Hey why not?

Seems no one else is posting anything, so why not.

I believe my IBS began when I was a young lad, maybe 10, 11, 12 years old, complaining of feeling unwell in order to get off school (when I was fine, just had psychological issues due to childhood trauma). Doctor and parents put me on steroids. That is I think when my life took a turn for the worse. It is hard to be sure whether this was the trigger, but it sticks in my mind, as I put on a lot of weight at that time also, and I recall being at junior school worried about needing the toilet, not wanting to use the toilets but occasionally desperately needing to go – this made me want to go to school even less.

However, dealt with this throughout my life, was never formally diagnosed or even brought up as an issue by anyone (except for dealing with it myself by being generally antisocial and being at home as much as I could) until in my 30s when I decided to speak to a doctor about it, (after having a child, a son, who also unfortunately has gastrointestinal issues). Doctor confirmed it sounded like IBS, but no way to be really sure as the NHS aren’t going to throw money at someone my age searching for IBS confirmation/diagnosis. I was told to just manage it with diet – which is something I have been doing my whole life to some degree.

Generally staying away from dairy and excessively fatty foods has helped through my life, but only recently with my son’s issues did I find out that soya is basically the same as dairy in terms of the protein and the body’s response, throughout my adult life I had swapped dairy for soya products, and wondering why it made little or no difference to my symptoms. If anything soya makes my symptoms far worse, i.e. I went to a Chinese meal then the next day, extreme cramps, diarrhoea, took a week to stop feeling like utter crap.

Anyhow, for now, things are manageable with my diet, because there’s nothing else doctors will do for me here in England, but hey that’s life! I’ve got it kind of under control, I eat as little processed food as I can, I avoid uncooked dairy – though hard cheddars seem OK generally in moderation, anything like fresh cream will set me off within 30 minutes of eating it. If I eat plain foods, rice, chicken etc, I’m absolutely fine. But I also like my food, so.. :)

Well better get back to work, procrastinated enough!