[Kathleen M.]

The only thing you can really say with IBS is YOUR MILEAGE MAY VARY.Symptoms can be hourly, daily, weekly, monthy, or less frequent.There will be stool consistancy changes and frequency changes of any an all description (over the whole of everyone with IBS...although each person has their own subset of it).Pretty much every pattern you can imagine, and a few you can't

are found in some subset of IBS patients.Some patterns are more typical than others...but nothing is really out of the ordinary.Now it is considered normal to have some GI symptoms occasionally, although usually just for a day or two. You may have enough symptoms for long enough to be out of the normal range. But it is normal to occasionally get constipated. How badly being constipated effects overall wellbeing will vary from person whether thay are normal or have IBS. Who posts on bb's is typically going to be those who find a disease interferes with daily life. So the can't keep a job because I poop 20X a day person is WAY more likely to post than someone who gets constipated a couple of times a year. That is just the nature of support groups.Have you been to the doctor and been tested during one of these spells to determine if it is IBS or something else?K.