I took her advice and started out with my primary physician.  He did a colonoscopy and some initial blood work.  From the colonoscopy, he said that he could definitely see that there was a problem; the lining of my large intestine was very inflamed and irritated.  He prescribed some medication to help alleviate the spasms/cramping, but it helped minimally and tended to make me groggy.  A few months later I switched to a different primary physician because of a change in our health insurance.  Upon hearing of my symptoms and reading my chart, she referred me to a gastroenterologist.  The first one I saw was a crotchety old….. well, we’ll leave it there.  I saw him a few times and then decided that was enough.  I switched to a new gastroenterologist and found him wonderful.  He was very informative and open to discussion and worked with a group at Johns Hopkins University that was doing research and testing on IBS and related conditions.  He was also very honest about the fact that, at that point, they really didn’t know what caused IBS.  We worked out a course of testing, treatment, and trials.  I went through the whole set of ugly tests, sigmoidoscopy, colonoscopy, etc and enough blood tests to make the Red Cross jealous.  Again, he could definitely see the effects of the problem, and the absorption test indicated that my system was only absorbing 40% of what it should be.  We tried a variety of things from diet changes, medications, and homeopathic remedies like Acidophilus and Black Currant Seed oil.  Many of these things would help a little for a couple of months, but then my system would just go back to its old ways.  Nothing completely stopped the problem or lasted more than several weeks to a few months.  And some of the prescription medications had side effects that were just ugly.  I worked with this doctor for over 4 years, trying to find some solution.  By the end of that time most of my vacation and sick time at work had been eaten up with testing and appointments and, even with insurance, the bills were mounting and I couldn’t afford to continue.   The diagnosis was Chronic Inflammation of the Large Intestine/Irritable Bowel Syndrome.   I was now in my late twenties and realized that there may not be a solution.  I was back to “living with it”. 

 

At 27 I started a small business with 3 partners.  Initially we kept our full time jobs to get things off the ground.  Within a year I was caught in a plant shutdown and opted to work for the business full time.  I was hoping it would reduce my stress and help with the problem.  And I thought maybe it would break the vicious cycle of the condition.  The constant worrying about the diarrhea created it’s own stress that only made things worse.  Working for myself definitely helped with my stress levels, but the problem continued.  And I continued with my pattern; not eating whenever a flare-up could cause a problem, eating only when I was home and could more easily deal with the result, and generally being rundown and tired all the time.  I dreaded any potential customer asking to “do lunch” and tried to avoid these types of meetings at all cost.  I worked to always arrange meetings somewhere without food or during times when I could get by with just having something to drink and pawning it off as having a big breakfast.

In my early 30s I stumbled across something quite by accident and initially it seemed to hold some answers.  I had always been a big soda drinker since my teens although I had switched to caffeine free soda in my early twenties at the doctors suggestion.  At times I had gone through periods of drinking bottled tea (I loved the Arizona Green Tea).   During a visit with my parents, my mother mentioned that she had recently found a dry mix green tea in the grocery store and wondered if I had tried it.  I loved it and it became my primary drink.  And within a week I noticed a change.  I was having much fewer flare-ups and they seemed to be less severe.  I started wondering what the difference was and a friend suggested I compare ingredients.  I pulled a can of soda, a bottle of tea, and the canister of dry mix out onto the counter and there was my demon (or at least one of them):  high fructose corn syrup.  It was in both the soda and the bottled tea, but the mix used sugar.  I started working to eliminate it from my diet and saw a marked improvement in my flare-ups.  There were just two problems.  1) HFC (high fructose corn syrup) is in almost everything these days, even many diabetic products.  2) Even without HFC, there was still something else that my system was having a problem with.  There was another trigger.  But, for the moment, at least I had one answer.  I spent a great deal of my time in health food aisles and stores looking for items without HFC.  It’s really tough to steer clear of it, but I’ve been pretty successful.  The biggest problem I run into is eating out.  One place HFC is commonly used is in bread products, so I have to be careful with any type of sandwich or roll anywhere I go to eat.  

Eliminating the HFC helped, but there was still something else.   At least now I had hope.  If I could find other triggers and eliminate them, maybe I could get this under control.  A few months ago I stumbled across an article on WebMD referencing a study published in the American Journal of Gastroenterology.   A doctor in NJ had found that some people who had their gallbladder removed suffered from chronic diarrhea, particularly after meals.  In the study, the doctor studied other patients with chronic diarrhea and found that all of the patients he studied had some level of gallbladder dysfunction.  I sat starting at the screen for ages, reading the article 2 or 3 times more to make sure I wasn’t missing something.  This sounded like me.  This sounded exactly like me.  I did a bit more research on how the gallbladder functions and what it’s role is in digestion and what the drug mentioned in the article does.  I wasn’t thrilled with the prospect of taking a medication for the rest of my life and I was worried about the side effects, but if it would allow me to carry on a “normal” life, I was willing to try it. 

I spoke to a close friend about the information I had found and she suggested an alternative.  She had suffered with Acid Reflux horribly for some time.  She had taken many of the prescription and over the counter medications, but nothing brought her consistent relief.  She had discovered a natural supplement called Buffer PH that finally brought her relief.  And there was a digestive supplement made by the same company that she thought I should try; Digestin.  Digestin contains several of the digestive enzymes used to break down components during digestion (comprehensive information on it's components and their actions can be found here).  I checked out the ingredients in Digestin, compared it to the research I had done and decided to give it a try.  I'll freely admit to being quite skeptical.  After 20+ years with this condition I'd been through it all.  I doubted this could truly help, but what did I have to lose.

 

So, what were my results?  I was flat out amazed.  The first week on Digestin the diarrhea stopped.  Just stopped.  I couldn't believe it.  So, of course I had to test it.  I went out one night and got chili dogs, fries, and a soda.  If I was going to test it, I was going to really test it.  It passed.  I've been on the Digestin for 3 months now, I've put it through several more tests, and I couldn't be more pleased.  The only blowout I've had during that time was one day when I forgot to take the Digestin earlier in the day and remembered right as I was starting to eat lunch.  One of the keys for me has been to taking the Digestin at least 30 minutes before I eat.  I've even taken it a couple of hours before eating and had no problems. 

The gallbladder problem

When I was 16 I had my first gall bladder attack although at the time it was diagnosed as a pulled muscle in my ribs.  Shortly after my 21^st birthday I had a pretty bad gallbladder attack (there had been others between 16 and this one) that made kept me up most of the night one Friday evening.  Saturday morning I arranged to see the doctor, and he set up tests to see if it was my gallbladder.  An ultrasound showed that there was definitely something in my gallbladder and I was off to the surgeon.  We discussed options.  I could have the stone removed or broken up, but since I had created the gallstone at such a young age, I was likely to create more.  There were also concerns with breaking up the stone in that pieces could lodge in the ducts and cause more serious problems.  We also discussed the diarrhea problem and whether the gallbladder problem could be causing or attributing to it.  At that time the thought was that it probably wasn’t related, but the surgeon did indicate that a few of his patients did experience diarrhea problems after having the gallbladder removed.  I opted to have the gallbladder removed to prevent further problems.  Immediately after the surgery the diarrhea disappeared, but returned with a vengeance a few months later.