Irritable Bowel Syndrome Message Boards | Re: PLZ, PLZ, PLZ....can anyone help me?

You poor thing.

First of all, we're many people here who can relate. My first question - since you described your stool as being oily, have you been checked for bilesaltmalabsorption? This can lead to problems with "fatty" loose stools and D. However it can be treated efficiently.

Blood is not typical for IBS though if you go a lot you can get small amounts of blood from the skin around the anus and/or the rectum because it gets irritated.

Since this has (quite understandably) given you phobia-like problems I suggest you take a look at the hypnotherapy info on this webpage. You can buy CD:s with self hypnosis. This has helped a lot of people here and it's particularly useful if your IBS is triggered by stress/anxiety/worrying/anticipation of an attack. I am currently working my way through a book by Barbara Bradley Bolen called Breaking the Bonds of Irritable Bowel Syndrome which is about cognitive behavior therapy for IBS. I can really recommend this book.

Diet wise you can look through the info on this page and see what you think. It differs in some ways from the diet you've been following that you described in your post, but look it through and see what you think.

Have you tried taking Imodium? A lot of people use this as a preventative. I take a generic daily. It's my life saver. I have sphincter control problems too you see because of a paralysis condition I had as a child so that complicates things for me.

Since this is affecting you a lot mentally too you might consider talking to your doctor about getting some sort of medicine to help with the anxiety and anxiety is a huge IBS trigger. There are many people on these boards who have experience of this type of treatment.

About your worrying about passing this on to your daughter. It's not known exactly what causes IBS. What you can do is to encourage your daughter as she grows up to have a healthy diet (and here you are a great role model of course) and to not smoke or drink et.c., to exercise and also to try to avoid stress as much as possible. Also encourage regular meals. Not only should this help decrease the risk of your daughter developing digestive problems but it will also help her overall health.

Read up on the info on this site and feel free to ask anything. We'll do our best to help you out.

/Ulrika, IBS-D

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