can answer or set them on the path to the right answer.