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I have not written articles recently, except for those that decry the claims made by Dannon Activia.
I do pay attention to anyone who writes a comment for this blog, and answer as soon as possible.
In about a month, I hope to start reviewing IBS books and new blogs. If you have found an interesting and helpful book, please let me know about it, or write a review for this blog. If we publish it, you would get publication credit in lieu of payment.
In the meantime, please feel free to look around and to comment on those posts you find interesting. There is a lot of basic information here.
June 3rd, 2008
Posted by
tummyblogger |
Blog, general, IBS |
no comments
Introduction
Every once in while I read a post on another blog that is so good that I don’t just sit back and think, “Now there’s a good post.” No, I sit back and think, “What an admirable, original post! I wish I had written something like that.” Sophie, who runs the IBS Tales blog, has just written that kind of post, on “Why self-diagnosis is so crazy.”
Listing Reasons
From time to time I see lists of IBS symptoms on web sites and blogs. Without giving it much thought, I say to myself “Perhaps For My Tummy should do something like that,” and then never write it. Of course I’m a procrastinator; that’s a perfectly good reason for not setting up a page with common symptoms of IBS. A second reason is wanting to think that readers come to this blog with some knowledge of what Irritable Bowel Syndrome is (or isn’t) and what the symptom picture is likely to be. A third rationale is not particularly wanting to specialize in either IBS-C (predominantly constipation) or IBS-D (predominantly diarrhea) or IBS-A (C and D are Alternating), nor discuss the specific forms that IBS takes–so I don’t discuss the typing of IBS according to current or historical symptom. It’s just IBS, and you know what kind you have, presumably.
Deepest Concern
AND the deep underlying ultimate reason is that I don’t want you, the reader, to diagnose yourself based on this web site. Use a lot of self-help measures, yes. Avoid things that don’t help, yes. Diagnose yourself, no. If that means you go get that colonoscopy your doctor says you need to have for a diagnosis, then this site will cheer you on and provide moral support–mostly metaphorical, it’s true. And for more encouragement on that path, of getting a real medical IBS diagnosis, read Sophie’s post.
Discuss
Do you have a strong reaction to this policy? See the “No Comment” link below–or if there’s been a comment, the link will have the number of comments? Click on that and a window will open that allows you to disguise your identity and tell us what you think.
January 17th, 2008
Posted by
tummyblogger |
Blog, Medical, general, IBS, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, IBS Symptoms |
no comments
You know you are having a bad IBS day when
You start talking unkindly to the button you are trying to sew onto that winter coat that it’s cold enough for, when it’s really all the fault of the needle.
You know you are having a stressful and bad IBS Day when
You drop and break a perfectly balanced, grooved, weighted glass that knows better than to leap out of your hand and crash to the floor.
So the stress catches up with you, and you know you are having a really stressful and bad IBS Day when
Your IBS-C turns into IBS-D.
November 12th, 2007
Posted by
tummyblogger |
Blog, humor, general, IBS, IBS-C, IBS-D |
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The social impact of disease names is variable, and sometimes immense. If you have one “pariah” or outcast disease, like athlete’s foot, suggests the following article excerpt, you just don’t rate.
What if illnesses, ailments and diseases were brands? You’d have your embarrassing, awkward ones like irritable bowel syndrome and athlete’s foot. Your once well-known, but obscure ones that you find only in history books or Delmas, like diptheria and typhoid and polio. The diseases that everyone’s heard of but nobody knows much about, like multiple sclerosis and cystic fibrosis (hey, that rhymes). There are the ones that fill us with dread, like Alzheimer’s. The cancers are in a category of their own. And there are the truly terrifying, faintly exotic ones like Ebola or mad cow disease, diseases you never want to catch but which have a certain dark glamour nonetheless.
See more of Sarah Britten’s musings, on the light side of disease names, at http://blogs.thetimes.co.za/britten/2007/10/24/if-diseases-were-brands-part-i/
If IBS had a different name, like Arugula — which always did sound like a disease name to me — we would still have to answer questions of “what does it mean?” Still, we might get away with using words like “tummy” in the definition, rather than “bowel.” I’m not a fan of baby words like tummy, most of the time, but “Irritable Bowel Syndrome?” Come ON! Can’t we say “I have been diagnosed with “Chronic Pain in the Tummy” (CPIT) or “Continual Runs, usually Diarrhea” (CRUD).
What difference would a change of name make in your life? Let us know with a comment.
October 26th, 2007
Posted by
tummyblogger |
Blog, humor, IBS |
2 comments
Food and Environmental Impact
Somehow the slogan “food is a weapon” makes me think of food fights. We are familiar with some kinds of food fights, the kind when someone tries to make you eat something you know is going to cause IBS symptoms like diarrhea, gas, cramps, constipation.
This arresting poster
comes from World War II. The poster is a reminder that all kinds of environmental actions took place in order to assist the United States in the war effort.
Blog Action Day
As you know if you visit this blog repeatedly, I have a column devoted to public service ads, including a “tree in a widget.” That’s a low-key reminder to people not to slack off on environmental activism. Today, though, is “Blog Action Day,” a simple call to all bloggers to post something about the environment.
Behavior Change
Thus, this post. The source for the poster is the “No Impact Man” web site. He blogs about living a life that has no impact on the environment–and he lives in New York City! With a restaurant-loving wife and one child! Check out the noimpactman.typepad.com post on “Changing our Behavior.”
