I sometimes feel that, with a condition such as IBS, it is necessary to set up some kind of motivational system in your head to keep you going. I tend to think of this in terms of cheerleading, having a little voice in your mind that has to keep saying “You can do it, just carry on a bit longer” and “One more day and your stomach’ll be back to normal, you’ll see. Just keep going”.
This constant need to drag yourself out of despair can get pretty draining. I imagine my little cheerleaders (who I have decided to think of as hedgehogs, rather than proper cheerleaders, as 16 year-old girls would just laugh at me, and hedgehogs are more polite) are pretty exhausted by now.
“Just keep going” they are panting, “Just a little while longer”, and then they collapse to the ground, several of them get run over by a passing lorry, and I have to carry on with depleted hedgehogs and a more feeble voice of encouragement.
If I ever run out of hedgehogs, well, I’m not sure what happens then. Hope is the last thing to die, they say, so maybe my hedgehogs will last for as long as I do.
I’ll guess I’ll find out in the end.
Hi Sophie,
Just writing to let you know what has (finally) worked for me, basically I cannot eat gluten, yeast, cheese and tomatoes (go figure) and I also cannot have coffee (but can have caffeine). I also avoid wheat based alcoholic drinks (except smirnoff vodka as is distilled and filtered) and I also accept that if i drink too much, I am going to have stomach pain a couple of days later. If I do develop stomach pain (reasonably rare if I avoid the above foods/drink) then I have a glass of prune juice and that gets rid of it (after repeat visits to the toilet).
A few things I have noticed:
1) If I do not have stomach ache, eat something and then get stomach ache about 4 hours after eating, it must be something I have eaten (I guess this is when it hits my small intestine).
2) There are also a few things that affect me about 8-12 hours (I guess this is when it hits my large intestine)
So this means I have some things that only affect my small intestine and some things that only affect my large intestine (and some things that affect both…like gluten).
Now even if I do not eat any of the above, I can still get a stomach ache and so I take anti-spasmodics such as Buscopan or Colafac (available in sainsburys) – though I guess you would be bettter chatting to a pharmacist rather than just buying them. I do not take three as the box says as I ended up constipated. I take one in the morning at one in the evening. I have tried the extra fibre supplement but it just ended up giving me stomach ache. Anyway hope this helps. David
PS
Maybe you should start a hedgeblog
Hi David – thanks for your comments, and that’s great that you’re getting somewhere in finding out what foods affect you. I also seem to be a gluten person, although there must be something else because I still have bouts of IBS…have to keep looking.
Hedgeblog indeed!
Ok, well keep ya chin up kiddo
well i recently went and saw a nutritionist and followed his diet for a month and had the odd attack but it really seemed to be helping then today my attacks are back just two days after the diet ended even though i’m still sticking to it go figure my nutritionist suggested i take goldenseal supplements and bio acidophilus to help my stomach get back the good bacteria. used the goldenseal but not yet used the acidophilus. who knows that might be the one thing to change thing although my friend started taking it on advice from her nutritionist and said it gave her the runs this is why i am a bit dubious as if this is the case thats not what i want as thats what i’m trying to stop.
I stumbled across your blog yesterday during a lazy afternoon at work. I enjoyed it, but promptly got caught up in life and it slipped to the back of my mind. But at 6am this morning, as I was doubled up in the bathroom with tears running down my face, I suddenly remembered your hedgehogs. I hope you don’t mind, I borrowed them for a bit
I’ve actually had a couple of requests re: a temporary loan of some cheerleading IBS hedgehogs, and I am happy to announce that I have just had delivery of a new bunch of hedgehogs specifically for this purpose. Requests for one or more hedgehogs can be placed through this blog. Care and feeding: usual hedgehog food, no stroking, not to be kept near roads.
Pain 4 hours later? I’ve found that frequently, whatever I’ve eaten can already be out of my body by then!
Sophie,
I was actually googling supplements for cheerleaders and I got your blog. Interesting. Have you thought perhaps about your IBS being caused by an emotion that you hold or something to that effect. The reason why I ask is I have a friend that specializes in helping people get to the root of things and she was JUST telling me about someone who’s IBS was caused by something going on in her life.(actually her husband mistreating her). I have been taking classes to learn to do this, but I am still learning. I can give you more info if you are interested. If not, I understand, and I hope I am not intruding.
Would love to hear from you,
April
Hi April – IBS can certainly be exacerbated by emotions or stressful events in life, but they’re not the “root cause” for IBS. Amongst other things it’s been shown that IBS sufferers process pain signals differently in their brains, that some sufferers have low-grade inflammation in their intestines, and that other sufferers have physical differences visible under the microscope.
It’s great that your friend is helping people with their stress etc and this could certainly help their IBS, but the underlying condition will still be present. Of course if you’re the sufferer then that won’t really bother you, but it’s important to mention so that people don’t mis-understand what IBS is – a physical disorder, not a psychological one.
So, you dont believe that stress etc. can trigger or cause physical disorders?
Sure, stress can certainly trigger or cause physical disorders – at the most basic level we’ve all experienced the need to be near a bathroom when we’re stressed about an exam or something. If you have a very stressful event that’s ongoing in your life then you may well have a stomach upset, but that’s no proof that IBS is caused by stress, and in fact all of the leading gastrointestinal experts state pretty categorically that IBS isn’t caused by stress, and is not a psychological disorder.
In the past doctors could only say that IBS was stress-related because they couldn’t find anything else to blame it on, but that has now changed. It’s important that we don’t go back to assuming that stress or some kind of “hidden emotion” is the catalyst for IBS – after all, no-one thinks that asthma is caused by stress, even though stress can trigger an asthma attack just as predictably as it can trigger an IBS attack.