For about 15 years, I've had the pleasure of dealing with constantly needing to know where a bathroom is at all times. I actually remember the first time I got the big D for what seemed like no reason. I was 23, and I was eating a baked potato from Wendy's, with butter, sour cream and chives. Yum! And then-Uh oh. And so it began. Every day. Every time I ate. Every. Single. Time. Going Out to eat-No fun. Dates-No fun. Vacations-No fun. Nothing's fun when you're afraid to eat anything and you're basically mentally blue-printing every building or house you're in, scoping out where all the bathrooms are and how long it's gonna take to get to each one, like you're a spy in some kind of horrible James Bond movie gone completely awry. Well, never a dull moment. And it's almost become like a buddy to me. Boyfriends have come and gone, jobs have come and gone...But my IBS stands by me through it all, constantly there for me, urging me on, as it were. (No pun intended.) Constantly. Consistently. Persistently. Annoyingly.

Apparently, everyone on my mother's side has IBS-D. You should try going out to eat with us sometime. It's pretty hilarious. My Grandmother has actually had colon cancer twice. And my mom has had polyps removed from her intestines. I've had a colonoscopy already, last year, when I was 37. Way too early in life to have to deal with that gem of a procedure. All clear. So anyway, we've banded together and tried to tackle our little buddy with a slew of remedies-We've tried it all-eating lots of veggies and fiber, taking various and sundry fiber supplements in powder and pill and any other form you can think of, calcium in every form, immodium, rifaxamin, lots of stuff-all to no avail. Nothing worked. Oh, well. Maybe it was just Nature's way of telling my that I should be a bathroom attendant. I mean, it's the perfect job for someone like me. I'm friendly, I like being helpful, and I'm always in there anyway. Why not! Well, in all seriousness, it's been just awful. And I don't wanna be in there all the time.

But strangely, I've FINALLY found something that works for me. You're gonna be surprised. I was talking with someone else who has IBS and she told me her story. When she went to the doctor for a reason other than her IBS, her doctor told her that she was dehydrated and needed to start drinking A LOT more water. She did. To her surprise, her IBS disappeared. I was shocked. All of these years, I had avoided drinking water very much, especially when I ate, because I associated IBS-D with having TOO MUCH water in my system, so I thought. I'm no doctor, so my reasoning was that since it was watery, that water would make it worse. APPARENTLY, the opposite is true. When the body doesn't have enough water, the food isn't digested or moved through the system properly. Who knew this? I had been completely turned around all this time in my approach. I started to drink water all throughout the day, about a small glass an hour. And I started drinking the water that would come with my meals, which I had NEVER done before, since I had viewed it as my mortal enemy for so long. Tell you what, it WORKED!! Instead of every time I eat, my sprints to the bathroom are few and far between now! I still have them, but generally only after I've been drinking alcohol or forgetting to drink lots of water. It's no longer the little buddy that it once was. Now it's just a closet-monster that peeps out every now and then.'

By: hellsbells