IBS and jobs

[IBSbearer]

My IBS is a little Demon sometimes and just flares up badly of no accord - looking into it with the doctors as I have severe dizziness and limb issues - but how do you guys balance work with IBS?

When my flare ups get bad - they get bad - so I'm stuck in a cycle of 'I can't leave work or they'll fire me but my flare up is so bad, I can't work I'll be stuck in the toilet' I don't have any risk foods, my diet had been low FODMAP since I was diagnosed and I've tried buscopan and even different diets and it doesn't lessen the pain in the slightest.

How do you guys do it?

[Linley]

No magic wand but trial and error, had IBS 30 years got worse as I have got older. Had a desk job and a very understanding manager so I used to say to her tum probs and she knew I would be in the toilet for a while. Find Mebeverine time release caps quite affective for pain. But suggest you concentrate on the reason for your dizziness and limb probs get that sorted as the anxiety of not knowing can affect your IBS. Good luck🍀

[xjrs]

Being low FODMAP since you were diagnosed might be part of the problem. I was low FODMAP for years. It helped greatly in the beginning, but in the end my situation became worse. The reason why low FODMAP works, at least initially, is that you are feeding your microbiome less. This means if you have a dominance of bad bugs, you are feeding them less thus reducing symptoms. However, it also means that you are feeding the good bugs less and these are needed to keep the bad bugs under control. The microbiome might end up in a worse state. The best things for IBS is a highly varied diet with lots of fibres, feeding the microbiome, increasing bacterial diversity, which helps to keep bad bugs under control. However, symptoms can prevent eating a wide range of foods, but IBS can end up becoming more entrenched.

The best way to shift the balance is using a probiotic such as Alflorex on a 3 month trial which has been scientifically studied for IBS. This can help kick bad bugs into touch, reducing symptoms. When symptoms are reduced, you become more tolerant to a wider range of foods. By eating a wider range of foods you help IBS in the long run. The best diet for the microbiome and IBS is the Mediterranean Diet (cereal fibres, nuts, seeds, pulses, fruits, vegetables, small amounts of lean protein, oily fish and olive oil).

Note that on rare occasions a person's symptoms might become consistently worse when trying probiotics for 3 months. A person may have one of the rare instances of SIBO (small intestine bacterial overgrowth), which would need to be discussed with a GP/gastro (and not anyone else). However you can only have SIBO if you have one of the risk factors for it.

If all IBS measures (including probiotics) fail, you could ask for a test for BAM (bile acid malabsorption).

[bburzycki]

Work is always a challenge - I have been dealing with it for many many years and have basically come to the conclusion it is what it is because when I stress over it, the snowball just gets worse. Where I live we have many protections from "discrimination" in the workplace when it comes to medical issues. I would always suggest the conversation with the businesses mgmt. In some cases this level of honestly can help, in other as many do not understand chronic issues it can at least inform them. If you are a good worker, they will not want to lose you, if you are not then I would become one and then have the conversation explaining the issues.

Getting fired for a medical condition here is very rare if it happens at all and then if it did the law suits would pile up. This might be different for you.

The last part is simply mgmt of the condition and making sure you are doing everything you can to control symptoms under direction of a Dr.

But as a manager of a company now, I would much rather have an employee be honest with me about an issue I can work with and around than one that does not and I get to start assuming why their performance degrades etc. I would probably pick up on medical issues but many managers do not.

[JWUK]

have you tried MicroBZ and Myota?