IBS Tales Home > Read The Tales > Sad Tales: Women with IBS-C Page Eight
sad tales: women with ibs-c page eight
The tale of...Jennifer (10 November 2005)
Ever since I was a child, I would always have stomach problems. It would first start off with burping acid or stomach aches that lasted for days with nausea. I could never vomit. Now that I am 25, my symptoms have gotten worse. Constipation, bloating, swelling, fatigue, and fevers...it is to the point now where I am trembling/shaking when the onset comes. I have to cool my body off the best way I can, even in the winter.
I had my gallbladder removed, endoscopy and a colonoscopy that showed nothing. I've taken Zelnorm, Prilosec, and all the other stomach medications. I felt like a lab job. I've tried all the doctors I can take 'til my job finally told me to see a psychiatrist. So I did and they told me I was bipolar and schizophrenic. I didn't believe that at all.
The medication I was put on made me gain almost 80lbs. I noticed when I was a manageable weight, I was sick sometimes, but the more I lost weight, the more sick I became. Now I am in the process of getting rid of the excess weight and my sickness is coming back stronger...weird, I know.
I am to the point where I take citrate every other day for a bowel movement and stay away from all meats and most cheeses. I downgraded my milk from whole to 2% and that seemed to help for a minute.
I am so overwhelmed that I feel like there is no hope. I really don't know where to go from here. Sometimes I feel maybe I am losing my mind. I'm tired of crying. I have no social life, no boyfriend and sometimes my daughter doesn't want to be around me when I'm sick. I'm afraid! Help! I have nowhere else to turn.
E-mail Jennifer: [email protected]
The tale of...Ellie (13 November 2005)
I'm 23 years old and have been suffering with IBS for just under two years now. I suffer with mainly constipation, bloating, extreme nausea and wind. I have a weird kind of IBS and having constipation causes me to suffer from rectal ulcers.
When I first started with this, I was feeling extremely ill and was admitted to hospital with rectal bleeding and passing large amounts of mucus. Doctors, at first, thought I had inflammatory bowel disease and I had all the tests under the sun! My bloods were normal, biopsies, etc and they eventually put it down to IBS with solitary rectal ulcers.
I had never heard of this in my life. Apparently, the ulcers form with the pressure of constipation and straining. I get these regularly and have horrible stomach pains. It makes my life a misery. What's worse is that I feel like I'm the only one to suffer this type of IBS as I've never heard of it elsewhere. I'm hoping that by contacting this website I'll be able to find others with the same problem.
I hate that doctors always make you feel like IBS is in your mind and that it would go away if you weren't stressed or worried. Half the time, I'm not stressed or worried and my symptoms are still there. My last doctor thought it may be helpful for me to see a psychologist to help me with the IBS. It makes me so mad as they have no idea how bad it is some days.
The tale of...Louise (16 November 2005)
OK here goes. This is quite scary for me as no-one knows anything about my IBS except my doctor. I've never told anyone and it's been a burden for 10 years now. I recently had a blood test come back clear and so I apparently have IBS. I've also recently started looking for a flat with my boyfriend and started college and all I can do is worry that my symptoms are going to affect these things.
My IBS started when I was 11 (I'm now 20) and ever since then my life has been ruled by constipation, pain, embarrassment, fear and humiliation. I tried a herbal supplement that wasn't particularly effective and now I'm just looking for ways to deal with my symptoms before my life is totally ruined. I sympathize with everything I have read on this site and pray there is a solution out there for all of us.
E-mail Louise: [email protected]
The tale of...Laura (February 2006)
I have had IBS for going on 12 years. I am finally reaching out to a website. Help! I am also lactose intolerant. I have kept journals on what I can eat and what I can't. Still to this day I am finding new things to eliminate. I have been on medication every day. I feel that I am totally dependent on these meds to live my life.
My story is hating the bathroom, I feel it is my torture room. My IBS acts up between 2:00am and 5:00am, so I am completely exhausted when I go to work then I have no energy to exercise due to my run-down condition. My episodes last from one to three hours. And when I have a very bad attack it lasts three days and then I start bleeding.
I spent three weeks in the hospital so they could find out why I was bleeding and they told me it could have been a polyp, wrong! I just had a look over by the doctor and I was clean. The only thing the hospital did not do was go into my small intestine, they just let me go with meds.
I have been in so much pain, I have to change my pajamas, they are soaked with sweat from the pain. I also on occasions passed out on the floor due to the pain. So how do I make my bathroom a nice place to go instead of a torture chamber? If anyone has any ideas please email me.
E-mail Laura: [email protected]
The tale of...RM (February 2006)
I am a 25 year-old woman and I was diagnosed with IBS three years ago following ultrasounds and an endoscopy. I suffer from bouts of extremely severe vomiting and abdominal spasms. I cannot keep even a sip of water in, and throw up continuously even though my tummy is empty, and I don't even have bile left. It feels as though my insides are going to come out...I break into cold sweats, and battle for air as my body insists on throwing up. Many times I've felt as though I were dying.
These episodes most times continue for up to 12 hours unless I am taken to hospital for an IV injection of Buscopan, to stop the spasms, and Stimitil/Maxalon to stop the nausea, as I am allergic to any drug that contains Cyclizine, and as luck would have it, that is the active ingredient in most anti-nausea meds. Thereafter I have to be given a glucose drip because I've become a dried prune
I would love to know what meds I can keep at home, maybe in the form of suppositories, or a better option seeing that I can't ingest anything...Needless to say...I hate this! And it's damn expensive...financially and professionally. If anyone has any ideas please email me.
E-mail RM: [email protected]