[Guest]

Thanks for your reply on my IBS remission topic. You mentioned that you have been suffering for 50+ years? It also sounds like you are a male. I am a 40 year-old male who has been suffering since around 18. I can't believe the similarities between your experiences and mine and what you said in your reply I can echo! I too now know that I was a "d" sufferer early on. From my early teens I remember having attacks on major Holidays, i,e Christmas, Easter, etc. My parents reply was "it's all in your head". In my early 20's during college, my father would say "just have a drink or two (alcohol) and it will settle you down. You can see what background I am coming from. I am very interested to hear your story as a sufferer and how you manage your condition. Do you have a family, how do you carry on with your life. Do your symptoms get better or worse as you get older or stay about the same? Any E-mail address? ------------------2tone[This message has been edited by Tommy2tone (edited 03-26-99).]

 

[Guest]

2tone,I am a male M.D., 61 years old, married to my first wife, with 4 children and 7 grandchildren. My symptoms date back almost as long as I can remember. I think the childhood symptoms are mostly important because they seem to confirm the duration of this problem; how much they contributed to my personality and social development, I can't say, but IBS definitely limited my career choices within medicine. ( I practice internal medicine in a small New England city.)I manage my condition only fairly well. The pressures of family and career have put me in some incredibly uncomfortable spots, have apparently flared my symptoms at times, and although individual episodes have occasionally had their humorous side, overall I find little to laugh about on the subject.My problem is further compounded by panic disorder, which I didn't recognize as such, and which wasn't treated until about 4-5 years ago. That has been a success story and has changed my life; now I only have the IBS-D as a significant problem.I have built features of my life around my IBS, but have remained active with the help of planning, medicines (many different ones over the years) and sometimes just sheer determination to do something. I've missed a lot of stuff I'd have liked to do, have caused upsets and conflict in my family and with my wife ( she and they have some understanding) because of the avoidance pattern I've adopted so often.About 10 years ago I decided to give up on counseling attempts, diet manipulation and just take medicines to relieve symptoms. About 4 years ago I became even more aggressive and decided to take medicines for D quite liberally, to try to prevent symtoms (basically to constipate myself) when I needed to fell "safe". I was afraid initially that these medicines would lose their effect, and to some extent they have, and so I work hard at minimizing usage times; but if I've got a plane to catch, or a golf tee time, or want to ski, I take my Imodium or Lomotil (the only drugs I use for D) in as big a dose as it requires to guarantee C. Currently. I have a daily dose of clonazepam (Klonopin) for panic, which works well. I have been trying to minimize the known bowel irritants (spicy foods, cooked tomatoes for me, baked beans, highly hopped European style beer, etc.) and have been trying Caltrate Plus 3 a day. I've been a little better for 2 weeks, after a fairly rough few months.Right now I prefer to do all my communicating on the board, and don't do e-mail. I am a little reluctant to "come out" on the net, but also believe that our communications often contain stuff that is of great help to somebody else on this board or planet.Keep in touch. Good luck. Please post to me anytime, I stay in pretty close touch with this board only.

 

[Guest]

Joejoe - thanks for your honest sharing - you have no idea how it makes me feel to know a DOCTOR actually suffers with this (not that I'm HAPPY you have it joejoe, but that you understand!). Doctors are not always very knowledgable, nor understanding about this condition. You KNOW about the discomfort, pain, worry we experience. You understand the way that drugs affect this condition. You also have firsthand knowledge of the panic that can accompany this disorder. You probably even understand the "it's all in your head" diagnosis most of us have suffered at one time or another. Therefore, you understand the frustration we endure trying to manage normal lives, while having to deal with unpredictable symptoms. Have you ever thought to specialize in this so the rest of us have a safe place to go???At any rate, I really appreciate what you wrote. It made my day.

Kathy

 

[Guest]

HeyKate,2 of the most helpful things I have learned from wise, kind physicians are:1- The work of the world is done by people who don't feel well.2- The best thing that can happen to a doctor or his patients is for the doctor to get sick once in a while.It's also helpful to realize that whenever someone seems to reject us, our symptoms or our other problems, it may be because they are afraid. They themselves may have something like that and refuse to confront it. We can be very unpleasant reminders to those folks, making them quite anxious, and often angry. It's then easier to push us and our problems away.

 

[Guest]

JOEJOE,VERY NICELY PUT. THANKS FOR BEING ON THE BB.------------------LET'S ALL PRAY FOR A CURE TO THIS IBS SOON!