For My Tummy is a blog that’s dedicate to helping ourselves to change behavior about the food we eat. Can we parlay that expertise we’ve gained into reducing our impact on the environment? Does it take a War Office or similar governmental organization to push us into the kind of change that will avert disaster? What are your thoughts?
October 16th, 2007
Posted by
tummyblogger |
Blog, general, IBS |
no comments
If you have been here before, there is a newer, bolder look to the Header and menu bar.
I was “working” (fooling around?) behind the scenes and changed a couple of things in the Header. The thing is, the changes I made did NOT promise to make the Name bolder, or to shift the menu down across the main page. I filled in the name and changed “home” on the menu to “Home” with a capital H. Doing either of those things was expected to have *some* effect, true–but I got more/different than I bargained for.
Still and all, I rather like the new look. So for now, until you let me know how you feel, I’ll keep it. The look and feel of this web site is, yes, a personal expression.
The look and feel is also, I hope, a familiar “face” to those who return. As such your opinion matters a great deal. So let me know.
October 1st, 2007
Posted by
tummyblogger |
Blog, general |
2 comments
I stumbled upon the blog site of someone named Seth Godin; he is a marketing guru, hardly an expert on IBS. He is also a very good and readable writer. His topic for today, Labor Day, was “work,” both the old-fashioned kind measured in productivity–chickens fed, hay baled, steel poured—and the kind of work measured in shifts of thought or attitude.
I liked the following so much I want to be able to get to it to remind myself. He said, toward the end of his post,
Hard work is about risk. It begins when you deal with the things that you’d rather not deal with: fear of failure, fear of standing out, fear of rejection. Hard work is about training yourself to leap over this barrier, tunnel under that barrier, drive through the other barrier. And, after you’ve done that, to do it again the next day.
We should get paid, ya know? We do this kind of hard work every day of living with IBS.
That’s also the advantage of having IBS. It teaches us how to do this kind of work, and as we get more proficient, we realize we have skills and strengths that we can apply to many kinds of work–even the work of gaining more skills and strengths. “Or NOT,” do I hear you say?
Sophie still makes me laugh, Seth motivates me to continue blogging. What do you rely on to cope and to function?
September 4th, 2007
Posted by
tummyblogger |
Blog, IBS, Irritable Bowel Syndrome |
no comments
̈ ܹNo matter how many times I see this very short paragraph by Sophie at ibstales.com, I chuckle. I tried writing “giggle,” but that sounds too undignified. She’s had a calm period, and writes:
No sooner had I written an entry saying I was so well I didn’t have anything to write about, my intestines gave me something to write about. They’ve very helpful like that. Sometimes they even make the bed.
September 3rd, 2007
Posted by
tummyblogger |
Blog, humor, IBS, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, IBS Symptoms |
no comments
An organization called NICE (National Institute for Health Information Clearance Exchange) is calling for comments on Standards of Practice in Medicine for Irritable Bowel Syndrome that are in development by the National Health Service. The comment period has started, and will end on October 11, 2007.
Mostly they want comments from so-called “Stakeholder” Organizations. This would be something like “People with Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS),” if such an organization existed. Unfortunately, I doubt that there is much of any patient organization for IBS. That is why I hope that readers in England and Wales will check out the preliminary guidelines posted on the NICE site, and then submit their comments. Here is the link again in plain sight: http://www.nice.org.uk/page.aspx?o=448543
Thank you.
August 17th, 2007
Posted by
tummyblogger |
Blog, Medical, IBS, Irritable Bowel Syndrome |
no comments
There is a brief and interesting discussion over at LiveJournal on a community blog for people with IBS. They are discussing jeans, and how to “dress for bloating.” The link is right here.
August 15th, 2007
Posted by
tummyblogger |
Blog, IBS, Irritable Bowel Syndrome |
no comments
i thought you might like to take a break and look at this interesting collection of bathroom signs around the world. As memes (miniature themes)– also read “lists”–for blogs who do memes, this is a winner!
The oriiginal author, as you will see, was thinking in terms of conveying gender in a few strokes. I’m thinking in terms of making the distinction as distinct as can possibly be recognized in one second.
http://losu.org/world/the-many-different-types-of-toilet-signs
Somehow the final two lines, text rather than pictures, is included when I give the link, and blockquoting doesn’t resolve the problem by indenting. I can’t see the two lines below on any edit screen, so I can’t delete them. They occur at the end of the pictures in the link given above.
A collection of amazing and funny toilet sign photos from around the world.
Labels: Amazing, Funny Pictures
August 13th, 2007
Posted by
tummyblogger |
Blog, humor, IBS, Irritable Bowel Syndrome |
no comments
This blog has carried a link to www.helpforibs.com, the Heather Van Vorous website, since we began. The key to her approach as well as ours is the simple strategy “If it hurts, don’t eat it!” Of course there is a lot of elaboration on that short phrase, in her constantly developing web site, and in this blog.
This past Wednesday I wrote to Heather, requesting that she add us to the IBS links maintained on her site. She graciously responded–in person?–and agreed to add the link. She also provided links to several articles on her site which take different points of view from mine.
I had struggled to clarify whether rice is actually fiber, as Heather has written: I don’t think it is, and said so in this post. She replied, in our email exchange this past week, with a reference to this treatment, which is far less filled with anxiety than mine! To quote her:
You’d probably find this link about all that helpful.
It’s probably a distinction that doesn’t make a big difference!
June 30th, 2007
Posted by
tummyblogger |
fiber, Blog, general, IBS, Irritable Bowel Syndrome |
no comments
