It was the ground breaking ceremony of what was to be the new high school in the place I grew up. I was only in sixth grade, but they had picked a sixth grader from each elementary school in the town to be part of this ceremony since the children in that grade would be the first class to attend all four years at that new school. After the ceremony we had a fabulous lunch at a local banquet hall. Later that afternoon I would return to school, only to be very stomach sick and have to go home early.
Incidences like this often occurred throughout my childhood. For example, every year upon visiting my aunts on family vacation in Pennsylvania we would visit Hershey's Chocolate World. As a kid I would get the same treat after the tour year after year, vanilla ice cream with mini kisses, chocolate syrup and a cherry. Around the time I was ten, I began getting sick year after year on my favorite once a year dessert.
As I got slightly older, early teens, my stomach troubles grew increasingly worse. I wouldn't eat lunch at school, or I would only eat on a "good stomach day". Going out with friends, I would limit myself to my safe foods, or none at all. These methods grew largely due to not wanting to feel sick when I was out, or later in life ruining dates, or opening nights, or vacations or even New Year's Eve plans one year.
Even in my late twenties, I still have my secret little methods. Be it sneaking different stomach pills before a meal, or not eating at all until dinner on days that I am going to be out and about and potentially not near a bathroom. It's the worst feeling in the world, and at virtually any moment, my tummy troubles will increase.
So many of us out there live with bad stomachs. And if you are like me, going to the stomach doctor, a lot of time just doesn't give you too many answers. They blame your problems mostly on stress, and while that might be the case some of the time, some times this is just the kind of thing we live with day to day. Stress or not. Good times or bad. Sickness and health. It just is. And it sucks.
I've learned to eat the foods I love, regardless, because most of the time whether I eat them or not, the outcome will be the same. Living with IBS, in some ways, has limited certain activities in my life, or I am just more cautious. It is one of the worst things to live with, I feel, because it deals with a topic most of us aren't comfortable talking about and let's be honest, I'm still not. Other than my mom, and boyfriend who deals with it quite well, I don't really want to have this conversation with anyone. Of why I run to the bathroom; or how I could eat something one day and the same exact thing the next and not be okay. But again, we learn to live with it because we have no other choice...and "it's just stress".
So if you are out there, and you, like me, don't leave the house without the Tums, Immodium, Pepcid, Greenies, and every other pill out there, know you aren't alone. And it sucks. And it has altered my life too. Also know, you have strength beyond compare in some sense and hopefully soon, someone will further understand IBS.
Just a girl, finding her happy balance, with Tums on hand, but sometimes needing to stay away from her favorite thing in the world...food. A self-proclaimed foodie, with stomach issues, does not a good match make.
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