I was diagnosed with IBS many years ago, but in the past year or so, have had some serious flare-ups that started with the death of my Dad in June of 2017. Because I am now in my late 50s, I saw my GP and my naturopath because of recurring diarrhea and discomfort last summer and fall. Had ultrasounds and a CT scan, all came back clear. GP wanted to send me for a colonoscopy, but when the surgeon told me of the risk factors -- possible infection, perforation of bowl -- not to mention the horrible prep, I backed out and never had it done.
On the advice of my naturopath, I went gluten-free, and that seemed to really help. I was fine for months. But in the past couple weeks or so, I've been having regular bouts of diarrhea again every few days, even though I am consuming no gluten. I can go one day without having a bowel movement at all, next day pass some hard lumpy stools -- and then within hours it's urgent diarrhea. Then the cycle starts all over again. No stools, then hard stools, then diarrhea. It's like once my bowels actually start moving they don't know how to stop when they're supposed to.
I was a bit stressed out about a laser procedure I had done on my eye about ten days ago, plus my diet was including more vegetables from my garden. I soon found I cannot eat raw tomatoes anymore -- they go right through me. Same thing has happened with grapefruit and raw carrots -- all things I used to be able to eat without any problems. So I have cut those things out, but had diarrhea again this afternoon after a hard-to-normal bowel movement this morning.
Is this normal for IBS? It's really getting me down.
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