G.B.
My IBS happened suddenly. I was on my way to Dallas and had to stop at my brothers and take a shower....it was humiliating. I got diagnosed later that month.
I find that if I monitor my fluids I can control the diarrhea. If I drink anything before I eat a full mean I can expect to be drawn up into a ball with severe cramps within 15 minutes. If I eat a full meal before I drink anything then it works together to make a more solid feces.
Eating fiber does not work well in my system. It makes a plug then it's hard to get out then it's nothing but water behind it.
My internal physician told me to eat 1/4 cup 100% bran each morning for breakfast. It would pull all the excess fluids to the bran and if I was plugged up it would cause the fluids to soften the plug.
It doesn't work so well for me since I have really really bad teeth and the bran gets all in the cracks and crevices.
He also told me that the meds that can treat the illness can often be more harsh on the body than the illness. For instance, if you have the kind with chronic diarrhea and you take something like Donatol then when you want to go to the bathroom you have to take a med to make the feces soft enough to get out.
If you have the other kind you have to take a different med to make it come out much more often. They you can't control the when so much.
So I just monitor when I drink any fluids. Water, pop, milk, nothing makes any difference. All fluids are fluids that go through the intestines.