The beginning

It all started many years ago. More so than I probably knew. I have fuzzy recollections of drinking chalky solutions and xrays as a young child, but it went away. Then college happened. I had no idea what was going on, everything I ate lead to cramping and diarrhea, all the time. I spent hours lying on the floor at my friend's houses after dinner in pain, trying to figure out how to go to the bathroom without anyone catching on to my problem. Like everyone with IBS-D I learned where all the bathrooms anywhere in my daily schedule were, and where public bathrooms were most likely to be. I learned about bathrooms more than I learned about my school work. Campus health told me I was stressed and maybe allergic to dairy. I finally went to a GI who did a blood test and stool test. He diagnosed me with IBS-D, and told me to look it up and change my diet, along with an anti-spasmodic, which did nearly nothing. After eating almost only rice, bananas, and applesauce for nearly a year a friend suggested probiotics, so I gave it a try and things got better. I still could eat cheeseburgers or nachos without feeling sick, but I was better.

Flash forward to graduate school and suddenly it all begins again. But this time it was different. All the previous symptoms returned but this time with nausea and vomiting. The difficulties reached their apex when I went to conference for my studies and spent most of it feeling completely nauseated and vomiting after every meal. I almost completely stopped eating to manage the conference, maybe half a bagel or granola bar each day. It was so violent I thought I had food poisoning.

When I came home I immediately found a GI. Fortunately I found a very wonderful GI. I was so prepared to fight with him from being told it was all in my head for so long that my blood pressure was through the roof at my first appointment when it's usually far below normal. But he believed me, everything I told him. We did  the full set of tests including an endoscopy/colonoscopy the preparation for which I consider a violation of the Geneva Convention   . The conclusion: I'm healthy as can be, except for IBS-D.

Since then (December 2011) I have been working to change my diet and lifestyle...easier said than done of course. Here I plan to post the amusing attempts, failures, and successes of these changes.