From the beginning...

So, this is where it begins I guess. I'm not really sure where I'm going.

I'm 26, with a five year old boy, a husband, and two cats. I'm finishing up my first degree and that's pretty much what I do since my job as a tech support webchat agent got outsourced. That whole outsourcing thing didn't exactly help with my stress. I love my life, and I love being me. I'm very lucky to be sure...I just have this one little thing.

For about a year now, most of what I eat makes me very sick. When I say most of what I eat, I mean all but like 10 really boring and virtually tasteless things- you know mashed potatoes, saltines, bananas. I eat LOTS of bananas. I ate a salad one day and was viscously ill from it and my husband decided it was time to call the doctor. That was two months ago.

I've been healthy all my life. Seriously, the only time I've ever been in the hospital was giving birth, and it was an easy labor. I'm not a fan of medicines, I even gave birth naturally. (Though admittedly, during those last few centimeters I was begging for an epidural.) When all this stomach mess started I was really hesitant to actually call it an illness. You reach a certain point though, where you just can't live like that anymore.

My mother in law has Crohn's disease, and everyone was pretty sure I had it too. That's partly why my hubby was so adamant about seeing a doctor. I had tests...lots of tests...because at first they all looked like Crohn's. Then I had the dreaded colonoscopy. At 26, I had a colonoscopy- that stinks. They went all the way through my large intestine to 10 centimeters into my small intestine. I wasn't really aware they could go that far. They didn't find Crohn's, but they found polyps

At 26, I was tested for colon cancer. That was pretty much an eye opener. You know, with stomach issues like this, the tendency is to feel like you're just being difficult (which I tend to be), or you're just being sensitive (that's sometimes me too), or that there's really no way you can get sick that often from food (we're talking pretty darn close to daily). When all the tests were done, IBS was the winner, and I was the lucky loser.

It turns out I have some abnormalities in my small intestine, IBS, and some really bad acid reflux issues. Fun times. I'm still sick when I eat most things, and now I take lots of pills each day. If I take my pills and eat, like, nothing fun, then I can get through the day for the most part. The exception to that is if I have a lot going on and something crazy comes up...

I have a five year old and I'm in my last semester of school- something always comes up. It's not that I'm stressed (I'm not), I'm just busy- and that makes my stomach irritable. Me, my stomach, and food- we're not friends right now.

So that's me...and this is me trying to deal with it all. I hope someone reads this and maybe wants to share. I can't say that I'll post regularly, because right now I'm just trying to not feel sick all the time.