teenagers suffering diarrhea - page six
The tale of...Tess
Hi, I'm 14 years old and suffer from IBS, I think. I'm in ninth grade right now. In seventh grade I began to get stomach aches in the morning but they would go away. Whenever I would have tests or exams, my stomach would get active and upset. I would just sit there in the classroom embarrassed every time my stomach would move and make noises. But now I have more things to worry about.
Anyway, in the summer before eighth grade I got what I thought was the stomach flu. I had frequent trips to the bathroom (not vomiting but the other thing). Then eighth grade began and I felt better, although every morning my stomach was extremely upset.
Then before Christmas I had a test in PE and my stomach was at its worst. In January 2005 I began to take Metamucil, a fiber supplement. Things got worse and I would go to the bathroom two or three times every morning before going to school. Out of the whole eighth grade I probably missed about 20 days of school because of my stomach.
Summer passed and ninth grade began. Beginning school was hard for me because it was when I was most nervous and my stomach reacts, even when I'm excited. In the morning I would go to the bathroom two or three times. By the end of the school I would have gone about seven or eight times. I stopped taking Metamucil. Surprisingly the frequent trips in the morning stopped (my mom thought it was the gluten in the Metamucil that made me sick). Then I switched to Citrucel and began taking Zoloft (an anxiety medication) because my parents thought that I had anxiety.
Ninth grade began and I suffered. My bowel movements decreased to three or four times a day. Still I suffer from anxiety and the worries of school and my social life. Every morning I am so nervous and I can't stand the thought of going to school and having to go to the bathroom. I have A day B day, at school and on my PE day (A day) I have to go to the bathroom way more than B day. A day is my core day so it's worse. I have to go to the bathroom once before PE, and then once in between each class. (There're four classes.)
Now I am seeing a GI doctor for children. They are not very helpful. They have given me blood tests, stool tests, and now they want to do a biopsy. I don't think so! It sounds so violating. I really don't want to do it. Oh yeah, I am also lactose intolerant, I think. No tests done yet but I am definitely sensitive to chocolate, milk, and cheese. What else could it be?
Well, Christmas break is almost over and 2006 will soon begin. Hopefully it will be a good year for me and my stomach symptoms will decrease. Recently I have been getting horrible painful stomach cramps in the morning, resulting in frequent bathroom trips. When will it stop?!
The tale of...Eleanor
I live in the UK. I think I have had IBS for about one year, maybe a year and a half. Oh yeah I forgot I'm 13. I hardly ever go to school really, I find it really stressful and I have a lot of expectations to do well. I took my first GCSE about one week ago; it was only a small science biology one but I still felt absolutely crap. Every day I fall ill and get spasm attacks, there's not a day I can not remember not having them.
I hate having spasm attacks in the middle of the night and be in the bathroom crying or be crying myself back to sleep. Most children would wish for money, a car or something, I just wish to be a normal teenager again. The tablets I been put on don't help really and the doctor I think is getting annoyed with me.
My parents are at the end of their tether. They are getting worried about me having so much time off school and never feeling well and say they don't know if I'm putting it on a bit or not.
E-mail Eleanor: ells1992[at]hotmail.com
The tale of...Simon
I have suffered from IBS all my life, but it was masked by the fact that I was diagnosed with lactose intolerance as a baby, and thus I always attributed the symptoms to that. However when I was 14 I took my SATs at high school and ended up not sitting them because I had nausea, crippling abdominal pain and other symptoms. It took me six weeks to get back to school full time!
About a year later the symptoms were still persisting, despite a higher tolerance for dairy produce and the fact that I was controlling the amount I ate very carefully. My mom had been diagnosed with IBS previously and mentioned that my symptoms matched with hers, so I went to the doctor and was like my mom diagnosed with the IBS. From then on I was even more careful about what I ate in the way of dairy produce and I even managed to get through my year 10 exams, mock and proper GCSEs and AS-levels without much trouble.
Despite this, in December of 2004 I was working in a local supermarket and caught a stomach bug from the cafeteria (the staff hygiene was appalling). Following this I fell really ill for about two weeks, but it also triggered my IBS and sent it into overload.
That January I had A-levels to sit and I only just managed to do it; the invigilators were very understanding. From then to now I have had non-stop IBS with it flaring up every week and sometimes daily. I lost over a stone in weight on the run-up to my June exams as I cut all dairy produce out and was not eating before exams for fear that I would need the toilet.
I had blood tests and tried a number of remedies, with only Imodium having any impact, but even that doesn't work now. I had to have a provision to sit my exams in a separate room just to get through them, and I only managed that by the skin of my teeth. The result was that my grades dropped from predicted C's to actual D's. I am unable to work, I still have not regained the weight I lost and the huge amount of stress I am under is doing nothing to solve it. So what am I left with - not a lot.
E-mail Simon: parker22s[at]yahoo.com