Brief Answer:
Your symptoms are a perfect match to IBS; referral needed ma'am

Detailed Answer:
Hello ma'am and welcome.

Thank you for writing to us.

I have gone through your query with diligence and would like you to know that I am here to help. I understand your symptoms both professionally as well as personally, as I am an IBS-sufferer from the past 7 years now. Although, my extensive research, understanding and treating the condition has led to the complete absence of my symptoms for over 2 years now (praise to God).

Well, first of all, there are a number of things you need to understand about IBS before we go into the other details; learning and understanding your condition is considered half the battle.

Let us start with the symptoms:

+Abdominal pain or cramping (especially after eating trigger factors)
+Gas (especially after eating trigger factors)
+Abdominal pain or cramping (especially during an episode, usually after consuming trigger factors)
+Almost immediate urge to pass bowels after consuming trigger factors (resulting mostly in explosive foul-smelling liquid diarrhea)
+Mucus in stool (experienced on wiping)
and a few others.

You need to know that you can and only you can control your IBS and its symptoms. For this reason, you need to learn more about what can cause episodes of IBS and the causes are the following:

1. Trigger foods:
-Popcorn
-Tea
-Coffee
-Carbonated drinks
-Sugar containing drinks
-Chocolate
-Dairy products (especially in a lactose intolerant individual)
-Gluten containing products (in a gluten-intolerant individual)
-Alcohol
-Fatty/fried/oily food
-Certain vegetables, beans, fruits
-Sorbitol
and a few other individual specific foods. The first step is recognising the trigger foods or drinks and avoiding them completely.

For me, carbonated drinks and popcorn are the main trigger foods and avoiding them completely have really helped.

2. Stress: You are quite right in assuming stress to be the main cause for your episodes of IBS. And I completely understand how your stress levels must be off the chart, but you need to take care of your health as well. In such a scenario (wherein stress is the main cause), I would recommend:

+Consultation with a psychiatrist
+Practising relaxation techniques (e.g. breathing exercises, etc.)
+Medications to help reduce stress levels (e.g. anti-anxiety medications, anti-depressants, etc.)
+Drink plenty of water
+Mild exercise (not vigorous in any way)
+Over-the-counter (OTC) medications like ranitidine, omeprazole, etc; to help control symptoms of abdominal bloating, etc.

Please do not misunderstand my reference to a psychiatrist. It is completely normal to consult one in such a situation, and trust me, you need help relieving your symptoms. Once your IBS is under control, you can give more time to your work (to get the money you need) and to your mother as well. I hope you understand.

Please also feel free to write to me for any further clarifications, I am always here to help.

Best wishes.

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Brief Answer:
Lovely question, you will have to quit the caffeine if it is a TF

Detailed Answer:
Hello once again ma'am.

You have a very good question, but what is more important here is to understand if you experience the almost immediate need to visit the toilet to pass your bowels after the consumption of caffeine, making it a trigger factor (TF) in your case?

If the answer is yes, then the only solution would be to get out of the habit of caffeine after an elaborate consultation with a neurologist who would prescribe a short course of medications to help tackle chronic migraine headaches.

On this note, I would also like to add that IBS (consisting of two conditions Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis) is a progressive condition. With negligence or uncontrolled symptoms, the condition progresses only to result in more serious consequences over time. So it is important to control the episodes and avoid them completely. I hope you understand why I chose controlling the IBS over the risk of experiencing migraine headaches.

I also hope I have been explaining things in a manner best understood by you ma'am. Please do not hesitate to write to me if at all something remains unclear to you, or if you have any additional queries, I would be more than happy to help.

Best wishes.

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