My Practice Place

Sent: 6/20/2006 11:14 PM

Hello, Dude, Grace, & Mags.

I've avoided this thread ever since I've been a member here. I'm not exactly sure why. Fear... I guess.

When I saw it at the top tonite, I just jumped in. I was very glad to see you three here. I think you all know I'm not well physically. I was diagnosed w/ IBS in Jan. '05. I haven't really been treated for it. Trusty & I have changed my diet significantly, & I think this is what has brought abt the improvement that I've seen, e.g. much less lower abdominal pain.

But I'm still not right. My main problem is that I'm so weak. Sometimes I can't even hold my head up. I spend just abt all of my time sitting in bed w/ my laptop. I've been doing better w/ my laps around the house. I make a circle around the living room, kitchen, & dining room using a cane. I can do abt 3 laps now, but I'm so weak when done that it feels as if I've been drained of blood.

They've done a million blood tests, 3 cat scans, & attempted a berium enema MRI scan that they screwed up royally. They found certain elevated levels of things in my blood & a benign tumor pressing on my adrenal gland. But nothing's been done. No prescriptions, no advice... except that they'll look at it again... in 9 months or so.

I don't know what I except from you. What can you say ?

My regular doctor is a great guy, but he's getting too old to practice, I'm afraid. I'm seeing him tomorrow for another sigmoidoscopy. Oh, Joy. I've done some research & found another doctor who specializes in IBS. He's a rectal/colon surgeon & a general surgeon & a professor at the med school here. He's in the same building as my doc.

I was all set to tell my doc that I want to see this new guy, but now I don't know if I can. Trusty & I were going over what I was going to say & we ended up in a big argument. I cried & cried. But I got myself together cuz I have to take a shower a day in advance of going anywhere.

How can I explain to a stranger everything that is wrong w/ me, when I can't talk to someone who I've lived w/ for 26 yrs. ?

And this is only one thing. I was serious when I said somewhere that I would need a 7-hour appt. just to fill him in on my past medical history.

It all just seems so daunting & overwhelming. Helpless/Hopeless my mother usta call me. And that's just the way I feel now. I almost wish that someone would tell me "You're just getting old. Deal w/ it". But I know something's wrong...

Well I had a good vent. Thanks.

kitty

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Message 1613 of 1614 in Discussion

From: Mags

Sent: 6/21/2006 2:13 AM

Hello there Kitty. It's good to see you here and I'm so pleased you have joined us. The few of us that do post on this thread are incredibly supportive and encouraging to each other so you've come to the right place.

I know exactly what you mean about IBS and the disruption it causes to your life. Sue (Washingfairysue) also suffers badly with IBS so she will be understanding too.

I think what scares us most is that we don't understand quite what is going on with our bodies with IBS and are scared it's something far worse than it really is. Believe me, I speak from experience here.

Thankfully I'm a lot better now, even more so since I found that certain foods trigger off exceptionally bad bouts. It was because of this that I discovered wheat and yeast were definate no no's for me. After feeling like you do now I finally gave up and asked my GP to send me to a consultant. After having blood tests that filled a dozen phials and results that didn't show too much other than what we already knew ,they sent me on to another consultant. It was from here that they put me on a stictly controlled diet. Believe it or not, in theory, you should live on water for several weeks to totally de-tox your body but of course this is impossible so I had a diet sheet with about five items on it that I was allowed to eat. Expensive ones at that wouldn't you know. I had to keep an accurate diary as to what happened every day, including any stressful events that were taking place and there were plenty of those at the time, and still are, and gradually we added two more items to the list and so this went on for many months. Stress is one of the biggest factors and of course the more we wind ourselves up and convince ourselves we really are seriously ill the worse it gets.

The outcome of all this was that I was very allergic to wheat and all yeast products and also several other foods, whilst I could eat them in small quantities, such as tomatoes, were included on the list. I'm not gluten intillerant, just the wheat. Stress of course was a big cause but there was and still is, little I can do about that.It would probably be a good idea if you did see this other consultant but I'm sure you won't need a 7hr session.

What would be a really good idea I think is for you to start a diary now and write down all your symptoms and how things affect you such as foods, stress etc. The consultant will then have a good picture of how things are for you and it will help him immensely I'm sure to get to the root of the problem and get you on the road to better health. By writing the diary you may also see a pattern and who knows maybe you will find it's something little that is making things so bad for you.

Good luck and do keep popping in and telling us how you are. As I've said everyone is so supportive. Our lovely Phinny comes here when she has a chance and posts the most amazing inspiring gifs that really encourages. Incidentally Phinny can't eat wheat and other things either.

Good luck.

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