# looking for answers



## Tracy Ward (Jun 2, 2015)

I'm really hoping that I can find someone on here that can give me some straight answers, this is my story. From the time I was 16 yrs old I suffered with IBS. I self diagnosed but it was confirmed later in life by a Doctor through symptoms. I had a very bad case of IBS in that I had a lot of bloating and severe pain when an attack would come on after weeks of constipation, sometimes to the point of throwing up because of the unbelievable pain that I would go through. It was a living hell! And I tried everything on the market at the time as this all began in the 80's and nothing helped at all. I do need to say tho that these attacks would happen only every couple of months, after a long build up I would then explode with diarreah and would spend an entire day in the bathroom. I lived like this till about the age of 40...I am now 48. I was told by a friend that if I was having trouble going to the bathroom I should eat grapes, well this turned out to be the best advise of my life as I immediatley noticed a direct link between eating grapes and going to the toilet the next day...well holy crap I was on to something! So I ate red grapes everyday for a year and I swear to you people I cured my IBS completely. I had no more attacks I had a normal looking bowel movements like clockwork everyday...I knew at that moment what it was like to be normal and I was so so happy....no gas, no bloating, no more suffering! Sadly, although I had cured that I had extremly bad acid reflux that would rise up into my mouth while I was sleeping alot. I did the gaunlet of medication till I found that one that worked and it did for years keep the acid at bay. In 2014 it was determined by a specialist that I had a herniated Hiatal and that I would need a fundoplication to repair it. I spoke with the surgeon about having IBS symptoms in the past as he mentioned that with this surgury I might experince some bloating from gas. All he told me was there was no gaurentees with this proceedure but I needed it and that was that. This is where I blame myself for not researching, but I blindly followed their advice and have never regretted something so much. Firstly, this so called surgeon ruptued my spleen during the operation, I know this only because I had massive pain in my upper chest/shoulder after the surgury, when I consulted the surgeon about this pain he told me it wasn't related to the surgury and it was probably gas. Well the "gas" didn't go away for a week and neither did the pain, I had to go back to the hospital where it was seen on a ct that my spleen was ruptured. Since the surgury I have had constant nausea intermittley through the day, weekly diarreah that has been explosive at times, along with accidents that come with that urgency, extreme pain again, gas and bloating every night for a year and a bit. I've passed a lot of different tests to find out what was going on....it seemed like IBS but not the IBS I knew from the past...it was different...like IBS on steriods, of course nothing was found, all tests were clear. Again I have pain so unbelieable that I have overwhelming nausea when in the throws of an attack but now thanks to this surgury I can no longer throw up easily it takes a huge amount of pain and effort to get anything up. There is some good stuff that came out of this...I don't suffer acid reflux anymore, and I can still burp even though I was told I never would again, but that's it for the good. It has now been determined that I have the IBS back but in a different form and 1000 times worst. My life is all about the bathroom once again to the point that I can't work because I have pain in my stomach everyday. Grapes do nothing for this as I suffer from a combination of constipation for a couple of days followed by massive diarreah. None of the doctors will tell me how this happened , why this came back so severley or how to help me. I'm almost being treated like this is all in my head or I'm exaggerating and I'm not!! I need help and answers and I don't know where to turn for it. Can anyone here help me? thank you for listening


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## AlanZ (Mar 7, 2015)

Hi Tracy,

You have way too much going on there for me to even consider venturing into it. Is it an option for you to start fresh with a new Doctor? Ruptured Spleen's will be a little beyond what most people on this board will be able to give you advice on.


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## Tracy Ward (Jun 2, 2015)

Hi Alan,

After seeing that 175 people have read my story and only one reply from you I believe you are correct about it being beyond complicated. I know, I'm living it!

I was hoping that someone here might have experienced something similar, I guess I was wrong and as a support group I'd have to say the lack of support here is disappointing. I want to thank you however for taking the time to write, I do appreciate your candor.

Take care

Tracy


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