How do you deal with the unpredictability of living with IBS?
Living with IBS means you live with uncomfortable and painful gastrointestinal symptoms. Another thing most people contend with is the "UNpredictability" of IBS.
Do you have any tips for living with the predictable unpredictability of IBS?
It is horrible living with IBS D. Dr. Said recently I have Celiac and need to take benefiber in am and miralax at night. Said I am constipated that is why the explosive diarrhea. Does not make sense. No Dr. tries to deal with the IBS, I don’t think they know what hat to do. The gluten free Celiac diet not helping at all yet! Not coping well!
Oh no, I'm so sorry it isn't helping! How long have you been doing it for?
What tests did they do that showed that you were constipated? If the medication and diet aren't helping, I'd maybe go back and ask for a different treatment...
Nothing doctors every prescribed helped me personally, so I feel you. 🙁 Gluten-free does work for me though, but I don't have Celiac, just a sensitivity to gluten.
Big hugs, Karina (team member)
Yes, the unpredictability gets me too. My IBS can be fine at times, and my gut can feel 99% normal! That can go on for days, or even sometimes a few weeks. Then all of a sudden it comes back again. All for no reason I can understand.
I never make the mistake of changing my diet or eating something which could be dodgy for me. I've learned what suits and what doesn't in the past 4+ years, and I stay away from anything I have found repeatedly to be upsetting for my tummy.
So that makes the cause of IBS coming and going baffling. I am not convinced mine is stress related either. It can be sometimes, but sometimes IBS will return when I have nothing stressful happening. I thought it was weather at one point, then that theory didn't really work out either. Mine isn't hormones, as I'm over 70, & 20 years past menopause. Neither is it apparently sleep quality related.
But how do I manage its unpredictability? I am fortunate that even at its worst I don't think my IBS is as bad as some people get. So I don't get the dreaded loo-dash (well, I got that only once), or incontinence, or really very much pain. And I am able to eat a pretty healthy diet with some restrictions, but it's healthy.
I guess I just accept and soldier on and endure when a bad time hits. I take a herbal tincture which can help a bit (Tormentil) and radically adjust my diet to really very binding-type foods for a few days till things get steadier. But fortunately most of my life is quiet, I am alone in beautiful countryside, am retired, and I am not expected to go out to restaurants, on road trips, etc. I have lovely friends, but no "social pressure".
So I can nurse myself quietly at home if I get a flare or a bad time.
When it goes away, I have no idea why, but keep the same steady diet that usually suits me so don't start eating chillies and onions etc!! I never fall into the trap of thinking I 'm better now, and it's gone so can eat what I like. I learned my lesson that it always will come back (for me anyway.)
That's more or less how I manage. But sometimes I have felt very down indeed with IBS.
