# My IBS. Please respond if you read this.



## ibsbi (May 14, 2017)

As you can see in my title, I asked for replies if you read this (Anything is fine, even just an acknowledgement that you've seen this). I just want to know someone out there read my story. I'm not sure if that's against the rules but I want to know someone out there has read this so I don't feel like this is trapped in my lone thoughts forever.

I've hardly talked to people about my problems or written about them, but I've read enough to know that my problems are by no means just something I'm dealing with. Even though this is something that I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy--or rather I actually would because this is as good a revenge as they come--a part of me is glad that I'm not the sole sufferer of this hell. Whenever I read ibs stories and it makes me feel better to see how other people have dealt with this, so maybe this will help someone else too. Also this post is very long.

I'm currently an 18 year old male about to graduate high school and I'm going to a University of California school soon, and boyyyy did ibs make school very, very f****ing hard (sorry for the profanity, but as I'm sure you know verrrrry well, ibs is a living hell of frustration). It began when I was 14 in middle school. All I know is I just began to get very gassy out of nowhere. It became a problem in class that transformed into a catastrophe. In my English class I remember my friend (recently deceased, rest in peace man) sitting behind me and all of a sudden there was a sudden loud thumping noise in my intestines. It's hard to describe, but basically it's like the sound that blowing an air dart makes, but much louder and it just feels like something just dropped and thumped in your intestines. To anyone else of course, it sounds like a fart. In my science class my intestines really began to go insane. Over time it got worse and worse. Crazy loud intestinal gurgling, that previous thumping noise, and at its peak those 'inside farts' that are basically the result of attempting to hold in your gas and all of a sudden an insanely loud noise that sounds like a fart to anyone else occurs. It's like a fart but you can just feel the air enter you and go throughout your intestines creating a massive noise. Yup, real fun stuff to experience as young teenage boy. A real great feeling to know others are starting to have relationships, and there you are so f****ing embarrassed knowing all the girls in the class heard that. This was also the first time I skipped class. I just remembered my geometry teacher asking where I'd been when I arrived late to his class. I just didn't say anything and sat down. And so, little old me went through eighth grade dealing with that mess.

Thoughts about my first ever year breaking my ibs virginity: Didn't really tell my parents (How would I explain to them I farted in class but not really because it was just air going UP my intestine making really large noises that sounded like farting, but that it wasn't actually farting?). Most of my friends had no clue. That science final was one of the worst days of my life. Holy f**k that was embarrassing, constant gurgling and farting sounds throughout the whole test. Besides that it was great. I had a fun time. It's really all about just mentally blocking out all the embarrassing moments, and attempting to experience the nice things.

9th grade. Worst year of my life? Without a doubt. You see at this point I didn't have a bathroom schedule planned. I didn't get what was wrong with me, all I knew is it sucked. I didn't know how each food affected me. I didn't really know anyone at my high school. A young freshmen I was, living the life. Over many classes I suffered. The worst days I had in 8th grade were comparable every single day of 9th grade. Loud intestinal noises, absolute embarrassment since my entire class could hear it, great stuff. I got in a fight with one of the few people I knew in high school. Boom, just like that I had no friends. The only good thing was that I could spend my entire lunch in the bathroom with no one waiting on me, and I sometimes survived fifth period, and maybe even on my best days went through 6th period without an intestinal noise. Anyway, most of the time, on average, I would talk to absolutely no one all day (isolation was killing me) or maybe 2 conversations at most (short ones too). This lasted until the beginning of tenth grade.

9th grade recap: almost no friends, any average day for me would probably have made any normal person consider suicide to live just through one single day of my life, still didn't figure out a good schedule, and also I might add my parents disciplined me physically (nothing better to de-stress after getting a 4.0 in school than getting whipped by a belt







). Also not sure how I got such high grades considering I may as well have been farting in the quiet test taking time.

