# finally, something is helping me



## 20555

After all of the x-rays, endoscopies, lots of blood work, a colonoscopy, useless drugs, and strange diet suggestions, my doctor has decided to try a pill called dicyclomine (generic for Bentyl). These pills are helping me so much. They aren't 100% effective. Once in a while I eat something that my system just can't handle even when I take the medicine, but usually it works. The bad thing is that it's not exactly convenient. You have to take it 4 times a day, and 3 of those times have to be exactly 30 minutes before a meal. This can be difficult when going out with friends, waiting for a meal at a restaurant, or eating on the run. However, it usually works and works very well. I used to have no way to know if I was going to get sick and it usually happened at the worst times. I had some major triggers but I often got sick and didn't know why, like pretty much everything I ate did it. Now I can go to restaurants, I can eat dinner and immediately go shopping or for a walk afterward, I can be in a meeting at work that starts right after or during lunch. I am no longer terrified of get togethers that involve food. The medicine does sometimes cause constipation, but if I skip a bedtime dose, I can "allow" myself to wake up sick and cure the constipation that way. At least now I can be in control of the time it happens. In the past month I have had the following triggers with no bad stomach problems: fajitas with all the trimmings at a local Mexican restaurant, pizza, fried eggs, steak, cereal, fast food, cheesecake, ice cream, fish, grilled cheese sandwich... There are more. I have to be honest though, I don't know what made the difference but they were also a couple meals that the medicine did not keep from causing an episode. Once it was tuna helper, once I ate at Red Lobster, and another time it happened but I don't remember what I ate. There is a bright side even when I still get sick though. It is nowhere near as painful as it used to be. So, even if it doesn't protect me from the IBS episode, it is much easier to take.I hope that anybody who hasn't found something that works yet will ask their doctor about this one and try it. IBS is horrible and no one should have to suffer from it 24/7.Good Luck to everyone in finding what works for you!


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