Syl, With all due respect here I would like to ask you a question. What if you personally happened to be one of the two in 100 who were casually diagnosed as IBS and lost your life unnecessarily to some serious disease? What if one of those two in 100 happened to be your beloved wife, or one of your children?
I lost a close high school classmate at age 44 because she was told that she had IBS. Later it was discovered that she had metastatic colon cancer and lost her life. The surgeon labeled this "an entirely unnecessary death had she had the appropriate workup for her symptoms and appropriate treatment a year prior". My friend left a grieving husband and two children (a boy and a girl) who were not yet fully raised.
Four years ago, a friend of mine who had been casually diagnosed with IBS by a physician actually had diverticulosis and diverticulitis. She had a 'blowout' during the night and was rushed to the hospital via ambulance. She ended up with a permanent colostomy after many months of misery and multiple painful surgeries and recovery periods.
My cousin lost her husband at age 50 due to colon cancer, and he had been told he had IBS by his general practitioner. There was no further workup, and my cousin cooked up a storm daily for IBS control, only to find a year later that her husband had had colon cancer and not IBS.
I say to all of you... "bleep" the Rome III diagnostic criteria and make SURE that you do not have any other far more serious problems. You may well come to regret your casual assumptions and trust... and by the way, doctors are not little gods.
Syl, are you going to follow what Heather recommends, or are you going to continue to go against her well advised suggestions? Doing such could cost someone their life and leave behind a grieving family, and little children minus a parent. Is this YOUR website of contradictory input, or is it Heathers website of well advised information?
Much (most) of what you say here in other places is full of wisdom, but this response and continuing position gets a BIG ZERO from me!!!
-------------------- Senior female, IBS-D, presently stable thanks to Heather & Staff
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