# my story...29 female with ibs



## nrep (Jun 19, 2007)

I just wanted to get my case out there. I'm 29 and I was diagnosed with IBS about 7 years ago, though I've suffered with it for probably about 15 years. This past year it has gotten particularly bad. I swing between d and c and pretty much every day I count on my stomach aching and spending a good amount of time in the bathroom. I can't drink and this has restricted my social life in a very serious way. My friends/colleagues think I'm a goody-two shoes, little do they know that if I went out drinking, I know from experience, within an hour I'd be bound to the bathroom paying for what I had been doing. I also have to stay home a lot instead of going out with people for dinner or to a concert, etc, because I'm just having a bad tummy day (that's what I call it). None of my friends really understand what its like and it is so frustrating to try and explain it. No matter what I eat, even if its just plain food, or even herbal tea for the matter, it can either sit well with my system, or send my system into attack mode. When I know I have to be out for a while, I will not really eat anything because I know if I do, I'll run the risk of having an attack. I've been on bentyl in the past, but it wasn' that helpful. I recently tried Pamil, and Symax Duotab neither of which helped. In fact they both made things worse for me. The new drug I take when I feel I need it is Nulev. I do like it as it seems to soothe my stomach when its a little upset. I still have days where even the Nulev doesn't stand a chance. I just feel like I can't get this thing under control. I'm about to travel and then share a room with someone at a tsummer program I'm doing, and I'm just so worried about my stomach acting up. It's no fun to have to go to the bathroom and spend a while in there, or return to it frequiently when you are not home...well I guess it's not fun if you are at home either.Recently I was reading online about food intolerance testing...something I've found in the UK....the Yorktest. I wondered if anyone has had any experience with this?


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## MyOwnSavior (Dec 21, 2006)

I can only speak briefly about this; and what I know of this topic is not related to IBS. A friend of my mom has a daughter who evidenly was allergic, or intolerant (or whatever you want to call it) to corn. Evidenly, from what I heard, whenever she would consume some product that did contain corn (which is pretty much everything, if you look at the labels) she would break out into these, like, rashes, or hives. So there was a direct correlation between eating the food and getting these symptoms. As soon as she stopped eating the products that contained corn, the symptoms went away, and she's ok now (last I heard). So, it wouldn't surprise me if certain individuals with "IBS" actually just has some kind of food sensitivity or intolerance to certain kinds of (very, very common) food ingredients. Doctors don't seem to like to do these tests, or so I've heard (and I can back it up with experience, because I've been in horrible pain for a few years now, yet a doctor has never even attempted to test me for food allergies, sensitivity, etc.). So obviously, you have to search out a doctor that is willing to do these tests, but I would recommend you do so. After all, if your IBS problems could potentially be solved by simply eliminating something from your diet...


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