IBS SOS
About two months ago I was at my mother in laws and sneaked a toffee out of her always available bowl of sweets. Ten minutes or so after I’d eaten it I had the most gut-renching pain imaginable and thought I was going to have to run to the loo. I managed to make it home and sat in the bathroom expecting the flood gates to open (so to speak) but nothing happened. The pain didn’t get any better even after paracetamol or Gaviscon and the only thing that made the pain ease was a hot water bottle on my stomach. Eventually after a week I went to the docs and told her the symptoms I’d been having.
‘What’s wrong with me? Have I got a virus? Gastroenteritis? Food poisoning?’
She didn’t think it was any of those things as I didn’t have diarrhoea, vomiting or a fever. But then she asked me a suprising question…
‘Have you ever been diagnosed with Irritable Bowel Syndrome?’
Errr….. nope. IBS? Definitely not. I don’t have time for a mystery illness with no apparent medical reason or solution. I only have REAL illnesses that you cure with drugs and that go away.
She smiled and nodded and prescribed me an anti-spasmodic drug – Mebeverine – and ibuprofen for the pain. I took the drugs and within a few days the symptoms had lessoned and I was feeling better. A week later it had gone completely. I breathed a sigh of relief, stored the drugs in our medicine box and thought nothing more about it.
Until the next weekend.
We had a lovely Chinese meal on the Friday night – our first date night since Little Man was born *wheeee!* – and all was peachy. On Saturday we had an Indian takeaway with friends at home. And that was not so peachy. Pretty much as soon as our guests had left my stomach grumbled into life and the pain hit me in rolling waves. Griping, cramping pain that made me wince and groan. I took some Ibuprofen, boiled water for another hot water bottle and went to bed. On Sunday I started the Mebeverine again and kept my fingers crossed it would start to work.
At first I didn’t see much improvement. I was in some discomfort most of the time and the pain still cames in waves whenever I ate something. In fact I added bloating, burping and very loose ‘motions’ to the list of symptoms too. (Sorry, TMI I know, but it’s relevant and heck we all do it right?)
So I did what you’re never supposed to do when you feel ill and consulted the quack that is t’internet. A quick run through of the symptoms of *gulp* IBS matched very closely to how I was feeling.
Thankfully after a week all was right again with the world, pain gone, symptoms disappeared. But apparently that’s common too.
So now I’m wondering, is there a chance that I could have IBS? *shivers at thought*
Do you suffer from IBS? How do you control it – diet or drugs, or both? Do the symptoms come and go? I’d love to hear from you in the comments below.
Image courtesy of aquido
