Stable for years: Mystery.....
#242331 - 01/28/06 11:33 AM
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DWS
Reged: 01/10/06
Posts: 20
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I'm puzzled. I was diagnosed with IBS (at the time they called it spastic colon) when I was very young. From 4 or 5 years-old until the age of 21 I was plagued w/pain and d. Stress and certain foods seemed to trigger my problems. But around 21 my problems seemed to go away almost overnight. I remained very stable for about 13 years. I ate anything that I wanted. I even drank coffee daily, and ate ice cream regularly throughout those years. Then one day about a year and a half ago out-of-the-blue it came back with a vengence. Ever since then I'll have fairly stable times (if I'm eating right) and very unstable times. It's a mystery to me why it went away for so long and then came back so strong. Has anyone experienced anything like this before?
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Hi DWS,
I can't answer your question because I haven't been stable that long. Your post is very interesting, because now I'm thinking about my own stability and whether I'll have a recurrence as well after 13 years.
I just wonder if something suddenly happened in your life a year and a half ago that caused you incredible stress or anxiety? Surgery perhaps? Menopause? Family tragedy?
I believe our bodies go through a LOT of different changes in our lives in which they just no longer want to tolerate the things we feed them. I've noticed, in my case, that it's not certain foods that I can't tolerate but more certain MEDS. Antibiotics are all killers for me.
Are you going to try Heather's diet; is that what you mean when you say, "..... if I'm eating right....."? If not, I swear it'll help get you stable. Gosh, "ice cream regularly..."? What's that like?! 
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<img src="http://home.comcast.net/~letsrow/smily3481.gif">Bevvy
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Yea, it was great for 13 years..
Yes I'm trying to follow Heathers diet as closely as I can. Yes there was a great deal of stress on my job at the time, but I had periodically been under the same type of stress during my stable years with no adverse effect on my gut. I'm 36, married,a father of two little girls and try to stay in decent shape (I work-out as a form of stress reduction). The only thing that sent up a red flag at first was that about six months prior to this happening I'd been working in France for a couple of months and had minor trouble with my stomach while I was there. I believe I ate some cheese that didn't agree with me. Anyway I was back to normal after about 5 days. Also, when I started having trouble six months later one of the first tests that the Doc ran was checking for parasites (stool sample) and put me on an antibiotic for just in case. Since my relapse I done my best to reduce my stress and eat right. This seems to help, but it's still a mystery to me why it came back at all because everyone I've talked to about this says that they've never heard of IBS going "dormant" for so long. I do have some theories as to why I can discuss later.
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When I was first diagnosed with irritable bowel, I was experiencing D and cramping ect...that started me on the path of diagnosis. It took most of a year to finally have all of the tests completed, but the end result was IBS. It took me another 2 years to stabilize, and then almost 8 years of eating what I wanted and never thinking about food or my digestive system.
Two years ago, my body said "uh-uh!" Like the initial onset so many years before, I was under pretty tremendous stress for an extended period of time and my gi tract didn't respond well. However, upon return I was a horrid C. Once again, the battery of tests was run and the conclusion was IBS. I found this site during that time, and have now almost stabilized again.
Stress is my biggest trigger...soooo my conclusion is that my body will only tolerate so much before it rebels. In my case, that means uncontrollable bowel problems. This past year, I learned that extreme stress (ie. rushing my child to the emergency room) will send my C to immediate D in no time flat. My gut takes the brunt of whatever is going on in my life.
You can be stable for years. I have been. But, life inevitably throws us a few curves, and my digestive tract expresses what my entire body feels. I'm learning that a mild antidepressant goes a long way for me to keep things in check.
I don't understand it. But I've had a very, very similar experience thus far. My original diagnosis was in '92.
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God is Faithful!
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