# Planning a life of IBS!



## Pepper H (Jan 3, 2013)

Hello, this is my little story about my life since IBS symptoms started and how now I can sort of manage sometimes.

It started when I was about 15, I guess. I don't remember it very precisely since I was also going through a severe depression at the time and put some work into not remembering that terrible state. I was in high school then and had to take the bus between 6.30 and 7 am every morning, and that was the time slot I always spent waiting for said bus in a dreadful cold. Stomach ache has always been running in my family so I didn't really pay attention when I started to feel excruciating gut pain and just thought it would eventually go away. Now I try not to wonder what would have happened if I had not waited about a year and a half to go to a doctor's.

After some time I managed to beat depression but the pain was still there every single time I tried to take a bus or a train, and even a car - which was a big inconvenience as I was learning to drive at the time, so far I've failed my driving test five times.

I went to see countless doctors who kept telling me I was just a sensitive person, that it was all in my head and I should just have a glass of water and relax.

Some of them eventually (=2 to 3 years into it) told me about IBS without actually naming it. Starting from there, I was able to research the condition online, and find out there wasn't any definite cure for it. Somehow, knowing I wasn't missing out on a cure helped. I guess.

At 17, I had appendicitis. Except I didn't really notice it because I was used to the pain. So my appendix broke and I had peritionitis. I fainted a couple of times too many and was sent to the hospital, where nobody could diagnose anything as I was not throwing up (apparently it's a peritionitis thing). A surgeon decided to cut me open just in time; he later told be I had been a couple of hours away from septicemia and then death.

During the next few years, my condition got slightly better as I went to college. I was still living at my parent's for the first couple of years, which was a big help since I needed a lot of support. Then I went to study abroad for a year, since I refused to let IBS stop me from doing everything I wanted to do with my life. I was 19. That year was amazing, as I was living on campus, 5 minutes away from all classrooms. I had loads of friends and could go out as much as I wanted since there was always toilets nearby. I was so happy, IBS wasn't that severe even though I was drinking far too much - but never to the point of getting sick. So if there's anything I can tell another young adult with IBS, it's to at least try things when they can, because it turned out amazing for me.

I ended up moving to Paris in order to attend a specific university. I was extra lonely for a year and lost all 10kg I had put on the previous year in just 6 months - that's how severe it was.

This year, I have moved in with my boyfriend (whom I met even before I got IBS) and living with him is a delight, he makes me calm, him being with me makes me feel a lot more relaxed on an everyday basis. I don't think I've ever been that little sick, even though I still get a big crisis every two days (as we are a bit cramped in a tiny flat, a crisis is still embarrassing for me, but I don't really have a choice). Very often, I have to miss class because I can't even walk.

So far I have tried all the medicine that exists in my country to relieve the symptoms. If one happens to work, it will only worsen the symptoms after a month. I'm going to give a go at a Fodmap-free diet and see what happens, although compensating for some fodmap-free food would make me eat my trigger food, I'm going to figure something out.

My luck in all this is that I'm fairly young and can still plan my life to minimize the impact of IBS. Right now, I'm really happy about my life. I'm glad. I'm not going to let IBS get me down.

When I was a kid, I wanted to be an actress. I took up drama, and I was good at it. I was studying it as a full-time course when my symptoms started, so I had to stop as I couldn't stand on a stage anymore. So I tried to become an actress somewhere else, since you can always stop filming if you have to go... I even got signed up with a good agency. Then my vitiligo broke out (a genetic skin disease that makes your skin go all white starting from tiny patched and finally covering your entire body.) I had to quit.

So now I'm studying for a job that can be done from home, I'm good at it, I like it. I can do it from my bed or the toilet if it comes to it, so I will always be able to work. So take that, IBS.

I hope that all of you can find something in life that helps you to stay positive and be happy. It would be even better if a cure was found but it's not going to happen so soon, so I really hope you don't let the pain, shame, embarrassment and isolation get the best of you. When in society, I usually say "oh, I can't quite stomach that" or "sorry, beer's a big no for me, or I'm going to bloat like a party balloon". Humour people before they humour you, and remember, they don't have to know every detail of you condition, and if you're acting natural, they will copy your behaviour.


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## vienna79 (Jan 4, 2013)

Your post made me smile for the first time in a week. I have been getting so depressed lately.


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## Pepper H (Jan 3, 2013)

I'm glad it did, then. Since you replied, you are more or less the first person with IBS I interacted with, and it makes me really happy it was to make you smile.

I don't know you so I can't possibly tell you what to do to feel less depressed, but I hope it won't last!


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## Neko (Jan 9, 2013)

I'm glad to hear you found a job that works for you. I'm at the point where I'm wondering if my profession is something I can do with my IBS. I work with mentally ill adults as a counselor and I was going to go back to school to finish my degree to be a social worker. Now, I'm wondering if that's the way to go. I've suffered with IBS type A I believe on and off for approximately 15 years now, I'm currently 32. I was coping with Bipolar 2 disorder in the past, spent a few years in school trying to figure out what I wanted to do with my life, so the IBS didn't really affect anything I was doing. It was just very uncomfortable. Now that I have a steady job and heading for finishing my degree for my career, it's interfering. I'm getting very frustrated always being sick and not being able to eat anything without having an episode. The doctor told me it will go as it came but there is no cure. I asked if my Bipolar disorder had any influence on it such being stressed at work or anxiety. The doctor said it could but not always. I've been out of work between one to two days a week a week for the last two months with either diarrhea or horrible cramping. I was in the hospital yesterday because I passed out at work. Anyone have any ideas. I don't know what to do? I do have a weekend position starting soon but they haven't given me a date yet. I'm hoping less days working will help, even though I'll be staying there. I'll have a lot less work and responsibility which will mean less stress. I'm hoping that will help too.


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## Pepper H (Jan 3, 2013)

Thank you John Clark, your posts are hard to miss. I will look into you technique but I'm already seeing an excellent osteopath, have been trying acupuncture and so on. Also, I hope you understand that while I'm ill, giving up on hope to find a definitive cure helps me a lot to cope in my everyday life, because everything I have tried so far failed, and each time the disappointment is just as painful as the disease, if not worse. The only thing working for me is self-reliance and having loving and understanding close ones.

@Neko: Maybe you should be careful not to exhaust yourself? If you have an history of bipolar disorder, I'm afraid the chronic pain might not help with it! Also, don't worry about it being the other way around, I am a psychologist's nightmare for being too sane, and it doesn't stop me from being really tensed when I feel the pain coming when I'm not at home. Stress triggers symptoms. I'm more concerned about how chronic pain and exhaustion might be a bad thing for you bipolar disorder... but you're the professionnal, you probably know better than me if it is or not!

If now's a period in your life when your symptoms are hard to bear with, maybe you could try throwing a few ideas onto a paper about how you could use you skills and degrees to work in something that isn't as stress-inducing as your current job? Maybe a desk job not far from home? But make sure you like it, because trying to do a job you have no interest in would not improve your symptoms at all. (Apparently IBS makes us suffer "only" if we don't live a perfectly fulfilled life.)

When you come home after a stressful day, be sure not to just let yourself fall on your bed and lay in awe all evening (I don't know about you but that's about what I want to do when I have lived through one day). Listen to music, read, take a hot shower, call a loved one, watch nice movies... It will help you to let go of all the stress that builds up in your gut all day.

I hope it gets better with you weekend position!


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