# My Ibs-A tale



## Garret (Jun 24, 2012)

Hi my name is Garret, I am 17 and i have had IBS-A for about 7-8 Years.When I first started having my symptoms I thought my stomach was just being weird or I ate something bad, so I waited for it to go away, but I just kept going back and forth between Really bad Diarrhea and Constipation. My parents just thought I was being whiny when i tried to talk about it. Well have a year of my First symptoms(whining) my parents finally took me to the doctor to get it checked out, They just asked me a bunch of questions have you drank from any streams lately or have you eatin any raw foods. I obviously answered no. They wernt really sure what it was, so they sent me home with one of those vials to take a fecal sample nuff said. The test of that came up with nothing, so next they had me do some sort of X-ray. They made me drink this really bubbly stuff and then some Really gross thick milk stuff. The milk junk went through my system so they could X-ray my stomach and intestines but it all looked normal. 2 months later my docter refered me to get a colonocopy. I think i was 12 or 13 at the time. So after going through the Colonocopy it turns out they really dident find anything. After that the Doctor just said it was IBS. Well tell me something I dont know. (More Current) So now im 17 and iv been through road trips and vacations etc, where Iv had many close calls getting to the restroom, Not to mention school is the worst. My friends dident really understand my symptoms and just forgot i said anything. But ever since 7th grade teachers have no understood or given a #### about my stomach. What bugs me the most is when you've told a teacher that you have IBS so I may have to use the restroom more and will probably take awhile. They just dont seem to give a beep. Il go to the restroom during class because my stomach moaning and groaning im as pale as snow and im sweating. Il try to privately tell the teacher im not feeling well il probably be awhile. So I got to the restroom hoping i don't take to long, but what do you know its high school and they are a lot of very rude, Immature people there. So I finally find a restroom that dosent have the locks busted off the stalls so i sit down and do my business and some [email protected]# Hole$ come in and basically say shi^ about me / making fun of me. They finish up after about 9 mins of screwing around in the bathroom and they throw there wet paper towels into the stall at me, I almost didnt care because this has happened several times. Ok so its been about 30-40 minutes and im FINALLY done. I wash my hand and start to worry, aww #### the teachers going to think iv been screwing around or roaming the halls. Nothing i can do, so I head back to class and a bunch of people, I dont really know ask where iv been and I just try not to answer, Then what do you know the teachers getting all pis$ed off that i was in there so long even after I told them about my IBS. Iv had VERY many occurrences similar to this like with substitutes and just plane old mean teachers. Heck even the teacher im a bit of a pet to is still kind of rude to me. I have tried that whole asking to go to the nurse thing but you can only do that so much and the Nurses really embarrass me. I could type like 8 paragraphs about my IBS at my school but my typing is bad enough so id rather not.Last summer I went to Space camp in Nebraska and then they flew us out to Huston where me and the other 5 kids stayed in a hotel. We were there for about 4 days each day going to see something different and we went on a lot of tours. I was biting my lip the whole time hopping my stomach will hold its ground. HAHAHA good luck with that. 10 minutes into the tour I got the chills of death and had to go, to the restroom. Only took me about 20 mins that time but I still held up the whole tour and was pretty embarrassed. Even tho I was the 2nd most normal kid there. The other people seemed a bit mental just being held together by there medication. So I wassent super embarrassed but I still was. So after a nice long tour of the Houston space center we stop for lunch at the NASA cafeteria. We were given a pass that lets us fill out trey up with as much as we wanted of everything first pass only. By that time my stomach was bloating and was pretty gassy. I didnt want to let any of it out for fear of still having the runs or mucus, Gross. So out of all the really really good looking food there and monster energy drinks for free i had to get the bland and boring food, Spinach,gross jello stuff,Blob of stuff that looks like it would sit ok and a water. The other kids loaded up there tray with like 5 Monster energy drinks and all kinds of tasty foods and desserts. I could barrely eat my food because my stomach cramps were so bad and I was worrying hardcore because my stomach was feeling very iffy like i would get the runs again. After lunch we went and saw the 2 mission controls, the old one from the Applo missions and the current on from the ISS missions. We were there the last day they had the space shuttle up before they completely get rid of all the space shuttles.So my stomach was good during that, I thanked god for it. At about 8pm we got back to the hotel and went into the pool. It was somewhat fun, Pool was kind of small and 2 of the kids really needed to grow up,but overall it was pretty relaxing. Oh what do you know 20 mins into the swimming my stomach starts to cramp, hurt, Growl real bad. I tried to get the room key to go back to the room and go to the restroom, They didnt want me to go because they were worried I would go off and get my self lost or something  so after 10 minutes of arguing with them and barely holding my damn gut in he gave me the key. I got to the room and i spend like 25 mins on the toilet, It wassent so bad because all the guys had to share a room and all of them were out so it dident matter to much if I took awhile. But I did miss out on some fun.I got my first real job a few months ago at AppleBees as a Host, Not an adeal job for someone with IBS. The the job requires you to keep moving and working the whole time. If your not doing something the managers go crazy. Luckily my stomach has been good at work, But it seems like I get Diarrhea real bad right before i have to work so im really pushing my time sometimes. I thank God every night when I get off work for helping me get through work without getting stuck on the toilet.(My overall symptoms) I have IBS-A which is when you have a lot of Diarrhea and constipation alternating.My symptoms are very random. Sometime when im very lucky/blessed I wont have too many symptoms that week. But my most common routine is being constipated for like 4 or 5 days then constant diarrhea for like 3 or 4 days. Lately my IBS has been pretty bad, Dirhea almost every day, Multipal times a day. My mom dossnet give a #### any more and she just seems to rudely make fun of my IBS now. But when im with my dad he seems to understand a bit more. I dident say before but my parents are sperated and I do have to go from house to house with completely different people at both houses. Moms house= Irresponsible people, I do most of the freaking cleaning and maintenance, my dang step dad just likes to argue with my mom and play golf all day and watch sports, Hes pretty rude when i try to talk to him. My mom is similar were she just seeks arguments with him, it makes for a very uncomfortable environment. Dads house= More responsible and hardworking, I love my dad he's a great guy, Its just he is a workaholic he always has to be working or doing something. Heck on Christmas when the whole family is visiting he will sneak his way downstairs to go solder circuit bored or something, He'll come back up after a little while but hes always talking about how he want to see my brother and sisters more but when they finally come hes of working or something. I do love him very much tho, My step mom is pretty nice and if she says she'll do something she will do it, she dosent slack, they are a pretty good couple. My dad dose seem to judge me a lot tho but I assume most dads do that.I really feel like this astronomically long blog dident scrach the surface of my IBS, My sentence structure sucks and so dose my organization so im sorry for the hard read, Il be surprised if anyone gets to the end of this given my bad typing and spelling and not to forget my organization.I should learn how to type better I could probably write a book.


