Glad you found us. I have been posting here for a little over a year and before that I posted on the I village IBS boards when Heather was just getting her first book together. That's where I first heard of her and the IBS book(s).
For me.....as far back as I can remember I have always had IBS symptoms....but officially diagnosed about 6 years ago. When I was a child I always had frequent, urgent trips to the bathroom when in school and my pediatrician called it a "nervous stomach". Just lived with it and was raised on down-home country cooking....greasy, fried, fattening foods (yet delicious) that at the time I didn't know were triggers for my condition. Once I moved away from home, I was able to customize my diet to my needs instead of having to eat how everyone else in the family ate. Don't get me wrong...my mom was and is a great cook....just nobody understood my condition back then. I'm 36 now. About the only things I do for my IBS-D is watch my diet as close as possible, get plenty of rest, try not to get too stressed (easier said than done), visit with my friends here, exercise (walking whenever possible), and keep Imodium close at hand where ever I go. It's the IBS'ers American Express...."don't leave home without it".