[21910]

Today is kind of bitter sweet. For the past five years I have been thinking and was told that I had Ulcerative Colitis. I should start at the beginning of the story.In early 2002 I had chronic diarrhea to the point that I practically lived in my bathroom. At the time I was working on a hog farm and a bout of clostridium was going through the farm that I worked at. I went to the doctor and was diagnosed with c. diff. I was treated for the c. diff. and responded well to the treatment for about a month and a half the I relapsed and the doctors where at a loss to what I had. I lost a lot of wieght and had 4 colonoscopies. The doctors thought that I had Ulcerative Colitis and they started treating me for that. The treatments seemed to work but I would have flair ups where I would have extreme pain and constant diarrhea.Since then I have been under the assumption that I had Ulcerative Colitis. Since then I have not been able to digest any vegetables. I have been dealing with this for 5 years now and I have been avoiding things that cause flairs ups. A year ago I had a really bad flair up that sent me to the Emergency Room. The pain was so bad that I had to have a double dose of morphine and that just made the pain bearable. My family doctor reffered me to a Gastrointerologist here because the doctors I used to have were back in Iowa.A year later I finally saw a GI doctor and was scheduled for a colonoscopy to check the progress of the Ulcerative Colitis. I went through the procedure and it was discovered that the colitis that I had in 2002 was actually Pseudomembranous Colitis and not Ulcerative Colitis and that I now have IBS. I am not sure what to think now but I know that I did not like the what was forecasted with Ulcerative Colitis. With this new diagnosis I am hoping that I will be able to live a better life and maybe get the IBS under control.I am sure that I will learn a lot in this group. Thanks for listening to my ramblings.

 

[19506]

wrangler - congrats on getting a correct diagnosis for your problem. I understand the hope for treatment that a correct diagnosis brings, but there aren't many on this board who would type "YEA! I have IBS!". The vast majority of us would type "SH*T! I have IBS!"

 

[21910]

When you consider the wrong diagnosis that I had then you can understand the reason for the title that I used. While IBS is a dibilitating disease and it is troublesome to deal with Ulcerative Colitis is a disease that the prognosis for is not good. At best you have symptoms that are like IBS but often it gets worse with age and you are at a lot higher risk for colon cancer. While it is not the worst condition that you can have it is one that I am glad that I do not have. No I do not look forward to dealing with IBS either but from what I know about IBS and Ulcerative Colitis I believe that I would rather have IBS. The reason that I posted my story here is because even though we are dealing with IBS there are a lot of other GI diseases that have more severe implications for those that have to deal with them and I want people to know that there is hope no matter what ailment you are dealing with.

 

[16963]

welcome!

 

[Kathleen M.]

I know a lot of IBSers often wish they had a diagnosis of something that seems more treatable. However most of those things can lead to severe consequences that you don't see in IBS like increased risk of cancer, etc.It can be hard to want something that only makes you wish you were dead.A lot of people with IBDs are lucky that it is relatively mild or easily controlled, but a fair number of people have lots of problems even though it seems doctors have a lot more drugs to throw at it. Add to that drugs like prednisone can cause severe side effects when taken longterm and it isn't really any easier to have an IBD.Glad to hear you have joined the ranks of IBSers, and I hope you can find something that works for you.Interestingly enough I got IBS after I was doing some research on a hog farm. I never got really sick like you do with C. diff. but I did run a fever for about a month as the GI pain got worse. Stool consistency wasn't too bad, but the not being able to walk or lift things without a lot of pain got really old really fast. Luckily I found something that worked really well for me (see story in sig)K.