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Hi there, Welcome to the site! Hope this is the right forum for this, but here it goes...
I'll post my answers to your questions as a reply here, but you have actually posted on the wrong board. This board is specifically for Fitness, so it is more about weight maintenance and things like that.. Waaaaay more people post on the IBS Diet/Eating for IBS boards so I would suggest posting this on that board instead and you will get far more replies.

I'm going on 21 and I was diagnosed with IBS three years ago, shortly after graduating highschool. Although I've had stomach issues since I was about 12. I went to a GI and all she did was poke my stomach a few times and declared "You have irritable bowel syndrome" and wrote out four prescriptions that did nothing but make me feel worse.
That is not good enough. Not at all. If the doctor didn't give you ANY tests, there is no way to definitively say that you have IBS and not something else that has the same symptoms, of which there are many. For your healthy and safety and your own peice of mind, it is extremely important that you go back and insist that you have all the necessary testing done. This will likely include blood tests, stool samples, x-rays and probably a colonoscopy. They aren't fun or anything, but completely necessary. Just giving you drug after drug in hopes of it solving your problems isn't the doctor doing his/her job properly.
Even after I was diagnosed I kept eating whatever I wanted, including trigger foods that didn't bother me at all (except beef), it was as if I never had IBS.
Then suddenly this time last year I suddenly couldn't eat anything at all without experiencing a lot of pain and D (I've only been C twice). I researched the IBS again and found this sight last September and have been following the diet. Went to a new doctor and she gave me probiotics (which gave me painful gas) and Pamine, which did NOT help at all so I stopped taking it.
How long were you on the probiotics? I have, and several people I know have, taken them and never had any problems like your describing.. I am thinking that maybe you needed to give your body time to adjust?
I don't know what Pamine is, but there are so many medications out there it is hard to know which ones are good and which ones won't do anything at all.
I figured I was better off just sticking to my diet rather than going through a series of meds. A holistic doctor recommended some herbal pills specifically for stomach issues. Another dead end, it caused the worst pain (doubled over and screaming).
I am really sorry to hear this, and that you have had such bad experiences with everyone you have gone to see. I also have had bad reactions to herbal medicine, I don't know if I gave myself enough time on them or if didn't start taking them gradually enough or if they just didn't work for me, but it is definitely a learning process!
I graduated in May and my stomach was great for two months (still following the diet). But now its acting up again, painful gas, and bowel movements, with some D here and there but not much.
What I'm confused about is that things don't always bother me. I actually had some French Toast from a local diner (milk, eggs, butter) and it didnt bother me. But then when I had it another time it had brutul results. I always eat corn muffins from Dunkin Donuts, but the last two times have also had painful results. At the moment my best friends are Corn Pops, Peppermint Tea, and toasted bagels with jelly and plenty of soup.
Yep, yep, yep. If you were to read through this whole board, you would find that same story over and over again. Like, I can eat ice cream one day and be fine and then get over confident, do it again and pay for it big time. The only reasonable conclusion is that I can't have ice cream, full stop. If I don't want to get sick, no ice cream ever. And then all the other trigger foods as well.
If you don't want to have attacks, you really shouldn't take the risk of eating high fat foods like that which can send normal tummies into freak outs.
The other thing is, you might "cheat" on a Wednesday and not feel it until Thursday. Your stomach might get so bothered by it that it acts up until Sunday.. I really think it's not worth the risk, to be honest if you are suffering this much. Wild horses couldn't make me eat a donut if I was hurting that badly.
Does anyone else go back and forth like this? Can the IBS actually have a remission stage?
I don't see it as remission, I see it as luck. The other thing is, you can't JUST look at food to control your stomach. Maybe one day you eat something bad, everything else is cool and you are okay. Maybe the next time you are tired, or stressed.. maybe there is something else going on that makes it impossible for your stomach to handle it.
I like to keep a journal of what I am eating, AND what else is going on... Like if I didn't sleep more than a few hours, and have a sore throat, or have money stress or something. If anything else is going on, your tummy will know it and I would DEFINITELY avoid any foods you aren't sure of.
Thanx
Ali
*sorry this wound up being so long
That's alright, that's what we're here for. I would definitely either write another post on the Diet board or just copy this post over there so you can get some more responses.

Good luck, and don't forget to look around the site.. do searches and stuff, you might find most questions have been answered lots of times.

Cheers!
--Steph

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