Reged: 06/01/04
Posts: 7013
Loc: Maine (IBS-A stable since July '05!)
My boyfriend has been an absolute gem through this. Now, I've had IBS since I was 12, so I've had it through my entire dating life, and I've definitely had some men in my life who were less than sympathetic, although none of them were really straight-up awful about it. My current bf, however, was with me when I got an actual official diagnosis.
Adam (the bf) had the dubious "pleasure" of seeing me through the absolute WORST spell of IBS I've ever had. I spent months unable to eat anything, wasting away to nothing, and having horrible panic attacks that actually had me convulsing. Through it all, he was nothing short of amazing. He made the first initial phone calls that got me some medical care. (We're very poor; no insurance.) He drove me to appointments. He took care of me, doing everything from fetching me peppermint tea when I was having a bad attack, to setting me up with an old laptop and a stack of trashy magazines when I was too weak to even get out of bed for weeks. Even better yet, he never blamed me, never got mad when I couldn't do things - if he ever felt like that, he kept it to himself, and for that I'm eternally grateful.
IBS has definitely NOT put a strain on our relationship. We're in it for the long haul, and nobody's life is a perfectly straight, smooth road... this was just another pothole that we had to deal with. Thank god he's mature enough to know that too.
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Warning: massive mush ahead
