First some background...
I was diagnosed with IBS in high school. At the time I was severely affected...my stomach hurt so much I used to spend entire classes standing up, and I would regularly call my mother at lunchtime and ask her to bring Pepto to school. My college years were much the same and my doctors were unhelpful, to say the least.
At some point I purchased Eating for IBS, but was unwilling to so radically alter my diet. Then I had a very unfortunate incident involving a wedding and an emergency stop in the woods on the way home...and I decided I would do whatever it took to avoid another episode. I've been following the diet laid out in Eating for IBS for many years, and it has basically solved about 90% of my problems.
It seems like my biggest trigger food is whole grain. I know the diet says to eat whole grain after the stomach is cushioned with soluble fiber, but I can't even do that. In fact, I've had two incidents where eating whole grain landed me in the hospital. Both times I attempted to eat whole grain for its health benefits, and both times involved whole grain cereal bars (eating one daily for about a week). The first time the problem was severe constipation...almost an intestinal blockage. The second was last year and was full blown ischemic colitis. My intestines were so inflamed the blood supply was cut off. I was hospitalized for three days on a liquid diet and morphine. The pain was the worst I've ever felt, and I only narrowly avoided surgery.
So my question...the doctor insists the whole grain did not lead to the inflammation, but he can't explain what DID. I don't EVER want to experience that again, and it seems to me that if both times I've eaten whole grain ended in a hospital trip, then whole grain just might be the issue. But I also know that inflammation of that magnitude is not part of IBS, and I know I don't have 'standard' colitis. Has any IBS sufferer here experienced something like this?
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