My Problem

For years, I've dealt with lots of digestive problems. I've wondered if I didn't have some strange disease that was going undiagnosed. In 2003, I had a severe episode, which was much different than all the others. I had diarrhea for five (5) weeks, at 8-10 times a day before I went to the doctor. When I went, a blood test showed that my sed rate (measures inflammation) was high and the doctor sent me to a Gastroenterologist. I then had a colonoscopy and she found that my small intestine was full of inflammation. The doctor was sure I had Crohn's Disease, but after several other tests that proved negative she gave up. I took 16 Pentasa a day from July, 2003, until February, 2004. At that time, against doctor's advice, I began to wean myself off of the pills and on April 1, 2004, I took my last pill. From then on, I never had diarrhea that severe again. I did still have digestive and intestinal discomforts at times, but nothing that didn't go away in a day or two. Also, stress sends me to the bathroom, and has continued to do so. In February of this year, I started having diarrhea again and it became severe. Not only is it inconvenient, it's depressing, and usually painful (crampy). It seemed that the episodes were linked to what I was eating so I began to try to find which food it was. I finally settled on soy--since it's in almost everything I eat. But when I removed soy from my diet, I still had problems. So I finally went to the doctor. I went to my family practitioner and he said it sounds like you just have "Irritable Bowel Syndrome". My GI doctor had said there was no such syndrome only Crohn's, Colitis and a handful of other irritable bowel diseases.

After my visit to the doctor this week, I decided to investigate Irritable Bowel Syndrome. It was like looking in a mirror. I read this off of a website and saw myself.

I would bet you already know from personal experience that some foods nearly always cause IBS problems, while others never seem to bother you. On the other
hand, you've also probably noticed that sometimes a specific food will trigger
an Irritable Bowel Syndrome attack, while at other times you can eat the exact
same thing without difficulty. Odds are it doesn't seem like there's any rhyme
or reason to this. Odds are also that you've been wracking your brain to figure
out why.

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Sometimes, just knowing what you are facing can take away much of the fear. I have done a lot of reading the past several days and discovered lots of the foods that the doctor told me were good for me have actually been irritating my intestines. I also learned that many doctors don't recognize this disease because there is no test for it and because it was originally thought to be psychosomatic. The problem is that the symptoms are very real regardless of whether it's in my head or not. If anyone who reads this has suffered with problems that you think might be related to IBS please let me know. I am interested in talking with you. tammiediggs@yahoo.com