My Nervous Stomach: August 2011

Monday, August 29, 2011

No sleep. Yes IBS.

'); } A bit of a rhyme for starters. While you might be unimpressed, I was rather unimpressed with my whole day. Thus, your unimpressed-ness is not as bad as mine ;).

Woke up at 6. Stomach was talking to me. His words weren't as gentle as my title is. I'm always impressed how my stomach reacts as certain times. Ok, when it's stressful situation (which in my case means obstacles between me, toilet and privacy), I can get it. It's IBS and all that. But what happened this morning? I was a bit stressed out / anxious because of some awkward situations I stumbled on work, but this was still not "normal" (if it's at all appropriate for me to say something like this).

No sleep, yes my adventurous stomach. I'm very sleepy and I still have some hopes and dreams about getting some rest. Fingers crossed!

Friday, August 26, 2011

State your state of mind.

'); } I read somewhere that one can get this boring condition from one acute gastroenteritis attack. I know for sure that I had some similar situations in past, but I'm sure they aren't the cause of my problems. This post is about including a bit of personal information to this blog - something that comes as natural for blogs. (actually, it's so natural that I didn't do it until now)

In the past, I've been such a relaxed guy... For the most part, I've always had people close to me saying that I'm taking things too easy. It's not a joke - I grew up during war time, protected by my parent's love so much, that I didn't even take war as something bad. When someone manages to have a childhood like that and keep a smile on his face, you can call him care free.
How exactly have I gone from the point that sounds of grenades didn't interfere with my childhood to the point where I'm feeling butterflies whenever I go out to town, I'm not really sure. But I'm there - that's one I'm sure about.
I'll share my doubts, though...

In my twenties, I worked as a language assistant for NATO troops in Balkans - a job that was rather popular in these areas, even pretty much wished for. The money was good, the work itself wasn't hard at all and I got to drive around in military vehicles - something that I was used to (just as every other war-time kid was, actually).
Then, something went wrong. During my workdays, I used to stumble on situations where we're out on the road, doing whatever troops do when they aren't making war, and no toilet was available. At first, simply a fact that I was getting aware of, it became a sort-of obsession of mine: where am I going to "go" if I need to? The answer to this was rather simple: I got myself a sort-of-fobia: being left out without a toilet-o-fobia :)

This, obviously, is a rather trivial way of explaining what was happening to me. I'm sure anyone even closely related to psychology would laugh at my explanation. I don't care too much, though. It is my explanation, my blog and my life story. Thus, it is as good as any other explanation.

Totally different story is an answer to question what can I do about all this?

If questions in your head are anything similar, keep coming here and check how exactly am I coping with all this. It might help to relieve your pain, at least.

Stay good, as allways

Monday, August 22, 2011

My big fat Balkans wedding (aka 'how to treat your stomach badly')

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Proper diet is essential for well being of someone having I.B.S. This means that individual having problems with his/hers stomach should avoid fat, carbonated drinks, irregular meals, spicy foods etc.
Having this said, I'd like to (one more time) confirm how much my brain plays an important role in my condition and how little does my actual physical condition have to do with my issues.

My friend was getting married recently and I was invited. Being anxious about all kind of social events, I was rather nervous about the happening, expecting my stomach to give me trouble. The only thing I wasn't sure of was how much trouble will I get. However, there was no way I could have said no. It simply wasn't an option. So I said freck it, I'll go and see how it goes. I even invited my (recently mentioned) very dear person to accompany me. Decided to play it brave, right?

On the wedding, I avoided all the advice one would give to someone with I.B.S. - I had a couple of beers, ate a pound of roast lamb, some pork, cheese, added some coke to the mixture... and I had a LOT of fun!!! No problems whatsoever!

My very dear person brought this to my attention - how badly I acted related to diet I should be taking care of. But hey, it all turned out well.

Having all this said, my stomach is still acting OK recently, to my greatest pleasure. I'm confused, though.
On the side note, I'll start mixing some personal info into this blog, to make it a little more cozy place. In the meanwhile, feel free to like it, share it, comment it or do anything you like with it. Just don't ignore it :).