10th grade things were much much, much better. First off, I talked to my school about the whole belting situation. I get some of you my think physical discipline is necessary, but it was terrible for me. Being a 15 year old is hard enough without ibs and without a good ol' whipping thank you very much. Seriously though, getting someone involved was one of the best decisions of my life and I don't hate my parents anymore. Secondly bathroom schedule. I know it seems dumb to think I wouldn't want to go to the bathroom during school with my ibs, but seriously I need you to dig way back into a past before ibs, if you had one. Remember going to the stalls was weird as hell, and you'd *never* be able to use the restroom with someone next to you? Well if you don't then ask any of your normal acquaintances and most will agree going to public restrooms to poo is very very weird. Anyway, I realized having a good schedule was key. Figure out which bathrooms have least traffic, where they are, and all that nice stuff so you don't have to be utterly embarrassed all the time. Now several notable things happened which I just feel I should share. First off, I was always late to first period. I would go to school and spend a large amount of time in the bathroom. Eventually it became a running joke that I was always late, but since people didn't know why, it was all good. My teacher was super chill and marked me late 6 out of the 10000 times I was late. A few began to speculate why I was late since sometimes I would go on time and then spend 30 minutes in the bathroom, luckily their theory never became mainstream. Also my math teacher was an a**hole. I would go to the bathroom quite a bit in her class and she began to scream at me in front of the class telling me that I couldn't go unless I had a doctor's note. Well I showed her one. She forgot I showed her. Then she screamed at me again







. Also she thought I was texting on my phone when I was using my graphing calculator, good stuff. Speaking of doctors, this is about the time I told my parents and we began to see some. Let's just some up all of them with "It's all in your head, noises are normal, everyone has gas, these stool/blood tests show nothing wrong, your endoscopy and colonoscopy show nothing, etc. etc". Also my dad would scream at me telling me I was late for school as I would constantly be held up in the bathroom.

10th grade recap: Embarrassing moments occurred only about 2-5 times a month at this point, so major improvement. Made many friends, overall life was looking up.

11th grade things were about the same. I was still perfecting my bathroom schedule. I also took 6 ap tests, so that was not good for my stress. Now as I'm sure more than a few of you may know, having bowel problems means that you have a high chance of having skin problems. Well, I developed insane acne. My face was almost entirely red. It was just massive red bumps all over my face that would ooze and bleed. The pain was so powerful I would take pain killers to sleep. My face would bleed in class. So now I had ibs and that to deal with. Eventually it lessened to the point where I have scars everywhere, but at least I don't have that.

11th grade recap: Pretty good overall, I've basically bleached the acne thing from my memories because it was honestly worse than the ibs at some points. Also I went to a UCLA summer program where I spent a large amount of time making excuses about why I disappeared all of a sudden. I'd say things like I got lost when in reality I went to use the bathroom.

12th grade: I'll just cut to the chase. Very good for the most part except there are a few things that trouble me. First of all, I had a calculus final. It was an utter hell of embarrassment. I ate oat meal with almond milk in the morning believing it was good for ibs as it is for most people. Well, at that moment I wanted to just disappear. Absolutely massive farting noises came from me trying to hold in gas and diarrhea. It was so embarrassing. Nothing this bad had happened to me since the days of 9th grade. Next, hanging out with friends. Always a fun experience with ibs. I'm far more social now, but it still just sucks. Going to the bathroom to pee when in reality I just head there to fart. Just today I did this twice then went to use the bathroom at a friends house with people commenting on my lengthy disappearance. In fact, I went out of the room to blow my nose just to make a loud enough noise to let some gas out. Then after all that i decided I couldn't go to the bathroom again so I just told them my parents were there and I went and hid at a nearby gas station until my parents picked me up half an hour later. FUn fUn FUn.

Anyway that's my story. At this point I may as well just say I'm going to UCSB as anyway if somehow someone I know reads this, they'll know it's me. It's been a roller coaster for sure. I'm currently taking small amount of immodium, like half a tablet here and there which somewhat helps with diarrhea. Also peppermint capsules and tea and some anti-gas tablets which feel utterly useless. I also have a somewhat restrictive diet, but it's hard to say no to a pizza when you're expected to eat at like a restaurant (Today I ate a pizza and a cookie and I know I shouldn't have but it's weird to be a teenager and not do it). I go to the bathroom multiple times a day and often times if I eat something too bad I'll pay for it with diarrhea. Worse I think is the gas that never leaves me alone no matter what.

