Call Me Crazy
Call Me Crazy
I was about one year into my treatment for IBS, trying different medication and diet changes. During a bad flare-up, I saw my doctor at Digestive Healthcare regularly. On this day, I was a crying, hot mess, and he was not thrilled I was in his office yet again.
He said, “Samantha, you need to manage your condition. I know it’s a pain in the ASS.”
Funny guy, right?
“It’s like you get to the top of the stairs, and when your symptoms flair up, you fall all the way down to the bottom.” (Little did he know I had roughly ten more flights before I hit the actual bottom.)
THE TOOLBOX
He told me I needed to use my medications as tools to control my symptoms. The medicines would help manage these issues before they went out of control. Great, I had a plan. I had a new medication to try, and I was going to learn to manage it. Sound like a fairy tale ending? It was just the opposite. Ironically, I had a terrible reaction to the medication. By that night, I felt like all the wrath of hell was unleashed on my body.
THE AH-HA MOMENT
Fast forward another year, and I was at a follow-up appointment with the same doctor. We were laughing and chatting about how much progress I had made in such a short time.
After the unleashing of hell incident, he stopped treating my “condition” and started treating the root cause of my issues, psychological and hormonal. He explained that IBS is a term used when different systems of the body trigger digestive issues. Psychological problems, emotional stress, and hormones all play a role. He explained that most patients don’t respond well to hearing their symptoms originate from their mental health, therefore, the IBS diagnosis.
We discussed that it was unfortunate since Irritable Bowel Syndrome patients could save much time and money by having this knowledge and accepting the condition’s root cause rather than giving it a name.
