h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Well written Ginger. Good article.

Thanks Peta. Hopefully a few people will read it and have the sense to see their doctor instead of sticking their heads in the sand!

Great article, Ginger!

You and Peta ought to have your own section. Or better yet: a special medical edition of the Guide. There is so much to be said on the topic.

Cheers John! Funny but I thought that as well! There probably should be some kind of categorisation for certain types of article. Maybe you should suggest it to Jim Lynn and win a book!

Have you got yours yet?

Yeah and it's huge! I'm keeping it in the envelope as I am planning on moving house and don't want it to get damaged!

Autographed too, is it not? That's something to treasure.

I have an autographed copy of Last chance to see as well, and some Ian Rankin books! I didn't intend to start a collection, it's just sort of happened!

They are fun to have. I've got a few autographed gardening books. I was lucky enough to meet (if one can really claim that) Beth Chatto and Christopher Lloyd... and Clive Barker (not a garden book).

Anyway, I'm being called to the table. 'Night!

Ginger, that is a great article.

I was diagnosed with having IBS about 2 1/2 months ago. I had major pains and always felt bloated. I had other symptoms as you mentioned. The fact that I have also been diagnosed with stress and anxiety (see my journal), I was stressing about what I might have, and didn't go to the doctor for a long time (read 'being a typical male I didn't go to the doctor').

Now I am sorting out my life, the pain has fairly well disappered, but they do come back every so often.

I agree with you that people shouldn't stick their head in the sand, and actually go see their doctor about how they are feeling.

Anyway, to those who do read Ginger's article, I hope it does give you some understanding of what a person with IBS goes through, and maybe give you the shove you need to see your doctor if you have any of those symptoms.

Don't panic - I didn't see the doctor for 2 1/2 years, not even when I threw up acid every morning for 3 months. In the end I went because I had diorrhea every day for 2 months. People don't realise that IBS creeps up on you - you don't wake up one day suddenly suffering from the symptoms! Hope you stay better like me!

Well for me, the first major signs I had appeared last year. A few times I got really bloated. Because the symptoms went a way, I didn't worry about it. Hoever when I was goign through a very stressful period, the sympotms got really bad, so that's when I went to see the doctor.

I don't worry about it these days, and I try to lead a stress free life (or if something happens, I can deal with things now), but if the sympotms appear I have a drug that I take.

My flatmate also has IBS, so I have someone else to talk to about it. She gets really bad pains, and hers is more diet related, but I find that sometimes when I eat a lot of a certain thing (like cheese) I start to feel bloated.

I think the best thing is, I know what I have, and I know how to control it as much I can possibly can. Makes living, and socialising a lot easier.

Catch you later.

i read your article and thought it was very well written. i myself suffer from what my dr. refers to as crones syndrom which sounds a lot like what you are talking about. i also refused to eat when younger and feel that this is why i now suffer from this. it causes your intestines to reject food as a poison and tries to force it out which in the process activates the symptoms you have mentioned in your article plus one more that i must admit scared the jeebiess out of me, it causes bleeding, severe bleeding in some cases. not to be grose or anything but imagine sitting down to go to the bathroom then getting up to discover that the water in the commode is deep dark red. kinda tends to worry a person a bit. i have found that trying to locate any information on bowel disorders is next to impossible leaving me to rely mainly on what my dr. tells me. as far as medication helping, it is a hit and misss thing, does not always work so i have also learned to watch what i eat, remove lactose and grease and other items from my diet. i have found that lactose foods and grease tend to irritate it worse than anything else so i try to avoid these as much as possible.
sorry for the long message

I think all messages on here tend to be long but I am glad about that. I have a friend who has Crohn's disease and has had to have many operations. She is about 30 and is a single mum and has come to accept that in her case she probably isn't going to live very long. That isn't meant to depress you, This person is one of the most upbeat I know of but there is so little known about these disorders that in the past Doctor's have tried all sorts as cures. The operations (I don't know details) have probably shortened her life. I must consider myself lucky that my teenage habits only gave me IBS. I fond myself often having words with my teenage sister about her eating habits because I don't want her to end up overweight and ill like me!

Hope you stay in good health Monshari!

i myself have a teenage daughter and she is slightly overweight wanting to loose the weight. i work very hard with her and watch her very closely to make sure that any of her diets are healthy ones. i would not wish this on anyone else and could not bear to know that my daughter would have to go through it as well. my method of laxatives and two fingers down the throat for weight loss is not going to be my daughters for fear of the same problem. aside from the disease factor i find that i also have difficulty now maintaning my weight as when i do eat like everyone else my body loves to store it because i went for such a long period of my life not eating. i wish your friend the best of luck with hers and hope that one day they will be able find a safe cure for these diseases. thanks once again for your article because as i said before, there is not enough info out there and many people are not even aware of these diseases.

JUST A WORD OF WARNING, DON'T READ THIS IF YOU JUST EATEN.

I had the most awful morning today, and it was due to IBS. I felt pains last night and I didn't do anything about them. However this morning I had a runs. Didn't help wearing boxer shorts when it happened.

I was lucky I was at home, but I was just about to go to work, and I just didn't feel 'clean'. Later on the train I got off a few stops before my interchange station as I just felt I needed to go to the toilet, and I didn't want another little episode.

So I am going to the doctor tonight. I don't know what she can do for me, but I know this time wasn't stress related, so I may have to look at my diet.

The only thing that sparked me up was emails from 2 of my friends, who have helped me out with emotional problems. It doesn't make up for the bad morning, but certainly goes a long way.

So my advice, those who have read Ginger's article, and have done nothing about how you're feeling. PLEASE!!! got to a doctor to get a check up. It could really save you from a very embarassing public situation that I just advoided, by a minute (I was on my way out to the door when this happened).

The diet thing really does have an effect. It doesn't stop it completely but there was a very noticeable improvement. I too have had episodes like this in the past - there was one where I was on my way to work and got as far as the roundabout 1/4 mile away and I had to double back and go home and only just got there in time. I decided not to go to work that day because I didn't dare risk a 16 mile journey!. Maybe I can send the diet sheet the hospital gave me with the chocolate oranges!

ginger,
you are correct about the diet, it does make a difference, does not completely stop it but it does help. i have also found that if you happen to go for a day or so without food that no matter what it is that you eat when you do eat again it causes the episodes as well. i find that at times i get very busy and forget to eat, when i do get around to eating i kick myself for putting it off because i find i now have an entire day of dealing with this and being in pain.

The biggest change I made was to eat regularly, especially at weekends. I used to only eat once a day on saturdays and sundays but now I have 3 meals! The surprising thing was that I lost a stone despite eating more!

it is hard to get used to the fact that you can loose weight despite eating more but what happens is the less you eat the harder your body works to hold onto it. if you are eating more then it will allow more of it to go away instead of holding onto it and it being turned to fat.