# My battle with IBS



## ChrissyB226 (Oct 4, 2012)

Hey guys I'm new here so I thought I would introduce myself and tell everyone my story.So, I'm a 26 year old female, mother to 4 (yes, I'm that young and I do have that many kids lol) and I'm married to their father for 3 years but know each other 11 years. When I was 16 I had some stomach pains on my right side and when I saw a regular doctor about it he told me it sounded like I may have IBS. Being 16 years old I really didn't think any of it, never knew how that could change my life. I barely had any other symptoms except for some pain once in a while. I got pregnant at 19, had our baby girl at 20 in 2006. My digestive tract changed 110%. I was so miserable, anything I ate led me to have uncontrollable gas. It changed my relationship with my husband because I didn't feel comfortable having sex with him anymore (sorry for the personal information!). I wouldn't even let him put his arm around my waist when we would lie in bed. I searched online extensively trying to find a reason for all of this and I came across IBS. Then it hit me, I was "diagnosed" with IBS at age 16, maybe my symptoms have gotten worse since I had my daughter. I joined forums like this and people have told me that it can increase after having a baby. Someone said it could be an issue with my galbladder so I went to see a gastro doctor and I had an xray done which showed gas build-up, I had a sonogram done which showed my organs are fine (except I have a fatty spleen and tumors on my liver), and I had a colonscopy done and it showed I had nothing so my gastro said I have IBS. After I had my second daughter in 2008 my stomach got worse. Actually, the symptoms of IBS increased ten-fold while I was pregnant with her. I ate a lot in my pregnancy and I would drink a ton of milk and eat a load of ice cream and I would be in the bathroom hours later paying for it. I'm pretty sure I'm lactose intolerant which I know goes hand in hand with IBS. I saw my gastro after I had my second daughter and he put me on Librax. It's an anti-spasmodic pill that calms down the spasms in the intestines. They worked beautifully for the gas but horrible for my stomach cramps. Every few days I would wake up at 4 in the morning in the worst possible pain you could think of (well, next to childbirth anyway), and I would be in the bathroom from 4am to 7am. Many times I've fallen asleep on the bowl. I remember being miserable but I stayed on those pills for 2 years. The side effects were really getting to me though. My eyes were always blood-shot red, I had no sex drive, I was depressed and miserable. I even had suicide tendencies while being on the pills. I fell pregnant in July 2009 and I was still on the pills because I didn't know I was pregnant yet. August came around and I had a very weird period which led me to test for pregnancy and when I saw 2 lines I was so happy but worried about the bleeding. It increased throughout the day and by 10pm I passed a huge clot which prompted me go to the ER. The doctor took my blood and told me that they found hcg in my blood and I was having a miscarriage. When I went to see my gastro I told him and he told me "I'm so sorry. Librax causes miscarriages." Nice to know now. Very freaking nice. I was miserable over my miscarriage but we continued to try again and I slowed down with the pills. I knew I had to stay on them but I also knew I wanted another baby. In January 2010 I found out I was pregnant and we had a little boy in September 2011. My IBS wasn't too bad during that pregnancy thankfully. Once I had him my IBS symptoms increased and I was back to trying to find a "cure". During my pregnancy I didn't take Libax of course but once I had him I did cave and go back on them. Of course my stomach hated me for it and I suffered yet again. In July 2011 we decided to have one more baby, hopefully we'd have another boy. I stopped the pills, we tried to get pregnant and in August we found out I was pregnant again. We had our baby boy 5.5 months ago. My IBS is getting worse. I used to have constipation ONLY, now it alternates between constipation and diarrhea. If I have a stomach virus I still find myself trying to push because I'm still constipated! No matter what I eat, it could be a freaking cookie, I have gas. My stomach is always distended. I don't drink soda anymore and I try to drink a lot of water and it really doesn't change anything. It's affected my sex life with my husband because imagine being gassy all the time, you're not going to want to have sex. I have to laugh because I'm sure a lot of you are thinking "she says she couldn't have sex but yet she has 4 kids". The thing is, when we did have sex was when we planned to get pregnant and lucky for me I would get pregnant right away, plus being on the Librax pills before helped me with the gas but I refuse to back on them because of the stomach cramps. My symptoms are constipation and/or severe diarrhea to the point I can't leave my house, the symptoms are way worse in the mornings that I got to plan my day according to my symptoms which really sucks, excessive gas, and bloatedness. I have done colon cleansers in the past thinking it would calm everything down. I thought my problem was a build-up of fecal matter which caused me to be constipated and gassy but it's clearly not the case if I have diarrhea. I have read about Gluten Intolerance and I'm wondering if it applies to me. If anyone has any information on that please let me know. I'm only 26 and I can't live like this anymore. I have 4 wonderful kids to care for, a supportive husband and a promising future ahead of me. I cannot live like this anymore. Thanks for reading, I know it's so long but I figured I should get it all out there for you all to understand my situation. Thanks for reading!!


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