Growing Up with Two Bowel Disorders: IBS & an Ulcer

Living with any inflammatory bowel disease is difficult and while some are worse than others, living with two is perhaps one of the worst bowel problems a person can have. Ulcers are very painful in themselves. They make eating certain foods painful and can even make eating anything on some days difficult. It feels as though you have swallowed a burning ember of fire and nothing can stop it. Some ulcers are so bad that not even prescription medication can calm the pain. There is also a condition called irritable bowel syndrome. This particular disease is not always as painful as it is annoying and embarrassing. It is as it name suggests, irritable. When the inflicted party is upset, nervous, stressed, or anything in their body is different this disease takes effect. Your bowels begin to churn and ache and if you can't get to a bathroom within a few minutes it only gets worse. This disease creates diarrhea when the person with it gets upset or thrown out of balance.

I am only 21 years old and have suffered from irritable bowl syndrome (IBS) since birth as well as an ulcer since the age of seven. These things do not always affect my life in bad ways, but they are always there lying and waiting. I was born with IBS and I was lucky in that aspect because my father and sister both were affected by IBS, and therefore finding out I had it was not much of a surprise. IBS was an easy diagnosis as it began its course the first time when my mother moved out and the change caused me to begin having symptoms. It was not as persistent as it was with my father, as my problems would come and go when I was young and did not take full affect until my teen years. The doctors said that at my young age medication would be an overstep, so me and my father together decided not to take any medication as the symptoms were more bearable than the side affects of the medication.