# Weird symptoms...and how it all began!



## Birdingal (Mar 19, 2004)

Hello Fellow IBS Sufferers,I've been feeling great for 1 1/2 years! Then 2 weeks ago, it all started again....I'm miserable!I was diagnosed as allergic to milk at birth, but I was fed dairy products growing up and I was always sick...As an adult I went completely off dairy 16 years ago. Within 3 weeks I had lost 10 pounds and began to feel MUCH better.Over the last 16 years my symptoms returned and I have striken from my diet nearly all fat, all sugar, all caffine, all processed foods, all red meat, almost all wheat products (bread, cereal, pasta, etc.), and all alcohol.Two years ago I was FINALLY diagnosed with IBS and I was so relieved to know I had a name to call my group of strange symptoms...bloating, gas, cramps, a weird thing that happens to my tongue sometimes when I eat acidic foods - the sides of my tongue split open into huge craters or fissures, and within 15 minutes of when I stop eating the offending food (which is always different and not at all consistent- sometimes I can eat soy yogurt, sometimes not), the fissures completely clear up. It's so bizarre. DOES ANYONE ELSE SUFFER FROM SORES LIKE THESE???Once the bloating, gas, cramps and constipation starts, and it often begins in a single second, just like that (sympathetic nervous system getting triggered somehow) - it sometimes leads to migraines, nausea and always lethargy. When I get an "attack", the only thing I can do is lay on my stomach on my bed, and the weight of my body compressing my guts makes all the air come out within an hour or so. I obviously am not a very fun date when this happens! I also get a huge craving for sunflower seeds - perhaps my body needs the salt? Does anyone else get salt cravings? I can't wear jeans, regular pants with buttons, etc. I always wear elastic bands on my clothing - since I was young, how embarrassing! I wake up in the morning with a flat stomach, and by 6 PM (no matter what I eat) I look 9 months pregnant! It's horrible. Things that have helped me: 1. I eat 6 huge heaping spoonfuls of oatbran in my cereal EVERY morning. This alone cleared up many of my symptoms and made me "regular".2. I stick to my diet religiously.3. I drink a LOT of water.4. I exercise at least 1 hour every day. 5. I get plenty of sleep. 6. I do body-based somatic psychotherapy regularly.When I stay on a very strict vegan diet I feel the best, but it is so much work and I have trouble getting enough protein. I refuse to take drugs to sort this out - because somehow for the last 1 1/2 years I've felt better...I have tried charcoal, probiotics, cleansings, alfalfa, tagamet, tums, etc......but nothing seems to help. I believe it's mostly psychosomatic now. The body-based therapy is really the thing, besides diet and sleep, that helps the most. I recommend it for anyone suffering from this terrible syndrome that affects us all in different ways, but no less debilitating. If anyone has any other suggestions - PLEASE let me know what else I might do to help myself. Hope everyone is having a pleasant day, living it in the moment and trying what you can to make yourself feel better!Birdingal...


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## Cinna (Apr 23, 2004)

I may not have understood everything you said in that post but there's just one thing I wanted to say. For the sunflower seeds, is it just cravings for salty things? Or like actual nuts? Because nuts make me sick, but then again, everyone is different.Sorry I wasn't much help, I was just recently diagnosed with IBS with C and it sucks at this age. Well, it sucks for everyone!


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