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I am 75 living in St. Catharines, ON, about a 20-minute drive from Niagara Falls. I am interested in reading peoples' stories with understanding and acceptance.

[TEACH21]

I'm 83 and live in long-term care. Obviously I have little or no control over the food I eat! Meals are generally pretty bad! Institutional! So recently, after several horrendous bouts of ibs-d, which I've had all my life, I decided I'd had enough. Signed up for a course of gut-related hypnotherapy, bought myself kefir and "safe" fruit , took 1/2 tablet of imodium any time I ate out with friends, and started a regime of pre- and probiotics in an enzyme tablet. This seems to be working pretty well. I've had one bad bout in this time, but no atrocious accidents so far. Fingers, along with everything else, crossed!

[Maureen1958]

I'm 63, had IBS for about 35 years now. Started one day when I didn't make it to the toilet. It could have been food posioning. I ate in the works canteen the day before I woke up with diarrhoea and didn't make it to the toilet in time. Our bedroom was at the front of the house and the bathroom was downstairs at the back of the house! People did say that they had upset tummies because the food was put out and then put in the fridge and put out again the next day! But at the same time, my then husband, was having an affair with the woman across the road. So it could have been to do with that or a mixture of the two or it could have been just something waiting to happen. Before this I had never had diarrhoea in my life and had a cast iron stomach and could eat for England and not put on any weight. So to this day, 35 years later, I can't really say except that it has got worse over the years. For the first 7 years it was generally every other day but since I had my son who is nearly 28, it has been daily. I did have an emergency cesarean, so again it could have been made worse by that. Who knows!

[IBSNetwork Partner IBS Network]

Take a look at our website , which has correct medical advice and also our members stories theibsnetwork.org/our-members/