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## refuse to live this way (Apr 25, 2012)

Garret: You sound like a very mature 17 year old, and yes, I did read your entire story. I'm a mom with 3 kids of my own and am dealing with Post Infectious IBS from an antibiotic I was given. I have only been dealing with this for about a year and a half and I can only imagine what it is like for you dealing with it for so long. You seem to be doing a pretty good job of coping though. As far as school is concerned, get your doctor or dad to write a note to the school nurse explaining your condition and need to use the restroom as often as needed. Have the nurse let your teachers know (only once) and come up with a specific sign, such as a peace sign hand raise (or number 2 for going number 2, lol) and let them know when you raise your hand with the peace sign it means you are heading to the restroom and might be a while. Tell the nurse you don't expect to get any grief from your teachers over this or you will be forced to consider suing the school. This should do the trick and make your life a little easier.Sorry to hear your parents have split up (I'm in the same boat), but it does sound like you are dealing with it quite maturely. Are you planning on going to college? If so I hope you do well and can somehow deal with the IBS at the same time, it will probably be tough. You sound like you are quite intelligent and not going to college would be a shame. As far as the spelling, read more. The more you read, the better you will spell. The typing thing can be done with a typing software program that will teach you how to do it. You will get better at it quite quickly since you probably have been using a computer since you were born (we had to write on the sides of the cave walls when I was a kid), lol. Hopefully things will get a little easier for you as you get older, in the meantime just hang in there and try dealing with ignorant people with humor, it's the best medicine. I hope you get better and best of luck to you....Carrie


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