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Catie’s Personal Stories

Catie’s Personal Stories: IBS- “Chronic illness doesn’t discriminate”

Im a 18 year old female, currently in my 5th flare, since I was little I’ve always dealt with severe IBS symptoms, it wasn’t until I was skipping school due to the pain, that I was diagnosed with IBS, things just got worse from here, it was when I had an “accident” in middle school on the school bus going home, since then that memory has prevented me from leaving the house for years and years, no amount of therapy could fix this memory, or the ptsd behind it, and anyone that would listen would just laugh and joke about it (which is ignorant and embarrassing in itself), even in school, when a classmate decided to go into my medical history on the teachers computer, he then announced to everyone that I had IBS, and this was in highschool, grade 11 now being an adult I have had a colonsocopy at age 17 for testing of crohns disease, which I didn’t have, in result my doctor suggested therapy as I might be faking shitting myself, thank you doctor I didn’t think anyone would catch me purposely shitting myself to the point of bile coming out on its own, I now work a job where I stress if I don’t use the washroom right away in the morning, in fear of another accident, since the doors are still locked, luckily I can rush to the nearest Tim Hortons at 5am for their washrooms as they are open very early (for anyone who may live near one and ever needs a late/early bathroom stop) now going back to child talk, I’ve memorized each store and which one has a washroom because my anxiety will kick in everytime there is no available washroom, I will automatically go into a panic attack, but I have gotten better over the years, I can now leave the house without absolutely breaking down. I want anyone reading this that no matter the age, or ANYTHING, chronic illnesses don’t discriminate and you are NOT alone in this.

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