Hi Beth
I knew I had IBS for about 1 year before I went to see a doctor about it - well I was fairly sure anyway. I was on this diet and doing all the internet recommendations etc. for IBS, certain that I had it. I finally went to the doctor on the urgings of my family (I am a fairly anti-doctor/hospital person myself - though I must admit that I was a little worried about what *else* it might be). Basically went something like this...
- hi I think I have IBS, these are my symptoms, this is what helps etc.
- yeah you probably do have IBS... have you tried this and this and this?
- yes
- ok go have these tests, most of which are terribly awful
---after tests (upper and lower GI [lower GI=barium enema], and blood tests)---
- well you have nothing else so here is an official IBS diagnosis. as you know, there is no cure. have a happy life.
LOL!  Ok well it was a bit more involved with that but you get the picture! Basically nothing changed from before and after seeing the doctor (except my loathing of hospitals increased tenfold after the lower GI/prep...ugh). My doctor really is very nice and I'm surely slandering him (lol) and he tried to be very helpful but he didn't really tell me anything I didn't already know. I live in a different city now but when I went to my new doctor asking for an antispasmodic it was basically the same thing. Well, that's me and doctors for you I guess...
Even still though, I must admit that there is some peace of mind from getting the diagnosis - I mean, I'm not really stable or anything but at least I know there isn't something else terribly wrong with me like cancer or something. (That's the bright side!  )
So yeah, I've accepted it's IBS and have stopped looking for other causes. I worry sometimes that having gone to the doctor basically telling him what I have maybe ruled out the possibility of looking for other things, and I haven't had ALL the tests Heather recommends (like stool tests or test for endo etc.) and I go through kicks of thinking (hoping maybe) it's something else (maybe I have gastrointestinal candida! I should stop eating wheat and sugar... that was the most recent one!) but I try to stop those things from getting the best of me. I totally understand what you're going through though - IBS is a crappy diagnosis (heh, sorry, no pun intended!): if you had something worse, they could probably cure it right? yeah I know... but at some point, you just have to start accepting it I think, stop letting it control your life and start controlling IT, by managing it (or learning to) as best you can on a day to day basis to basically make your life BETTER - or as best as it can be with IBS.
Sigh... hope this helps some! Hang in there! *hugs*
Cheers, Laurel.
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Re: Getting the IBS diagnosis
