Feelin Bad - Pain and "Out of Control"

I have been very, very lucky with my health up to now - at age 58. I've never broken a bone, nor had a major illness or really serious injury. Where I've been sick or injured, it's always been something that healed itself within a few days- and wasn't really painful.

Recently I've been in increasing pain with what appears to be irritable bowel syndrome. After several weeks of it getting progressively worse after it was bothering me occasionally I went to see my doctor. She did blood work and briefly examined me and finding nothing wrong, referred me to a gastroenterologist who did a colonoscopy which appears to be "normal".

Meanwhile the pain has progressively increased. I went back to my doctor and she clarified what types of over-the-counter things I should use along with the prescription the stomach doctor had prescribed.

Now - 4 times today - it's 1:30 p.m. - I've had painful trips to the bathroom - the first lasting for close to an hour. During my time on the toilet usually I'm in various levels of pain - as my body struggles - to do what I had totally taken for granted up until recently. With the pain last evening and today so far, I'm cutting back on what I'm eating, to simply try to cut down a little the frequency and intensity of the pain.

I face a painful 15-70 minutes - at a stretch where I feel close to normal - within 5-10 minutes of my "activity". I can only imagine - what others must go through with Not having the breaks I have from the pain with back or other problems - though I can't imagine How I could survive without the - breaks from the pain, as intense as it is at times.

When we got flooded, I could then relate to some of the feelings that New Orleans former/current residents have since Katrina. Feeling the pains that I have now, I can imagine a little of what others must go through all too often.

I don't want sympathy - I just hope that the doctor will be right and that my pains will start to lessen instead of getting worse and worse within the next week or so.

Thanks!