Shiny things, whiny things

[j4]

Things I like:

• Phoning the bank and talking to clueful people, and actually getting stuff sorted out. Makes a nice change.


• Coca-Cola. Yeah it's evil stuff but for some reason it seems to settle my upset stomach.


• Email conversations with nice people with whom I was worrying that I was losing touch.


• Slightly cooler weather.


• My new shiny purple violin bow.


• eBay.


• Backwards 3-beat weave. Turning round to turn this into a forwards one. And vice versa.

Things I don't like:

• Expensive car parts.


• Unfixable old violin bows.


• Aching hand from playing violin for the first time in about 6 years.


• Persistently upset stomach, am just fed up with feeling ill all the time.


• Sleep deprivation. Could have really done with getting to bed before 2am.


• Job applications. Didn't get it finished.


• Checking my phone every 10 minutes only to find that I still haven't got a reply to my last two SMSs.


• Looking forward to something for days only to find (when I'm down to counting hours) that it's probably not going to happen & I'm going to have to wait another day.

Comments

[j4.livejournal.com]

A couple of people have said it sounds like IBS. Is IBS triggered by specific things, or does it just come on randomly? I wondered if the stomach pains were food-related but all the things I'd eaten during the day before the symptoms came on were things I often eat, and often in far greater quantities, without any trouble.

Is there any way they can test for IBS? I've been to doctors a few times with this kind of stomach pain and have been told "it's a stomach bug, it will get better on its own, go away and stop worrying". (Oh, last time they also checked that I wasn't pregnant, before telling me to go away and stop worrying.)

I just get so fed up of feeling icky and stomach-achey. It's not enough pain to really stop me going into work (not that I'll ever dare take any sick-leave again anyway now) but it just makes me feel irritable and stressed and mopey and tired.

[juliet]

I've got IBS. For me it was pretty much random, although in retrospect I'm fairly sure that stress made it a *lot* worse (it was worst during my 2nd year at Pembroke, when I was depressed & there was course-switching trauma & the Nasty Operation & allsorts). When it got to the stage of my guts rebelling entirely in the middle of Sainsburys; and spending at least some of every given day curled up in an agonised ball around the hurty bits; I finally went to the doctor. I don't remember them testing. I think she just asked stuff, said "sounds like IBS", & prescribed me 3 months' worth of Colofac tablets. I think the theory was partly that if they worked, it was probably IBS. After 3 months I tried coming off them again, & it had settled down (apparently this is not uncommon), though since then I've had a couple of flareups during which I've gone back on the tablets. It's still a bit dodge occasionally, but rare enough not to need the drugs on a regular basis.

Aloe Vera tablets are also supposed to help, so you could try those if you can't face the doctor's.

Sympathy lots, though. It does sound rather like IBS to me, as well. And IBS is a very *variable* sort of thing (as in, different people have it to different levels & with different specific symptoms).

[j4.livejournal.com]

Aloe Vera tablets are also supposed to help, so you could try those if you can't face the doctor's.

I might well try that -- thanks for the suggestion. I will probably end up going to the doctor eventually but I can't face it so soon after going for something else; I find if I go to the doctor for more than 2 different things within a short space of time I get less and less useful answers because they end up just basically saying "You're a neurotic bint, go away". Or "We think this is all stress-related, get less stressed."

Thank you for sympathy too. Much appreciated.