Stay good!

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Wise men say: Get your fibers together!

'); } It's everywhere - wires are buzzing worse than my phone alarm is at 7am after a hard and long night: fibers are good for your stomach! Even more, they are strongly recommended if you suffer from Irritable Bowel Syndrome. Since I'm doing my best to get my act together related to my condition, I thought it's only fair to check what exactly is said about fibers, fiber rich food and the ways they affect people coping with nervous stomach. Without further ado, here we go.

People having issues with nervous stomach often suffer from either constipation or diarrhea (some of the lucky ones somehow manage to suffer from both). Fibers in our digestive system work as one would expect from fibers - they bind things together. Binding, in turn, helps movement of food through, which then makes things work in a more regular fashion. This, of course, is something I would kill for. I'm sure that most of the people visiting this blog think alike. Apparently, it's a bit more beneficial for people from the first group (constipated ones), but should do well to the second group as well. The lucky third should take fibers just for fun :) (no, just joking... fibers are good for anyone).

According to Wikipedia article about fibers, fiber-rich diet brings following benefits:

May reduce appetite - not sure if you need this one. I do.
Lowers variance in blood sugar levels. As my medical background isn't that good, not sure what this is good for. Sounds good, though.
Reduces risk of heart disease.
May reduce onset risk or symptoms of metabolic syndrome and diabetes.
Facilitates regular defecation.
Alleviates constipation.
May reduce risk of colorectal cancer.

I marked with yellow most interesting benefits. Obviously, this sounds extremely beneficial for group 1, but in my opinion (and I'm dominantly in group 2), it is also good for group 2. Regularity is pretty much needed in my everyday life and I think it would solve all my problems.

Do feel free to add something to this article, as I'm sure it can be more thorough and complete.

Stay good.

Sunday, August 14, 2011

Mission accomplished: road trip. Overall score: 95/100

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I'm properly tired and this is going to be a short summary of how things went. Well, a summary and a short one - you get the idea: I'll write 5 sentences about some unrelated stuff and one sentence about the "road trip" itself.

Good things:

Managed to (once more) verify that I'm having anxiety attacks (mild ones, maybe, but still anxiety attacks) when on road.
Survived the trip, even though I was having my worst nightmare issues: stomach ache in the middle of a bad situation - while waiting on border crossing. (I still think that situations like this one actually brought me to the point where I'm standing right now).
Had a great time with my very dear person mentioned in the last post.
Had a great time with a friend of mine who was travelling with me.
Didn't give up, even though my stomach was giving its best to leave me home.

Bad things:

I had stomach issues.
I panicked.

You tell me. Who's in control, who should be in control, what should I do next?

Stay good... I'm already sleeping.

Friday, August 12, 2011

Simon says: here I am.

'); } Today, my dearest stomach is called Simon. I'm very please to introduce him to my visitors. As usual, this one is about him.

I remember talking to a diagnostician about my problems, describing in detail things that most people wouldn't like reading (and thus not mentioned here, because I'm that kind of a nice person), to almost laugh when I saw his face after notifying him that I gained some 20 pounds during last few years (during which my problem worsened). That was fun, kinda. It wasn't so fun when he told me that I'm having something that's not curable, but also not lethal (just a bit boring, from his perspective at least).

I'm going on a trip tomorrow, looking to see someone very dear to me. My Simon is also happy about the trip and about seeing this person. He's showing his happiness by reminding me how cheerful guy he is. To steer things up a little bit, I had burek for breakfast today, then coffee, then some sprite and another meal around 11am. This other mail was also a definitive brute break of the rules I mentioned in my last post. Obviously, it resulted in an interesting day for me. Just to be on the safe side, I also had a beer later on.
I'm ending the day trying to fix everything by eating plain rice and taking 2 pills with that benign bacteria that is so beneficial for digestion.

Like I was saying: hello people, this is Simon, my dear friend. And yes, I'm an idiot.

Stay good. Check links I posted, the first one is rather informative, explaining one local dish (I live in Balkans, south-east Europe), and another one is my yesterday's post in which I'm explaining why exactly I'm an idiot.

