BeckyW

Hi there,

When I first joined up on this group and listed my symptoms, I totally forgot to mention my IBS. But sure enough, this also started right around my period for several months (ironically this was when I started to get monthly periods rather than my usual bi or tri monthly). It gradually got to where it was bothering me nonstop for a couple of months. Not a lot of 'runs' but a lot of cramping and feeling like something was really wrong.

This was early in 2003. I was 39. I saw a digestive doc who did a colonscopy and removed 'Fat Man' and 'Lil Boy'....ie, a significant polyp and a very minor one. They were not the cause of my symptoms but I'm told to thank the Lord I had the IBS or Fat Man may have gone a few more years undeteced and become cancer.

I was diagnosed as IBS with constipation....things just weren't running smoothly and would 'flare' every so often. My digestive troubles eventually passed with basic 'fiber therapy' every day. I'm still given to a bout now and then but nothing like those few months last year. Gingerale, potato bread toast, and baked potatoes with a little butter, chicken broth, and vanilla yogurt were the easiest foods for me to eat without getting upset. Citrucel (the regular orange kind, not the 'clear' stuff), worked well for me because it doesn't produce gas like so many others. I stayed away from oatmeal, raw broccoli, apples, for a while because they seemed to be triggers. But once things were getting back to normal & wwith the docs encouragement I have slowly increased my intake of these things with little problem.

Becky