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I sit here at 1:00 a.m. writing about a very common problem many of us face. It can alter your lifestyle and make you feel hopeless. Many people think it is not such a big deal. Those people do not live with the daily problems I face. This problem called IBS is what has me up at this hour. I spend many nights poking down medicines and tossing and turning trying to get rid of the feeling I have inside me that makes me feel like I want to scream and cry. The most frustrating symptom I find for me is the bloating and gas. This makes me feel as though I have a 30 pound "bubble" living inside me that somehow has a life of its own. I spend many days miserable with some type of gas and/or pain inside me.

My friends see that I am sick and sometimes they want to scold me for it being my stomach "again" and begin asking me why I have not been to the doctor. The thing that people do not understand is that no matter how many times I go see my doctor for this same problem the diagnosis is always the same. I have gone through several colonoscopies already at the age of 34 and it always comes down to my having IBS, or irritable bowel syndrome.

In the last six months I have watched my symptoms go from bad to worse and change from what I have been used to for years. I have always suffered from more of the diarrhea type where I need to find a bathroom very quickly. This may last a small amount of time or it could be long-lasting. Over the last few months I have had a lot more of the other type with more frequent constipation. It is now starting to alternate between the two so I never know what is going to happen on any given day with my digestive system. I have been told before about how it must be awful to feel bad every day. Well, that is true for the most part. I have good days and bad days, but overall I have some type of symptom of my IBS almost every single day. I do have other chronic illnesses that contribute to this of course, but the IBS alone is quite enough.

This problem that I have not only affects me, but it also affects my 8-year-old son. I am raising him as a single mom and since I have no control over my symptoms this can be a problem. Last year he missed most his school carnival because mom was sick. You see, in this instance, I picked him up at soccer practice and got two blocks from the soccer field and I had to immediately find a restroom. I struggled after this to get to our home where I spent a long amount of time trying to quickly get over this bout I was having before the carnival was completely over. We missed most of the carnival and I felt terribly bad for him. It is bad enough that I suffer from this, but for him to suffer as well breaks my heart.

I hope anyone who reads this and did not know much about it before this remembers some of my story and the stories of others when they hear about someone with this medical issue. Realize that IBS can be a serious medical condition to those of us who suffer and to those in our lives because it affects the way we live our daily lives.

Learn more about this author, Michelle Hughes.
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