Stay good, in all the ways I'm not.

Thursday, August 11, 2011

Nervous Stomach - rules of thumb (and some of my own)

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I've received an e-mail from a friend who is a doctor yesterday. He likes to tease me about my condition, by default denying to recognize it as a real thing. I can correlate to that - he works in E.R. and in his line of duty he sees some bad things, on a daily basis. Anyways, he sent me a link to an article about diet people with stomach issues should follow. A rather general article, saying what should people do when they have different stomach issues - ranging from inability to go to wc and do the thing to being very able and running there as if chased by Tasmanian devil in heat. Needless to say, I wasn't very impressed.

The issue with all the advice found online and in magazines is that they're so general. As a result, I should probably avoid drinking and eating all kind of things I like. Ok, that's probably true anyways, but still :). It was hard enough to accept the fact that beer is somewhat bad for my stomach. This didn't change too much on the fact that I still love it and go for one or two - or more - with friends from time to time. What it did change is that this happens less often than it did before (even though some people would try to prove me wrong).

It was my best intention to mention few rules of thumb - and some of my own, like suggested in the title. So, here they are.

Avoid:

beer :(
sparkly drinks, in general
too much sugar
coffee
stress
dairy products

Enjoy:

tea (chamomile, for example. Peppermint is great, as well)
food with much cellulose (i.e. cereals, cereals and some more cereals)
vegetables
yogurt
healthy living (this one I love the most)

Obviously, one should avoid stress. Sex is a great stress relief. Practice it safe. And try to avoid doing it on public places (as you might be caught, which might produce stress instead of removing it).

I'll be back on this sometimes.

Stay good!

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

The Beginnings: how exactly did you go there?

'); } It is strange how little time I spend reading about nervous stomach anxiety, considering how much time do I spend worrying. In a way, this disorder was the least that could 'find' me, considering the lack of care for myself. This blog is a way of fighting my usual wrongdoings.

Anxiety is referred to as a normal reaction to stress. It's something we all do. Nervous stomach is closely related to anxiety, and many people have seen it in work - there are bunch of us having stomach problems when in situations directly connected to stress: on exams, before interviews (job interviews), on road etc. The part where normal reaction to stress becomes somewhat un-normal is the part when it gets nasty.
I remember times when I was totally free of these problems. I also remember times when this started to bug me - when I ran home from public places, simply to avoid going to public toilets. It looks almost clear - that first time, when running 1.5 miles to get home. What a mistake I was making!
But ok, if it was that simple, I'd simply ignore the issue and solve all my problems. Alas, it's not.

It seems like I'm not in the best possible mood for writing. I'll come back later.

Monday, August 8, 2011

I've got issues!

'); } Hello all!

Not really sure how to start with this, but I'm sure I'll pick it up somehow and that my visitors will have enough patience to stay with me until I do. Like noted in title, issues is something I have, and something I'd really love to get rid off. I was told that it helps if one goes and share it somewhere, so I'll give it a try. This is a blog about me giving a try. With a little luck, it'll be a blog about me succeeding in my try and also helping someone else.

So, a quick quote from wikipedia article:

Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS, or spastic colon) is a diagnosis of exclusion. It is a functional bowel disorder characterized by chronicabdominal pain, discomfort, bloating, and alteration of bowel habits in the absence of any detectable organic cause.^[1] In some cases, the symptoms are relieved by bowel movements.^[2] Diarrhea or constipation may predominate, or they may alternate (classified as IBS-D, IBS-Cor IBS-A, respectively). IBS may begin after an infection (post-infectious, IBS-PI), a stressful life event, or onset of maturity without any other medical indicators.

Ergo, I've been diagnosed with Irritable bowel syndrome some time ago, but I've been told by several doctors before that this is bothering me when I cried for help.

It's a pain. It's stressful. It's making my life miserable.
It's also going to be thoroughly explained and investigated on this blog. All help is welcome. I'll personalize this story, since it's very much mine (unfortunately). Your stories are welcome, as well. Anyone wanting to post here, please use comments and I'll read it and contact you (leave your e-mail).

Stay good.