sunflowereyes23@hotmail.com

I wanted to mention for the sake of accuracy that it was not actually
Blue Shield that declined. It was Blue Cross.

According to my broker who spoke with Blue Shield today, IBS is not
something they would decline for as long as I was taking no
prescriptions for the problem.

I am currently taking lactulose, which is prescription in the US, but
available over the counter in Canada. This is a prescription laxative.
My IBS is stress related constipation that turns to painful spasmodic
diarrhea after a period of time. It's like my lower intestine doesn't
accept the right messages. The doctor has offered me hycosamine (an
antispasmodic) for the pain, which is excruciating. Hycosamine has
side effects, however, and as the mother of two small children it's
hard to deal with both the side effects and be an effective present
parent. The side effects are drowsiness and dizziness. It's been
easier to simply stay on top of the constipation so the diarrhea
doesn't happen and to try to control stress as well as possible.

Psyllium is effective if I use it on a daily basis. Lots of fruits and
vegetables in my diet. Less wheat, more rice, barley and cornmeal
products. One cup of coffee a day. Chocolate has been proven to be a
major trigger. Sadly.

louise

In article
<70b87561.0402182034.3fe4063e@posting.google.com>,
sunflowereyes23@hotmail.com says...


I have the same thing with needing Lactulose to stay
"regular" and otherwise I alternate chronically between
constipation and then completely debilitating diahrrea.

What State are you in? My daughter is in CA and she was
turned down because of a whiplash injury. She was able to
get on a list from which each insurance company must take a
certain number of people per year. I believe it was 6 or 8
months before she was eligible, but she then was fully
insured - no health restrictions applied.

It's kind of like what we call "assigned risk" auto
insurance in New York State.

Louise

jenn

Hi,
I wanted to ask you a question, where is the excruiciating pain? Reason I
ask is when I went to visit my parents last month I exprienced a horrible
back pain, the most pain I've been in, in my life. I was given Levbid
(hycosamine) and it immediately stopped the problem. It's just strange that
the pain was in my lower back...

Jenn

sunflowereyes23@hotmail.com

The hycosamine stops all your spasms, so if you had a muscle spasm in
your lower back it would stop that. Was it from IBS? It could have
been from your body's reaction to the stress caused by the attack.

My pain is in the left lower abdomen. The doctors have told me that
the only major organ in that area is the descending colon. The pain is
the irregular spasms, perhaps the muscles around the colon. Supposedly
you don't have the type of nerves inside the colon that would cause
that pain. When I have menstrual cramps it seems to exacerbate that
area too. Who knows, maybe it's a growth in there that they haven't
found yet. They choose to name it IBS.

rep

It's pretty common to have even severe left-sided pain with IBS; the
descending colon has enough turns that gas can 'trapped' there and hurt
like hell. Even people without IBS can suffer terribly from gas - just
look at the ads on TV!

Another possibility is referred pain from an ovarian cyst. Many cysts
are painless, but for some lucky women, they hurt a lot. That pain in
general is closer to the navel than the hip, but childbirth can 'lower'
the uterus and ovaries (at least according to my gyn; she said that
because I've never had children, my uterus is "way up the ying yang.")

--
"Did Father shoot him? I will eat Grandfather for dinner."
- Helen Keller, on learning of the death of her grandfather

louise

In article <wScZb.4649$J84.364@fe1.texas.rr.com>,
jennthediva-nospam@yahoo.com says...

Have you ever tried Librax? It's older than Levsin, Levbid
etc., but I find no side effects with it whereas I
definitely have the side effects you describe from Levsin.

Louise

jenn

Hi,
I was told that my colon was spasming, I never had so much pain in my life.
My Mom has IBS, and I've had diarrhea and constipation problems since I was
a ****ager. It reacts mainly to bad food, and sometimes I have gas instead
of diarrhea. Yeah I notice when I'm on my period, I have diarrhea very
easily.

Jenn

jenn

Hi Louise,
No I've never tried that medication. I've just now been dignosed with IBS
before I had a colonoscopy. What bothered my gastro is the switching from
diarrhea and constipation, and my episode with blood in my diarrhea. My Mom
has IBS, so I'm not surprised.

Jenn

sunflowereyes23@hotmail.com

Thanks Louise,

I'll ask the GI about Librax. Still figuring out the insurance thing
unfortunately.
Thanks so much for the input on the ibs. Jenn, I have had the bloody
diarhhea once too...it was actually just from ruptured capillaries
because I was having so much stress on the region. I honestly think
the best way of dealing with the ibs is to lower stress levels and
really pay attention to what your body is telling you. My mom has it
too and doesn't take very good care of herself...it's just gotten
worse as she's aged. Watching my triggers has been key as well. I used
to be a baker and developed an allergy to flour. The ibs really kicked
in hard at that point. I went on a wheat free diet for a year and
changed careers. The wheat free diet made a huge difference. I eat
wheat now, but bread really constipates me, so I don't eat it very
much.

Jenny