Humm...

I find myself experiencing an interesting phenomenon. I have a condition called Irritable Bowel Syndrome which I have suffered from for a few years. Symptoms range from nausea, vomiting, gas, diarrhea, constipation, acid reflux, hemorrhoids, and yes, it is as fun as it sounds. Before I was diagnosed I could not even talk about bathroom things at all, now I have little qualms about it (sorry to those of you who do).

It took quite some time, a million doctors visits, a pharmacy full of different medicines, and fun medical procedures like stool sample collection, an endoscopy, and a colonoscopy (at 23!). Finally the gastroenterologist said "Well your stomach is irritated and I am not really sure why. So we will say you have Irritable Bowel Syndrome." Apparently when they don't know why your bowels are irritated they say you have "Irritable Bowel Syndrome." Wow! All that medical school to come up with that diagnosis.

I was on a whole lot of medicine including one called Belladonna, which is made from the Deadly nightshade plant. It is actually a poison that is often used to kill people (just in case you were thinking of bumping someone off). You know you are not feeling well when you will take poison to feel better. Eventually I stopped taking all of my medicines since they weren't helping anyway and control my IBS by carefully watching my food. When I did this I finally felt some relief with only the occasional flair up.

While I was trying to get this under control I suffered from some fairly embarrassing experiences including throwing up in front of most of Quin's and my family. The first time Quin's parents came to visit us in our little apartment in Las Vegas, he was giving them the tour and when he got to our bedroom and bathroom he was kind of like "and here is the bathroom and here is Natalie throwing up." I spent most of their trip in the bathroom. Another time Quin's older sister Elena and her family were visiting when another round hit. We only had one bathroom and it was being used. I had to ask my little niece to bring me our bucket. The whole time I was praying that I wouldn't have to throw up in a bucket in front of them. Fortunately I didn't! Another round hit when Quin and I were about to get on a plane to fly from Las Vegas to Idaho. The people on the plane around us could see that I was sick and the lady sitting next to us asked if she could move. The flight attendant thought I had partied too hard in Las Vegas and said as much (probably not an uncommon sight). We informed her that we were from Vegas and that I was just sick. She was really nice after that and gave us some free sodas (this airline charged for drinks). These were just a few of the fun and "character building" incidents I experienced along with many scary public bathrooms and a few close calls by the side of the road.

This however is not the interesting phenomenon that I have experienced it has only lead to the interesting experience. Since I got pregnant my Irritable Bowel Syndrome symptoms have magically been "cured" and replaced by pregnancy symptoms. And if you have ever been pregnant you can identify with me that these symptoms are almost identical to Irritable Bowel Syndrome symptoms. Fortunately they are not as bad as they were before, woohoo! Something good about pregnancy. Anyway I have found myself finding commercials that I previously thought hilarious to be interesting and worth my attention. "Perhaps I should try that product because it might be more gentle on my stomach than other products" and "Why yes, I would like to stop the burning and the itching."

If this has taught me anything it is that I should be careful of which commercials I find hilarious for the wrong reasons, I may need to use that product in the future.