Fibromyalgia is a "symptomatic disease" and effects each individual differently. One FM symptom that practically EVERY FM sufferer has is IBS, (Irritable Bowel Syndrome). We all tend to be private in nature about how our bodies work, (or don't work in this case), so nobody really wants to discuss IBS flares openly. It's just personal. Still, the lack of discussion does not prevent the IBS symptoms or "flares" from occuring or from bringing our lives to a screeching halt because of the discomfort they bring. We adhere to strict diets, exercise, take plenty of fiber, drink plenty of water and still IBS attacks! When this happens there is not much we can do except suffer through the flares, lay in bed miserable, and wait them out.
The truth is, you can feel them coming. You adjust your diet. You add more fiber. Eat more raw fruits and veggies. You drink water til your eyeballs are floating...and still they come. I have been suffering an IBS flare for the past three days. I have been bloated, constipated, running a fever and felt so bad that I just wanted to die. I felt it coming on the past few weeks...I was becoming irregular over several weeks, then eventually just stopped going at all. I felt toxic. I felt like I could literally explode at any moment. Saying that "I felt uncomfortable" is a gross understatement! I was miserable! Finally after a week of "not going at all", popping colon detox, fiber, gas relief, stool softeners and vitamin supplements, I relented and took a strong laxative. The result was higher fever, cramping, nausea and a migraine that made me want to go out in the highway and just walk out in front of a transfer truck! No relief came though and I was sicker than I was before I took the laxative. Because I knew I needed to eat something, I drank some warm chicken broth...big mistake. So, I added hungry and unable to eat to my list of things that were making me miserable!
On top of it all, I received a call from my family in NC, saying that my Father had suffered a stroke and was in the hospital! I was too sick to get off the couch, much less hop a plane to NC and actually be of any use to the family who needed me in this moment of crisis! There are no words to describe how this made me feel. There just aren't. I am the oldest daughter and being so, have always been the one they counted on to handle things when there was a crisis in the family. Now, my Daddy was in the hospital and I was so sick I couldn't help in any way at all, was 900 miles away and felt useless. On top of that, I was so sick, I wanted to just die!
***Three days later, Praise God, my daddy is home and is recovering from the stroke the doctors are telling him he was lucky not to have died from. At least there is that great news!***
The best I can do is try to make it through until my next neurologists appointment and hopefully get some helpful advice from him, although to my knowledge I am already doing all that I can to make the best of an IBS Flare situation. If I don't actually go step out in front of that truck I will consider it a success.
Not talking about IBS doesn't make it go away and with FM it is just another symptom that we are bound to suffer, another way that FM steals our lives away from us...making us unreliable to our families and friends and destroying our self worth.
If you suffer IBS due to FM/CFS my prayers are with you and I hope that you always have the strength and support needed when the flares arise. God knows, that seems to be the only way we get through them...as the medical community continues to dance around our disease like it's a case of the flu and deserves no more attention for a cure than a common cold.
For more information about IBS, please visit my website to see resources that may be helpful to you.
Visit The Ultimate Fibromyalgia Resource Center for more information.
For Fibromyalgia Support Visit The Ultimate Fibromyalgia Forum
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