Get up at around 10.00am on a Sunday. Feel OK, no immediate stomach problems. Have breakfast and take soluble fiber supplement as usual.
No urge to go to bathroom. Usually have urge in morning, straight after breakfast. If no urge in morning then will be no urge for the rest of the day.
Still no bathroom urges. Go to bathroom anyway as sometimes no urge does not mean no need to go to bathroom. Nothing happens in bathroom.
Feel OK until about 12.00pm. Start feeling tightness in stomach and bloated. By about 4.00pm feel tight around stomach area and as if intestines are tense.
Get through rest of day feeling grim. Go to bed. Wake up, have breakfast, go to bathroom a minimal amount. Still feel tight and tense around stomach.
Repeat over around 500 or so days of my life, and as far into the future as you can bear to look.
Two thoughts - firstly, if you would really rather that I didn't write about my bodily functions and think it's all a bit disgusting, well tough - this is my life, this is my greatest misery, and who the hell am I supposed to talk to.
And secondly, I don't know how long I can keep doing this, over, over and over. I'm so tired of it all. And so unhappy.
Sophie, I really feel for you. Here I am feeling the same unable to sleep because of the pain and dreading the pain still being there tomorrow.
Okay, you have IBS, that is immensely sad. I know, for I have it as well. Now imagine you're me.
You have a spinal injury. I can walk, which means that everybody thinks I am just fine. Wrong. I broke my 3rd Lumbar, and I cannot feel my ass, my left testicle, or the back of my left thigh. Not feeling your ass is bad, I would imagine, even if you have healthy bowels. I had healthy bowels, before the snowboarding accident. Ever since that time, (1999) I have had IBS, AND neurological damage. Sweet. I just had to come home from work again for this, I think I may get fired for it someday, and then I will lose my house. But Social Security disability says I'm "able-bodied" not disabled. *cries*
out of desperation i found this site, thank you for been here! i recently had a colonoscopy, oh what fun! i have a healthy colon apparently, but still suffer. i had to run to loo a few times the other day so took something to stop it so i could work, i have not been to the loo since! i 've been on anti depresence for about 11yrs. i've been told that this will help. im currently of them i don't know if i should go back on them.
Hi Sophie,
Ever think of not taking the insoluble fibre? I always find it makes me feel worse, so gave up on it ages ago.
Also I don't think there's any need to worry about whether you go to the bathroom or not - you just don't need to go everyday, and if you’re feeling constipated, but you went yesterday, then its ibs pains, not that you desperately need to go.
One of the best things I ever did was to stop writing down a diary of my bowel movements! I'm not saying that ibs is caused by stress, because I don't think it is - but stressing over it just isn't good for anyone.
But then I can talk, I just cried because when I bit into my wonderful farmers market gluten free sausages, I realised they had garlic in - my most dangerous trigger food (except for chilli beans, but that's another horrid story!)
Ok so I'm not going to be eating sausages for a while, I can't go to restaurants, I’m awkward when staying at other peoples houses, I’m likely to have a bloated belly when I least want it - but I’m learning to cope with it. I can eat chocolate, chips, crisps, rice pudding, custard and lots of naughty things without feeling guilty or poorly. I do eat healthily most of the time, but I do like finding wonderful things that I can eat that don't cause me problems, because anything that makes you feel better will get you through.
However comfort eating is not good, but especially for ibs sufferers, so doing other things that make me feel better always helps me. Like going out with friends, even when I really don't feel up to it - it's surprising sometimes how much I recover when having fun and not thinking about the pain.
Oh, I could go on forever, best stop.
Hope you found a way to get through.
Hannah
Hi Hannah,
Thanks for your comments (and for everyone else's comments too!).
It's important to distinguish between soluble fiber and insoluble fiber - soluble fiber is what is in most fiber supplements and is used by many IBS sufferers to help their symptoms. Insoluble fiber can cause pain for many sufferers, but is still important for health.
Also, it really isn't me worrying about going to the bathroom every day that's the problem! I know that doctors often tell us that we shouldn't be concerned about going every day, and believe me if I went once a year and had no pain then I'd be as happy as a lark!
The problem is that whenever I don't go in the morning I am in pain by the afternoon, simple as that. It's a pattern that's lasted 15 years. Occasionally I will then go in the afternoon and the pain immediately goes away. A lot of IBS people find that they are more sensitive to the discomfort of constipation than healthy people, because they are more sensitive to any bowel stimulation or blockage.
It's a classic symptom of IBS in fact - "pain relieved by defecation" as the doctors would say.
I do know what you mean about focusing on other things though, and it sounds like you have a very good and positive attitude - good on you!
Hi Sophie,
Thanks for your reply. Sorry about the fibre mix up. It was fybogel that I took and found to be less than beneficial!
I guess what I'm trying to say is that i don't think the pain should get you down so much. I know sometimes it can get really bad, and it does also affect mood, making you feel irratable and depressed, but with determiation, you can get through that. Just don't let it consume you. knowing that ibs will never actually damage you, can help you cope with the pain.
