My Journey with IBS

About 1 1/2 years ago I quit drinking. About 1 month later I had horrible pain in my chest and had to get my gallbladder removed. Before that I was having pains on the left lower, they said it was a cyst on my ovaries. Pain got worse. Dealt with that for 6 months. After gallbladder removal, I was still having pain left lower, and diarrhea all day, then started vomiting blood.

Getting a colonoscopy

If you have never vomited blood, it looks like coffee grounds. Anyway they finally took it seriously thank god, because I literally felt like I was dying. I guess I should say I'm 36, so I feel like they think you're young and it's just cysts and IBS and heartburn. They put in for an appointment with a gynecologist for cysts to make sure that's where my pain was coming from. He knew right away that it wasn't coming from my ovaries. Nope the pain was in my colon.

Then had to go get a colonoscopy, I could have died from embarrassment lol, told the doc I wanted to bail. Always nice to make a doc laugh since they're usually serious. Anywho after it was done he said good thing you came in when you did because you have one benign polyps and one precancerous, we cut them out so you should be fine but have to get a colonoscopy every 7 years.

Since then it got better, no more vomiting but still diarrhea just not all day long. Then had a doc put me on a gluten free diet. Also during that time I found out I have fibromyalgia. Gluten free helped 60% with diarrhea and 100% for the pain in my back. Then a couple months ago I started doing the keto diet and I'm happy to report I only have diarrhea maybe once a week if that. It's been a life changer.

Being your own advocate

I hope this can help someone to live a life without the horrible bloating, pain, fatigue, and diarrhea. I also hope no one else has to go through so much pain and sickness before doctors take you seriously, regardless of age. We have to be our own advocate, and don't let them keep telling you it's just normal because it might not be.