# New - My IBS-C Story



## kwinter (Jun 9, 2015)

I'm 19 years old and have been suffering from IBS-C basically my whole life, with symptoms getting severe age 16. It started when my stomach hurt so bad I had to go to the emergency room, where I spent hours waiting just to find out I was severely bound up, one of the most they've ever seen. My mom laughed when she found out that was the problem.

Since then, I've struggled with constipation, sometimes not going for a full two weeks and to the point where a hospital-administered enema wouldn't even work. I was taking dulcolax, miralax, align, eating activa, and taking stool softeners; nothing helped until I stopped taking them and eventually started going on my own again. I missed an average of 5 days of school a month. Once I started going, my abdominal pain and bloating started being my real problem and to this day it still is. Once I turned 18 I started on Amitiza, which worked wonders for a while but I suppose my body got used to it because it doesn't anymore - I stopped taking it because it was useless. I bloat and have a stomach ache nearly every day, causing me to miss classes (I am in college now) and work. I feel uncomfortable in anything other than sweatpants, and I can't go to restaurants with my boyfriend because everything seems to make my stomach hurt.

I'm currently working in an office, and come home every day hunched over and in pain because of being so uncomfortable all day.. I go to school a few hours away, and am currently considering transferring and living back home to change my major to something I may be able to do for the rest of my life (I am currently studying business and want to switch to something in healthcare, and you are unable to transfer into these programs at my school)... I get pain sometimes more often than other times, but when I get it, I feel extremely depressed. None of my friends understand ( they get grossed out if I talk about it). My parents try to understand, but they think I'm being dramatic when I tell them anything other than sweatpants make my stomach hurt, or if I complain about having a stomach ache all the time. I "complain too much".

I've tried so hard to figure out what foods hurt and what ones help, but I've made little progress in the past few years. I've found dairy hurts me, so I cut back, but as of tomorrow I am going completely dairy-free. Lemons help after a meal to prevent bloating (sometimes). Hot tea is the only reason I'll have a bowel movement - literally will not have one without it. Salt bloats me like crazy, and I love soup... I'm trying to learn how to make my own, but no one in my family is a cook so we're used to pre-made things or dinners made with boiling water. It's hard. I don't eat meat, either, so eggs and peanut butter are my only protein, and I'm giving up dairy. I don't know what to do. To know that I have to deal with this for the rest of my life is terrifying, but it truly helps to see I'm not alone.


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