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21 yrs old and a long time sufferer

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Irritable Bowel Syndrome
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Posted 11/24/2005 6:50 AM (GMT 0)
Ever since I was about 11 I remember these random episodes where all of a sudden I had to go.  The cramping and diarrea (but never any constipation) were terrible..but the symptoms only lasted a matter of hours (1-4 max) and then they were gone again for days or even weeks.

     These symptoms have presented themselves every few weeks for over 11 years and aren't very painful, but VERY annoying and have interfered with my life (missing class/leaving school when I was younger), this may also be due to the fact I have issues with public restrooms, especially going #2 in a public restroom.  It seems that it is constant above diet (I ate healthy until I was 18, and now it's mostly junk but the symptoms are the same frequency), I take no medicines besides ibruprofen, and have no other health conditions or an overabundance of stress.  The symptoms are always worse about a day before my period.  I had always assumed it was lactose intolerance and steered clear of dairy (which I have since learned that dairy can effect IBS). 

     Getting to my question..is diarrea on a regular basis enough of a symptom to consider it IBS, and even though it's not painful are there any treatment options so that I an avoid this embarassing problem and get back to living a normal life without wondering if I'll have an "attack"??? -- MSUgirlie

Posted 11/24/2005 7:37 PM (GMT 0)
Hi MSU,
Welcome to HealingWell!
All your symtoms are EXACTLY how I suffered with this (and still do). Except I used to eat mostly junk and now I don't. I go from being constipated for a couple days to having D (for 1-4 hours) and then I'm back to not going again for a couple days. It's a cycle. Right now I am on Zelnorm which helps the C and gives me less D.
The thing with sparatic diarrhea is that I don't think it can be maintained with treatment. Many people here take Calcium on a daily basis to control their DAILY diarrhea. But since you don't have D on a daily basis Calcium would just make you constipated. People also take anti spasmodics to help with the cramps during a D attack, but you don't have that problem either. Looks like you may benefit from Pepto-Bismol or Imodium. Those are the only 2 things I can think of that would help you almost immediately. You can also take probiotics to see if that helps (because it can't hurt). I would also suggest cutting out as much junk as possible. Most of us cannot tolerate too much junk like fatty and fried foods.
Take care and keep posting!
Posted 11/24/2005 8:03 PM (GMT 0)
Hi MSU,
I wanted to add my welcome as well. Lil has given you some very good information. Keeping track of the foods that are causing these attacks might be a good idea also. I have identified a lot of my triggered through a food diary and I believe in it so much. Please keep posting and reading through the posts to see if you can get any good ideas. Take Care :)
Posted 11/26/2005 5:38 AM (GMT 0)
Thank you guys for your advice, this is an embarassing problem for me..and hard to discuss with my friends. It finally has gotten to the point where I dread going out of town (like this weekend to stay with my fiancee's family for thanksgiving) because somehow my body knows I'm somewhere that it could embarass me..and no doubt at 2 am on Saturday I'll wake up with the dreaded "I gotta go RIGHT now" cramps..then the whole house will hear *cringes* Hopefully it can cooperate since we'll only be there for 24 hours. :) Wish me luck..and I'll try the food diary..and maybe pick up some Immodium just to be safe!
Posted 11/26/2005 2:16 PM (GMT 0)
Back when my Diarrhea was a bit more controllable, if I had somewhere to go or something I had to do, and I needed it to "behave" then this is what I would do. I would take an Immodium right when I woke up. That would help keep it more controlled and sometimes prevent trouble. But, you have to watch constipating yourself so I would only do that when it was most necessary. Or if you waited and took Immodium right at the first hint of trouble, that might help you slow down faster.

Good luck and definitely try to keep a diary and identify triggers.
Posted 11/26/2005 5:47 PM (GMT 0)
I'm with you, Katy. If I have to be somewhere and I start having trouble I take half an Imodiom at the first sign of trouble. That does the trick every time. When I travel, that is another story.... I take the full Imodium dose so I don't have trouble on the plane (or in the car). At that point I would rather have C than D.
Posted 11/26/2005 11:54 PM (GMT 0)
Yes I agree. I brought some emergency Imodium with me when I went out of town and had it in my carry on. I started getting the cramping and I knew that if I took one I should be okay.... but I couldn't find it in my bag!! I ended up having to go to the plane toilet. You can't just sneak in there either, everybody is alert when someone starts walking on the plane. Hopefully nobody was looking at their watch to know that I was in there much longer than #1 lasts. LOL, I would normally not care as I probably wouldn't see those people again but there were a few colleagues on the plane as well. Oh well... so is life.
Posted 11/28/2005 7:00 PM (GMT 0)
If you definitely see a connection between your episodes and your period, you should talk to your gynocologist about it. S/he may know about something that might help--like certain types of birth control. Personally, I'm on Depo Provera and it keeps you from having a period completely. No more bowel fluctuations for me. Mind you, I developed my IBS problems after going on Depo, but before I had any bowel problems at all, I would get constipated before I started. That's how I would know sometimes that it was on its way since I was never, ever regular. Hormones can do funny things to the bowels. Hopefully yours is just a case of hormones which hopefully can be regulated. So much easier than the alternative!
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