# New to the group...a little bit about my IBS life



## Tammie Clark Via Correll (Mar 12, 2014)

Hello.... My name is Tammie and I am 48 years old. I believe my IBS began in my later teens/early 20's. It had gotten bad enough I saw some doctors, had some colonoscopy's.....some med's.

About 3 1/2 to 4 years ago I began to get very sick. Now, a little background story to this is my mother died in 2006 from Cancer. I was left to care for my father who was 11 years older than her and of all of his children, I was definitely not even close to his favorite. He has 5 children to his first family (only 3 surviving now) and then myself and my sister, 7 years younger than myself. My sister is in the Air Force, Dad got very sick and since his other kids never bother with him and my sister is away in the military I was left to take care of him. I left home at 16 because I became pregnant and it was the best thing for my life because before I met my first son's father, I was headed down a path of destruction due to the abuse. I met my husband ( now of 32 years) and when I left home things changed in my life for the better. He and I never really talked much. When I had my first child, I had a son. My father took to him like glue. My dad had a son that died of leukemia when he was 5 and his other living son just never bothered with him, all of the rest of us are girls. So my greatest connection with my dad was because of my oldest son. Mom died, he had to have major heart surgery, they said it was so bad he only had less than a 5% chance of coming out alive. That was almost 6 years ago. I took care of him, I even brought him to my home to live with me so I could take care of him. I could go on and on with this story but I'll just say after 2 years he had me SO stressed out that I lost myself, I gave up everything including my family. Thankfully my husband stood by me. The stress was so bad I considered taking my life... He just sucked everything out of me and in addition to that, I found out he had a will, my sister and dad didn't think I needed to know. All I knew was that I was POA for medical only. I saw the will and upon reading it, it was very clear as to where I stood in his life.

I started seeing a therapist, plus I was so sick. I would wake up throwing up every morning, belly aches every day, back n forth from constipation to diarrhea, I was losing weight quite rapidly and the doctor (GI) that I was seeing at the time gave me some meds, they didn't help and the doctor seemed frustrated with me! I lost 100 pounds in a year ( I really needed to lose weight, I had put so much on taking care of my dad) but it certainly isn't the healthy way to lose the weight. The vomiting, constipation, diarrhea, the attacks that caused dehydration, feeling like I have fire shooting out of the top of my head and out of my toes. I lived on dramamine for my belly aches. I had so many things going on and it made me feel horrible that I couldn't do anything with my family and I couldn't work.... I slept most of the time, couldn't stand the site of food so I didn't cook. Thankfully I found another GI and we played with med's and I'm doing pretty good. I still have attacks, the vagus nerve seems to have settled down almost 100%. I take Librex, citrucel and myralex daily and of course I know what I can and can't have. There are some small things that I have been able to add back into my diet since I have started the new med's, llike PEANUT BUTTER! Just small amounts at a time though....

I recently went on my yearly trip to see my little sister and going away is a stressor, we all know it. She has never seen me go through an attack and I don't think she believed half of what I told her. The first night there she takes me to a Caribbean restaurant...WHAT AM I GOING TO EAT! I did find something and didn't get sick and I even enjoyed it! I was doing great. I was there March 1 - 9. On March 5, we stopped for bite to eat at a fast food place. I got a chicken salad sandwich. I couldn't eat it all (which is fairly normal for me these days) but as we were leaving I mentioned how full and bloated I felt. We were an hour away from home and we were back in the car for about 15 minutes and I felt an IBS attack come on. I was out of her car before she even parked and I ran in started throwing up and going to the bathroom, the whole 9 yards. When I have these attacks I can't talk, the vagus nerve does something and my voice completely goes. She wanted to take me to the hospital and I told her this was my life, this is what these attacks are like, etc... Well, I wasn't any better, I came home on a Sunday and saw my doctor on Monday and apparently I had a severe case of food poisoning. During my illness, one of my eyes swelled shut ( I blamed it on my contact), I got a rash....blames it on using different detergent. Apparently I should have gone to the hospital BUT these symptoms were just like IBS! The past 4 or 5 days I think I have FINALLY got my belly back to where I was before that infamous chicken salad sandwich!

I am going on my very first cruise in Oct this year and I am already worried about the food! I talked to my GI about it and she gave me some pointers but I have to say NO to so many things on an everyday basis as it is, I can't imagine being on a cruise having all of that endless food right in front of my face... I'll be taking a lot of my safe foods in my luggage!

I gave up everything carbonated, sucking on lollipops, or even hard candy, chewing gun, drinking through straws just to keep myself from bloating.....now I'm addicted to iced tea! I never liked water however since my food sickness I have been drinking a lot of it.

Well, there is a small novel about me, probably TMI. But sometimes, knowing the back story helps to explain why you have the symptoms that you do.

I have 3 children, my daughter is 26 and still lives at home. She is a daycare teacher. My middle child is 27 and has his Masters in Economics and has a good state job and my oldest son is 31 and is in the Air Force. My oldest has given me 3 beautiful granddaughters ages 12, 6 and almost 2.

I married at age 16 and we celebrated out 32nd anniversary on March 20th. I'm the only child of my fathers that he refused to attend the wedding (not the only one that was pregnant walking down the aisle either) and I am the only child that is not divorced. I lost my mom to Ovarian /Peritoneal Cancer 12/11/06 at the age of 65. I miss her so much....

I am a buyer for an educational / toy store, I started as a clerk about 11 years ago and realized how much I enjoyed retail and than I got a small taste of the buying process and when the opportunity came up I was asked to step up









OOOOOK...I'm going to shup up now!!

It's nice to meet you all.


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## Streetsurfing800 (Mar 5, 2014)

Omg I read all if tht and tht wus amazing. U must be an amazing person! Here's my story: Hey I'm new here too and right now I was forced out of my sleep due to naseous. It is 1:37 in the morning. I am 16 years old and hve been suffering and have been diagnosed with severe ibs. I hve bad constipation to the point where i would chug plum juice and eat as much fruit as I could. Plus using an enima. Still it would barley work I hve been out of school since December 4th. I'm stresses out about school and just wonder if I will ever be normal again! I hve been in some depressed places and had those thoughts but I could never do it. I can never seem to have a good day. I could never go one full day of feeling NO symptoms. It's like my body wants to be sick at this point. My GI doc told me I wus crazy right to my face. Did the endoscopy and colonoscopy but still nothing but inflammation. Tht wus 2 months ago. Luckily I have met this woman who had the same thing as me and she lives a perfectly normal life and hasn't had a symptom in years. Now right now I doubt tht bc I'm sooo unhappy right now but when I feel better I will believe it again and continue to fight. I would suggest if anyone is lost and doesn't know where to start, u should get a special blood test done tht tests ur allergies. I found out I wus allergic to almost everything I wus eating which contributed to the symptoms. Also do a stool test and make sure u test for bad bacteria in ur small and large intestine. Trust me just ask ur doctor. Right now I hve 25% "good" and 75% "bad" which contributes to even more symptoms. I am taking Zyvox which is a intense antibiotic to kill it off. So far so good but it's only been a week and my doc said it would take up to a month . Guess I'm put for another month. Another suggestion is tht If u truly want to feel normal again, u NEED to change ur diet. Thts the first step and trust me u can only eat 10 foods right now and it sucks but if I can hang out with my friends again then it's worth it! I would love to talk to anyone and ur story bc I think it would help me out! Hang in there and any questions please message me back.


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