The Poo Issue

I’ve already warned you on this blog that I talk about pooh. I don’t talk about it because I want to make you feel sick or disgust you but because I think that digestive health is too serious a problem to ignore. I know it has a significant and unhappy effect on my life and I’m hoping that by reading this you’ll perhaps see what it’s like for someone living with my condition or see some of your own struggle in it.

At the moment I’m having really bad IBS symptoms. When its this bad I feel uncomfortable from my stomach right the way down to my bottom. Right now my stomach feels acidic and sore. My intestines are gurgling away. I feel as though my intestines are a series of tunnels under construction. I can feel hundreds of workers in there moving their big heavy scaffolding and walking across the floor with their steel toed boots. All this makes me feel like I need to go, but I can’t. This is because I’ve already experienced diahorea three times today. I have nothing to go on, but my intestines are acting like I’ve eaten a life time supply of laxatives.

It’s been like this for the last two or three days. Before that it was long days of feeling dull and constipation. This is the joy of IBS.

While this is all very uncomfortable and distressing it would be bearable if it weren’t for the other effects it has on my life. All this stomach action leaves me feeling exhausted. For the last few nights I’ve gone to bed at around 9pm, but irritatingly I can’t sleep. I’m too uncomfortable. So I toss and turn for an hour or two and eventually drop off. I wake up the next day exhausted and consider calling into work sick. But I need the money so I can’t. So I go to work. I have enough energy to get through the day but after that I’m pretty much done. The short walk from the bus stop to my house seems insurmountable and I call my other half to come and collect me.

I have things I need to do when I get home. I get by doing the bare minimum. The cleaning, ironing and social activities I would like to do go out of the window. I don’t literally throw my ironing out of the window you understand, while tempting it would be counter productive, and it was just a metaphor. I have things to do for the morning but I’m too tired to stand up. I convince myself that I will feel better in the morning and that I’ll catch up then. I lie in bed with my laptop reading and writing this blog entry. This is the only way in which I’m marginally comfortable.

All of this makes me feel so frustrated. Frustrated that I can’t seem to find a path to eat and live the way that is going to make me feel better. Frustrated that I only have the energy to get by and not enough energy to have fun. Frustrated that there isn’t a magic wand I can use to make this all go away.

I've also decided to be optimistic about this and I'm determined to do everything that I can to change the situation. So this is why I want to write this blog and why I want to talk about poo. I'm going to use this blog to find my way to a better lifestyle and hopefully make a few friends along the way.