Monthly Archives: October 2004

Cybill Shepherd has done a wonderful thing – owned up to having IBS, and even specified her symptoms – constipation, abdominal pain and bloating.

This is doubly wonderful because she’s not exactly the person most of us would associate with gut trouble, and by speaking out she has shown that anyone can get IBS, even glamorous showbiz types who’ve hung around with Bruce Willis.

This is what she says:

“For years I have been battling recurring constipation, abdominal pain and bloating. Go ahead and laugh. We laugh because we’re embarrassed. In order for us to get relief, we have to talk about our symptoms and stop suffering in silence.

I have tried nearly everything; changing my diet and watching what I ate. I exercised regularly. I even tried taking fiber supplements and over-the-counter laxatives, but nothing helped with all of my symptoms.

My doctor used to tell me it was all emotional and psychological. So I got a new doctor. And a year and a half ago, I was diagnosed with Irritable Bowel Syndrome with Constipation. It was a huge relief to find out that my IBS with constipation was not all in my head and that it was a treatable medical condition. My doctor prescribed Zelnorm® and it has provided me with relief for all my symptoms. In a lot of ways, I feel like my old self again.

So I started talking to other people with this condition. That’s why I’m working with the National Women’s Health Resource Center and Novartis to educate women about IBS with constipation. If you are one of the millions women who suffer from recurring constipation, abdominal pain and bloating associated with IBS, you are not alone! Help is available, but don’t wait. Take action and talk to your doctor. Maybe Zelnorm is right for you.”

And the more of us own up, get out there and try to get help, the better we’ll all feel.

Heather Van Vorous is pretty unique within the IBS world. The best description of her is a ‘patient expert’, someone who not only has sufferered with IBS for many years but who has also devised a whole diet-based treatment programme to help thousands of other sufferers.

Firstly, let me say that I have never tried her diet programme for IBS, and I have no idea whether it would work for me or for anyone else. But, what I do know is that Heather is a force for good in the IBS world for this reason alone: she treats IBS sufferers with respect.

If there’s one thing that gets my goat (and it takes a lot to get my goat, he’s tethered very carefully to a hippo) it’s doctors and the general public believing that IBS is a minor thing, something that is a bit of an inconvenience but nothing much to worry about.

Or it’s something that’s all in our heads, that would go away if we just stopped thinking about it. Of course, for some sufferers, IBS is only a mild condition, but for a lot of us it has a huge impact on our lives and cannot be dismissed so easily.

And that brings me back to Heather Van Vorous. To give you an example of her attitude to IBS sufferers, here is a quote from one of her books, The First Year of IBS:

“You may even have friends or family dismiss your problem as ‘all in your head.’ It’s up to you to educate these people, and then dump them if they persist in their ignorance at the expense of your health.”

That may sound pretty strident but I think it’s fantastic – anyone who is trying to belittle your IBS needs to be told exactly how much damage they are doing just by remaining ignorant.

After two good weeks of health I woke up today and felt terrible. During these past two weeks I’d started to think about making some plans, maybe seeing a few friends and going a few places. Today has reminded me why I don’t make plans.

The problem is this – once you have made a plan, there are only three possible outcomes. Firstly, you feel fine on the day and you go along and have a lovely time and everyone’s happy and the world is all shiny and new.

Secondly, you don’t feel fine on the day and you cancel. People get tired of this pretty quickly and stop asking you to go places, or they think that you are lazy and boring and malingering and weak.

Thirdly, and perhaps worst of all, you don’t feel fine on the day and you go anyway. Once you are there you can’t say you feel sick because people stay home when they feel sick, so you have to pretend that you are fine.

If there’s anything more exhausting, more depressing, more generally bloody awful than sitting in a room full of happy people pretending you are happy too, I don’t what on earth it might be.

Hell is other people while your stomach is trying to die.

IBS is really two whole problems in one handy package. First you have the physical symptoms, which are no picnic – diarrhea, constipation, bloating, abdominal pain – I could go on, but I have to go to the bathroom.

But then…you have the people. You know the ones I mean. Those smug, self-satisfied, unbelievably annoying people who just litter the planet with their perfect working bowels and their shiny, functioning intestines.

Dealing with healthy people’s reactions to your IBS can be exhausting. People laugh and tell bottom jokes, they look at you like you’re nuts, they explain in a patronizing voice how you should eat fiber to cure constipation and Imodium to cure diarrhea and then you’d be fine. They get angry when you cancel your plans and embarrassed when you really explain what your symptoms are – “Don’t tell me that!”, they cry. “That’s disgusting!” And they’re not the one who has to live with it.

Yes, basically, non-IBS people suck. So, what should you do with them. Unfortunately we can’t give ‘em all IBS for a month and see how they like it, so the only real alternative is education. Make them understand. And here are some ideas on how to do just that.

First, make them read some of the stories on IBS Tales and explain that these are typical stories – not exaggerated, not moaning wimps, just genuine IBS people trying to live their lives.

Then, get them to read the Introduction to IBS to get a feel for the thing.

And if, after all this, they’re still not behaving themselves, well – that’s their problem – you deserve support, and respect, and I think you’re all heroes, whatever they say. IBS people rule!