My best tip would be if you are afraid of making noise in the stall because you are afraid someone will here: flush the toilet as you make your horrendous noises so that way the noises will be at least somewhat masked, plus better to deal with it there than in public.

Sorry for how long this was. I just needed to get this out. Any advice would be appreciated (especially for the gas).

ps thank you to whoever thought the autosave feature was a good idea because my pc turned off for no reason and I almost lost this whole thing.

:/


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## Rboe (Mar 26, 2017)

I read it. It was long. 

Have you been officially diagnosed with IBS yet? As frustrating as doctors can be sometimes when it comes to digestive issues, an official diagnosis is a good idea.

You are young, and yes, using a public bathroom is not fun, but it is a good idea to work on getting over the fear someone will hear you. Most people really do not care. Reality is everyone poops, just some of us do it more often and have more problems with it. Consider most people will not even know you in a public bathroom (though I understand it is different when going to school.)

Do you have any good friends to confide in? You may be pleasantly surprised that many people will be understanding and caring.

Lastly, do some research. Lots of it. Look into diets, and supplements. I personally am not a fan of medication as a first resort. I use Immodium as needed and I used to use Gas-X for gas, but I try to not use anything daily. There diets designed to help IBS. The trick is it takes time to discover which one is right for you and yes, you have to deal with the social aspect of it. I have learned to go out with people and order water and be fine. Also with the diets, some may actually make you feel worse before you start to feel better.

Some good diets to research and try are the low FODMAP diet (http://www.med.monash.edu/cecs/gastro/fodmap/) the Candida diet with anti-fungals, and the SCD diet. <a>(.http://www.breakingtheviciouscycle.info/home/)</a> Some people have also reported success with a ketosis diet. It is best if you can use a nutritionist to help you with the diets, especially when you are younger. You do not want to miss out on too many nutrients.


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## Kelseyweeks03 (May 15, 2017)

I read and relate a lot.


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## ibsbi (May 14, 2017)

Thanks Rboe,

My last gastrointestinologist said it was probably ibs because I've had many tests for other diseases and none of them have figured out what else it could be. He basically said at this point since everything seems fine, yet it is obviously not, it is most likely ibs.

I may confide in some friends once I go to college since at that point I feel like if I'm constantly around people there will be no way to maneuver my way about talking about it.

I have Imodium, but there's two main issues with it. The first is that usually I feel like I can't have bowel movements when I usually need to, then all of a sudden I have to go at a very inopportune moment. The second is that it doesn't help with gas. I have gas pills, but I honestly don't feel an effect besides maybe just a bit more confidence after I've taken them.

I know dieting is the best way and I have tried using some aspects of the low FODMAP diet, but it is incredibly difficult to keep my diet restrictive since constantly eating very specialized meals is expensive and time consuming. Then there's also having to watch my family eat things that I'd normally want to eat.

Thanks again for the advice.


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## highlandhilman (Apr 27, 2017)

Okay, ibsbi, I'll admit that was a tl;dr 

I'd start slow and small when revealing your symptoms - lots of people are sympathetic, but don't want to many details, lol. You can start with your profs - just let them know you're "struggling with digestive issues" and you may have to leave class suddenly and without explanation. I'm sure they've dealt with lots of students who struggle with their health, so you're struggles probably won't be anything new.

Have you had a broad-spectrum stool test done to see your levels of gut flora? Have you had your elastase levels checked? Have you had a lactulose breath test done to test for SIBO?

The problem with a lot of the typical tests done through your GP is their very specific - they'll test for ONE THING then throw the sample away - instead of testing to see what's in your body (or what's missing). A broad-spectrum test may help you narrow down where you're body is depleted so you can help it come back into balance.


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## tjarget (Oct 18, 2013)

Read it. You are soooo not alone.


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