Re: Do you tell people about IBS?
11/26/07 05:49 PM
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All of my immediate coworkers know and I had to tell them because I was constantly leaving work early or calling in sick and often times I'd turn right back around. I remember the day I told my boss upon turning right back around one morning and I just broke down and she couldn't believe it cause I never look sick, I'm always smiling and joking--just being me. I fessed up about it back in June. My coworkers are the best. Sure, they've seen me break down in tears on those rough mornings (me, a girl with tattoos crying, wtf?) Anyway, I couldn't ask for a better group of folks, that and the fact that they've known me since I was 17 (I'm 33 now) and they know that I'm not the slacking kind. Outside of my team of immediate workers, only a few others know. Anyone else I've not told is because some people ask how you're doing not because they care, but because they're just nosey and for those I always have one of my Wendy Special Sarcastic/Wise Ass Comments or I just simply say that I have food sensitivities and call it a day.
However, what my immediate coworkers don't know is that 3/4 of my battle is the anxiety and that is what would bring on the tears on those mornings--not the fact that I couldn't eat certain things, but the fact that I just had a rough subway ride (the train may've been stuck for several minutes in a tunnel and so I internally panick) and by the time I'm sitting at my desk, the tears would flow because I'd start to worry about making it through the day and making it home on the unpredictable subway and eventually, the anxiety would sloooowly dissipate. They do know that I've been fighting Meniere's disease since '96 and that's a huge cause for dizziness and nausea. I tell them that they can just say I'm a dizzy broad! Hey, I've got to find humor in some of this 'cause otherwise I'd be more useless than a pecker on a pope! (Don't mean to offend anyone out there, it's just my humor)
Having said that, don't be embarassed about anything. Usually, and in most cases, when you open up about something, you're opening the door to receive so much help and knowledge from others who may know of someone or may have their own little secret disease/syndrome etc. We're all human and all we can do is listen and comprehend each other.
I hear my tea kettle. Time for some fennel tea!
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Wendy IBS A thru Z 
Taking it one day at a time...
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