MY DIAGNOSIS - Why Did My GI Symptoms Keep Getting Worse?

This nursing professor suffered for decades-until one doctor made a surprising connection.

- LEA ACORD, MARISA COHEN

I've spent my life in the health care field-I've been dean of the college of nursing at three different universities-but it took years to solve my own health crisis.

My symptoms started about 25 years ago. I had just moved to Montana, and I started having bad diarrhea along with bloating, cramping, constipation, and abdominal pain. I assumed it was because I had a new job. I loved the job, but I was traveling a lot and it stressful was very I saw a number of different health  care providers, and no one could figure out what was wrong with me. Eventually my primary care nurse practitioner told me I had rapid transit irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).

I was told there was no treatment for IBS other than managing my symptoms and watching what I ate. So when I had an event to attend, like a meeting or a graduation, I just didn't eat that day! That's how I got through the next several years, eating very little during the day and always making sure I was near a bathroom. It was very, very difficult and caused even more stress.

By 2003, my symptoms were even worse. I had moved to another university by then, and my IBS was terrible, but for the next 20 years I just lived with it. Fortunately, my office had a bathroom, and I was really good at covering up my symptoms, so very few people knew about it, but I couldn't go out much or do many of the things I loved.

I tried everything to get better. I joined online IBS support groups and asked everyone I knew who had some expertise on Gl issues for help, but nobody could give me any answers. I kept food diaries and tried stress-relief programs. I did the low-FODMAP diet and was religious about sticking to it, but even I made when some progress, I was never able to reintroduce any foods. I thought it was me, that I was doing something wrong. It really limited what I could do-I even had to bring my own food to eat at the birthday party my daughter threw for me at a restaurant!