IBS and Coffee

[Blue Kat]

My sister has a relatively mild case of IBs but she doesn't drink coffee; she does drink some tea, though.  I have a friend who has IBS pretty bad but she gave up all forms of caffeine years ago due to fibroid tumors in her breasts.

[Prairie Gal]

I don't think I have IBS and my gastro doc doesn't think I do, either.  However, I do get weeks-long episodes of mild diarrhea (4 months last time) with the accompanying gas and bloating.   When the diarrhea quits, I have to eat fiber, fiber, fiber or I have the opposite problem.

  I've taken in numerous stool samples, and nothing shows up -- except for the time I took antibiotics for an infected thumb and ended up with C. Difficile -- that's the latin name for the bug that rears its ugly little head when you kill off the good bugs in your GI tract with antibiotics.  Whatever the name, the result is the same:  diarrhea.

  The gastro doc says maybe my problem is just not "high enough to register on the lab tests", so he left a standing order for the lab for 12 months.  I picked up the little sample bottles, etc. but so far -- knock on wood -- I haven't had a problem since last September.   Sure does cramp one's style when you have to be close to a bathroom the entire day...

Prairie gal