Hi Everybody!!
#66 - 01/27/03 04:41 PM
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Lynn
Reged: 01/27/03
Posts: 35
Loc: Virginia
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Hi, everybody!! This is my third post. However, I feel it's a necessary one. My name is Lynn. I am 26 years old, and I have had IBS since I was a small child. It didn't really start to peak until my later teens. I was diagnosed officially at age 19. Since then I have been diagnosed 4 more times with little resolution.
My bout with IBS has been a rough one. My IBS is quite painful and triggered by food and stress.
I have been almost completely hermetic for the last 2 years. I don't get out much except for work. My personal life and job life have been miserable. Actually, I am on the verge of losing my job because of IBS. However, I haven't been fired yet so I am fighting to win.
I continue to have hope because as I don't want to give up, and I found your books Heather.
My boyfriend's grandmother has IBS but without pain. Last May, in a rare moment that I got out of my house, she showed me two books that she had found, and they were both written by you.
You cannot imagine some of the relief I felt in reading your words, and how much they have meant to me. I am fighting my IBS but it's a very difficult battle. I just hope I don't have to lose everything.
Many people are not understanding about my condition, and I feel taxed by the strain of the whole ordeal.
Thanks for putting up a messageboard where we can share with each other.
I can't wait for the wonderful new things you have in store.
BTW, I am a member on iVillage's IBS Board, and I help to spread your wisdom because so many people are being diagnosed with IBS, and it seems that they have no one to turn to because doctors seem very unsupportive and clueless.
Thanks!!
~ Lynn
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Hi Lynn - Thanks so much for your kind message. I hope you find a happy home here, and that your IBS is much improved very shortly.
I really like the IBS board at ivillage, and I've tried to model this one like theirs. I used to be the moderator at that board, but just didn't have enough time to keep up with it. I really like their friendly and helpful atmosphere, and that they don't allow wacko posts. I still drop in there once in a while to say hello.
You might want to post some of the information from your post on your bio, which you can access from the "my home" button at the top of the page navigation bar. On the my home page you'll see a link at the bottom where you can edit personal information. That way, whenever anyone sees a post by you and they click on your name, they'll see your information (and even a picture if you want to post one).
Please post any questions you have so we can try and get you feeling better as soon as possible, holding on to your job (and being promoted!) and out of the house into a fun social life. Hang in there, these changes really can happen. I've heard from so many people who have dramatically improved their IBS and their whole lives have turned around as a result.
XXOO,
Heather
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Heather is the Administrator of the IBS Message Boards. She is the author of Eating for IBS and The First Year: IBS, and the CEO of Heather's Tummy Care. Join her IBS Newsletter. Meet Heather on Facebook!
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Hi Lynn, believe me, I hear you about the hermit life and losing jobs.
Throughout my youth I've had bouts of lactose intolerance and always a senstive stomach, but it wasn't until I was almost 18 that I started to really be sick with IBS. I had just gotten over mono, when I had to give up coffe (my life blood at the time) because everytime I even sipped it I would become terribly sick. I also gave up dairy too, but I was still sick.
I graduated from high school and then got a job as a waitress, haha, that was fun. Mind you even now, if I'm on my feet for more than 6 hours, I start to get shooting pains in my thighs and lower abdomen, waitressing was not the best profession for my condition. But I needed the money for college, and fast and it was the only job that I could get paid enough. So I suffered through it, after six months my boss kindly "let me go".
Note, this was after several late arrivals to my shift due to attacks, stepping off the floor (waitress lingo, stopping the cycle of waitressing) to go to the employee bathroom and suffer through an attack (the worst!), and at one point on a busy Sunday collapsing at the hostess station from the pain of yet another attack.
After that job I got another one in retail, quit/fired after a month, and then got another job as a cashier at a food counter at my school, quit/fired that too, and finally found the job of my dreams as an assistant to the graduation audit advisor at my school.
She is the best boss anyone could ever wish for. She knows all about my IBS and completely understands when I'm late because I wasn't feeling well (mornings can be a little hard for me), and even pays me for days that I miss because I'm having attacks and I need to rest and relax.
So I think of it this way, if I hadn't quit or been kindly "excused" from my previous jobs, I never would have gotten this job. So maybe getting fired might be a way of the cosmos telling you this isn't right for you and you deserve better. Keep your chin up, it's not your fault that you are sick, and if someone is going to be so cruel as to make you feel guilty for being doubled over in pain, well then they are just insensitive, no good, dirty, rotten, terrible, selfish, inconsiderate, meanies!  And you are too good for them!
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