Also, just out of curiostity, have you identified any particular 'trigger' foods that cause it? and do you keep to any particular diet to try to alieviate your symptoms?
Hannah
Hi Hannah,
Thanks for your message. I do completely understand where you're coming from, but the problem I seem to be having at the moment is that I have struggled and struggled for 15 years not to let IBS consume me, and I have encountered so much pain during that time that I seem to be losing the war.
That's not to say that I'm going to stop looking for solutions (and when I talk to other sufferers I am usually far more positive than this!), but when you say "I don't think the pain should get you down so much" there's really no answer to that - the pain does get me down this much, it does make me feel this way, and I've used up so much energy over the years ignoring it and fighting it and getting my degree and a job and a life that I don't know how much determination I have left.
Sorry to be so negative but that's the real point of this blog I think - firstly to talk about IBS (and thanks very much for your contribution) but also to show that it is not just a minor condition, but a very painful, very difficult condition to live with.
Sophie,
I feel the same way. Though my IBS condition does not seem as serious as some other people's (I havent had incontinence so far), this insidious disease has made a true misery of my life. It's hard to feel optimistic with the realization that I probably will have to live with it for the rest of my life. I am a student and IBS is definitely a distraction from my studies. I just hope that one day the medical community will find an effective solution so that those of us could stop this pain and have a life. However, till that happens, hang in there.
Hi Sophie! You can read about my tale in the women's stories...constipation (#4). First, I totally empathize with you. Secondly, I agree that focusing TOO much on your IBS could cause secondary panic... kind of like... panic attacks.
First, someone as a panic attack, then they create secondary fear by FEARING a panic attack will come. While I HAVE heard that keeping a diary of trigger foods is helpful, I think that what we focus on in our thoughts tends to INCREASE. Okay, maybe I have read too much on positive thinking but I DO believe that we can inadvertantly create our own reality with our thoughts so be careful with them. I am NOT saying you are responsible for the IBS... believe me, I KNOW you aren't. What I am saying is that using distraction and focusing on other things may help alleviate your symptoms. I have a friend with IBS that was so obsessed with what she ate, worrying if it would cause IBS... that it just made things worse. Her doctor prescribed some medication for her anxiety and it really helped! Be wary of anti-anxiety meds though, those in themselves can be very addictive and cause problems. Best to check with a doctor on any meds. God Bless and you are in my prayers!!
Thanks again for all your comments, and this is a very interesting debate. I do just want to stress again, for any newbies to IBS reading this, that stress is NOT the cause of IBS (as Ann pointed out).
If the entire population of IBS sufferers won the lottery tomorrow and moved to Hawaii the vast majority would still be IBS sufferers. Don't ever let your doctor tell you that you bring the symptoms on yourselves.
IBS sucks. I don't have it even half as bad as some of the people I have read on here, but I have it badly in my own way and I have watched it get worse over the years. Cramping, running to the toilet and finding next to nothing happening down there despite 5 seconds ago telling me I needed to go BAD... and then there's the sounds my stomach makes. It's mortifying.
I live in anguish daily about it because I work in the quietest office you could possibly imagine. I take pills for it that do and do not work, depending on how they're feeling on the day. I can't pinpoint any one food that causes it and I can't see it going away. My mum has colitis now, she's 63. I'm (almost) 28. Heck knows what I'm going to be like by the time I reach her age. :(
My IBs results in 10-12 bowel movements a day. It's like clock work. Eat. Wait 20-25 minutes. Dump what I eat. i have had this for 20 years.
Wow, come on guys! I have found this site because after 21 years of being continually diagnosed with IBS, I have a new symptom of rectal bleeding, which is probably due to straining so bad after emptying my bowels for the sixth time, with urgent movements. I think maybe colitis, but know that when I go to the GP it will be the same diagnosis. IBS and Piles. I am a salesperson on the road. I get such bad attacks that I have to hold my poo in during contractions until I find another pleasant public toilet to use! The cramps are so severe I drive with one hand clutching my left side, sometimes feeling that I will pass out. I have nights and days, rarely, where I cannot get out of bed the next day due to being so weak!
But life goes on and I will never give up! We are not dieing....yet. Make the most of what you have. I have three beautiful children who may or may not inherit this disease as I did from my mother. Think of the poor unfortunate people who can't walk or see. At least we can put a TV in the bathroom for some enjoyment!
My toilet is my throne.....good luck everyone and live life to the most!
i have just been back to docs to be told if the last drugs did not work just take immodium. i have to run to the toilet and i may go back 10 times this is about 3 times a wk . i always have stomach ache god i am so fed up i just sobbed when the doc said nothing they can give me . i have suffered for 35 years and it seems to be gettin worse. he would not put me on drugs to settle my nerves cos he said they are addictive i dont care as long as they stop this hell i live with . thanks for bieng there feels good to talk to people in same position.