women suffering constipation - page thirteen
The tale of...Laura
I have had IBS for going on 12 years. I am finally reaching out to a website. Help! I am also lactose intolerant. I have kept journals on what I can eat and what I can't. Still to this day I am finding new things to eliminate. I have been on medication every day. I feel that I am totally dependent on these meds to live my life.
My story is hating the bathroom, I feel it is my torture room. My IBS acts up between 2:00am and 5:00am, so I am completely exhausted when I go to work then I have no energy to exercise due to my run-down condition. My episodes last from one to three hours. And when I have a very bad attack it lasts three days and then I start bleeding.
I spent three weeks in the hospital so they could find out why I was bleeding and they told me it could have been a polyp, wrong! I just had a look over by the doctor and I was clean. The only thing the hospital did not do was go into my small intestine, they just let me go with meds.
I have been in so much pain, I have to change my pyjamas, they are soaked with sweat from the pain. I also on occasions passed out on the floor due to the pain. So how do I make my bathroom a nice place to go instead of a torture chamber? If anyone has any ideas please email me.
E-mail Laura: Laura[at]Lathamtruss.com
The tale of...RM
I am a 25 year-old woman and I was diagnosed with IBS three years ago following ultrasounds and an endoscopy. I suffer from bouts of extremely severe vomiting and abdominal spasms. I cannot keep even a sip of water in, and throw up continuously even though my tummy is empty, and I don't even have bile left. It feels as though my insides are going to come out...I break into cold sweats, and battle for air as my body insists on throwing up. Many times I've felt as though I were dying.
These episodes most times continue for up to 12 hours unless I am taken to hospital for an IV injection of Buscopan, to stop the spasms, and Stimitil/Maxalon to stop the nausea, as I am allergic to any drug that contains Cyclizine, and as luck would have it, that is the active ingredient in most anti-nausea meds. Thereafter I have to be given a glucose drip because I've become a dried prune
I would love to know what meds I can keep at home, maybe in the form of suppositories, or a better option seeing that I can’t ingest anything...Needless to say...I HATE THIS! And it's damn expensive...financially and professionally. If anyone has any ideas please email me.
E-mail RM: razzm[at]webmail.co.za
The tale of...Lori
I am SO grateful I have found this site!! I hear a lot of people say they have IBS, but they really have no idea what it's about, or how much someone who has REAL IBS is suffering. Mine started about two years ago. I was going through several "life changes" all at once when my symptoms began. I know that IBS doesn't just rear its ugly head during times of stress, and that the stress doesn't have to be bad stress, this is just when my symptoms presented themselves for the first time.
It began with the birth of my first grandchild, which next to giving birth to my own children was the most wonderful experience of my life. The day before she was born my father-in-law died unexpectedly. Then I went to planning a wedding for my daughter - if any of you have ever done this, you know that such a beautiful thing can make you crazy on more levels than you ever thought you could achieve!
During this time, my husband and I began to make plans to move from our home (a suburb of Atlanta) to his hometown in the mountains. We began the process of selling one house while simultaneously buying a new one. Also during this time I got a call from my Dad telling me that for the first time in his 62 years he was to be admitted to the hospital for a procedure to increase circulation in his legs - not a minor thing, but not a heart bypass either.
About two weeks later we found out that he had lung cancer, and the procedure he had had caused it to spread very quickly. He only lived about eight weeks after the original procedure was done. My husband and I moved, and a week later my daughter got married. I forgot to mention that I was matron of honor, as well as mother of the bride, and I was very ill on my daughter's wedding day. I was also very ill during my dad's funeral.
Since then I have struggled off and on with my IBS. I have seen at least 10 doctors who all say the same thing. I finally found a doctor who actually has IBS, so that was a blessing. He prescribed Lexapro (for anxiety) and another drug, the generic form is called Hyoscyamine, which helps me to be able to eat as I go days at a time without being able to eat anything.
Usually I can control my IBS with Mylanta maximum strength and/or Gas-X, but this week I have had the worst bout of IBS ever. I have been in bed most of the week, with pain that I could compare to childbirth, plus vomiting. I've been unable to eat at all, and now everything has broken loose and the diarrhea has begun.
I haven't been able to work, I've had to cancel most of my appointments this week, and it's impossible to get people to understand that this thing is always there lurking, and you never know when or where it's going to strike. It's not something that runs its course then goes away.
Today I feel better. I was actually able to venture out and go to my office, but I'll only stay half the day, as I feel very weak and tired. Yesterday the pain got so bad I thought seriously about going to the local emergency room. I was crying and begging God to just let me have a few minutes without this excruciating pain. Finally after several hours it subsided, but I was so weak I couldn't get out of bed for more than a few minutes, and I couldn't walk from one end of my house to the other.
I am fortunate to be self-employed - I had a regular job when the IBS first started but I was out sick so much that I was fired. So now I have work where I control the hours I work, but I still have clients to see, and I don't like to break commitments to them, it's bad business. I'm thinking of moving out of my office and back to working from home because it would just be easier.
I am the type of person who needs to be busy, I am very active and the thought of being homebound or having to stay in bed for days or hours at a time is just depressing. Anyway, don't mean to feel sorry for myself, I'm just thankful that I found this site, and maybe through it I can find different ways to treat and cope with IBS.
E-mail Lori: lcoleman.epfb3[at]primerica.com