Irritable Bowel Syndrome Message Boards | Re: Can Somebody PLEASE help me? End of rope slipping!

Hi there,

First of all, Welcome to the Website! I really hope that you can find some information here to make you start feeling better - I know how it is to miss work a lot and suffer with the anxiety and emotional side of IBS and it sure doesn't make it easy to get the physical symptoms under control.
I think that everyone else has given you some great tips so far, and I just wanted to add in a few things.
I really agree with Sand about the ice cream and it causing problems with you later on. It's like alcohol for - I can drink it, and be fine all night.. the next day, watch out! I gave it up completely and voila, much better.
If you feel like it is soothing, that could be a psychological thing as well and may be able to be replaced by things like sorbet or soy ice cream that should be less of a strain on your GI tract.
The thing is, when I am stable I can tolerate a little bit of ice cream and not worry about it but when I am sick (like it sounds like you are now) I wouldn't go near it unless I wanted to suffer the next day.
I think for you it might be really helpful to start keeping a food diary. You may find that you notice patterns in reactions to foods 24 hours later or something, and know what to eliminate from there.
I would also make sure you get tested for celiac and see if it a wheat/gluten problem that mimicks IBS symptoms.
I would also definitely start the hypno program, especially if your IBS is so related to stress.

I can totally hear where you are coming from about things you used to like being unappealing and I think we all go through that to a degree when we are trying to figure out what makes us sick - but keep in mind that there are a lot of alternatives these days that can make the transition a little easier. Like, I too *love* cheese but it certainly does not love me. I can, however, make an *awesome* homemade soy cheese pizza with soy mozarella that does the trick just fine for my cravings. Ground beef bother you? Try ground turkey. Try soy ice cream, hagen daaz sorbet, Amy's soy products, etc, etc.. You can still have really good food that will satisfy you without making you sick, it just takes some research and guessing and testing.

Good luck, let us know how you're doing!

Steph

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~~I'm not crazy, I'm just a little unwell-I know right now you can't tell~~Matchbox 20
IBS-D,pain.

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