# My story w/ IBS-D



## ecb220 (Feb 2, 2015)

I joined this site to ... well basically to b&tch about my IBS symptoms but reading through these forums, I realize how many people are suffering and how much worse it could be. So just knowing there are others out there has given me some comfort.

For at least the last 10 years, I've been having 3+ bowel movements a day - once in the morning, once around mid-day, and then again at the end of the day. I honestly didn't think a lot of it until a friend pointed out about 7 years ago that I went more frequently than an average person. So I went to a gastroenterologist who ran all the standard tests - an Upper GI series xray, blood work, endoscopy, colonoscopy. He also tested me for Crohn's - everything came back negative. I just sort of adjusted and decided this was my life.

About a year ago, I read about gluten intolerance and it seemed to match up to my symptoms. I tried going gluten free for about a month and didn't see any change in my IBS, though I did lose some weight. At a coworker's recommendation, I went to a food allergist who did the full food allergy test on my back. I came back positive for a weird assortment of things - wheat, clams, peas, etc. It seemed like there was no rhyme or reason to me, and she said it was because the gluten had inflammed my intestines and that I needed to do serious gut repair, then get retested to see what I was truly allergic to. So I went on a one-month program with pretty strict dietary restrictions, and a ton of supplements - 14 charcoal tablets at night to "pull the gluten out" of my system, cod liver oil, fish oil, milk thistle, super enzyme, probiotics, CoQ10, and Potassium Citrate. The program felt super impersonal, was expensive, and I saw no changes. I did not go back. I should add she did a fair amount of blood work too, and everything was normal and the blood test for Celiac came back negative.

On further research, I found the FODMAP diet. At this point I'm about 85% on the FODMAP diet, and I've seen some small improvements. However, when I'm strict on the diet, I end up being constipated the next day. I'll have one bowel movement in the morning, and then nothing for the rest of the day. Instead of feeling relief or "normal", I just feel backed up.

At this point, I'm fed up. I haven't been able to truly identify any foods I react badly to (except garlic and maybe eggs), and feel like I'm either having multiple trips to the bathroom a day, or feeling constipated - never anything in the middle.

An average food day for me now: GF toast with peanut butter, coffee & lactose free milk for breakfast; salad (spinach, carrots, cucumber, brussel sprouts, tuna, parmesan, olives, quinoa, almonds, olive oil & balsamic vinegar) for lunch; banana for snack; quinoa or brown rice, sauteed carrot & zucchini, sandwich meat (turkey or ham) for dinner. My supplements are a probiotic, fish oil, and super enzyme in the morning.

Reading through these forums, I realize I should go to my GP and talk to him about this and at the very least have him run the basic tests again to make sure there are no underlying issues. But beyond that... help! I know there won't be a magic bullet, but does anyone have any suggestions to what I can try or something obvious I haven't tried?


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## jaumeb (Sep 1, 2014)

I recommend reading about S. Boulardii and also Aglaee Jacob's book.


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