Hello, I am new to this group. As a teen, I was told I had a spastic colon, later, they started calling it IBS-D. In 2006 I was diagnosed with GERD, a hernia and the bottom "flapper" of my esophagus no longer worked so I underwent a Nissan Fundoplication. That procedure wraps a portion of your stomach tightly around the esophagus to keep the acid from going back into the esophagus. On the down side, I now have difficulty swallowing and must periodically have a balloon dilatation to stretch it back out. For that, I take Pantoprazole SOD 40mg twice a day. In October of 2016, after several months of watery, explosive diarrhea 10-12 times a day, a colonoscopy was done specifically to look for Microscopic Colitis. I was diagnosed with Lymphocytic Colitis. I was started on Budesonide 3mg caps x3 a day. That stopped the watery, frequent diarrhea but my skin became very fragile and thin. I was changed to Lialda 1.2Gm 2 tabs twice a day. These are horse pills and very difficult to swallow. It has slowed the diarrhea to 3-4 times a day, depending on what I eat but the bowel consistency is very soft to loosely formed. Silly me, I thought I was going to get back to relatively normal bowel movements. I have arthritis in my neck, back & hands. My hands started swelling and hurting. I couldn't make a fist. My internist sent me to a rheumatologist because I had a high-ish ANA test. More tests and more drugs. While I don't specifically have rheumatoid arthritis or lupus, she believes it is an autoimmune thing related to the Lymphocytic Colitis. She has me on Cymbalta 60mg for the pain, Predisone 5mg & Plaquenil 200mg twice daily for the inflammation. My hands are much better but I am having severe hot flashes. I have gone from taking 4 meds a day to all of this stuff. I was told to consider the Mediterranean diet but, because of the IBS, there are no leafy vegetables that I can tolerate, several fruits and nuts that are triggers as well. I had an endoscopy Monday to dilate my esophagus and take a few biopsies and my doctor (I regularly see his most excellent PA) told me that the way my bowels are now are my new normal. I am okay with that but I hate taking all of these meds. I worry what they're doing to my body. It's nice to find people who understand and are going through this as well. Thanks for listening.

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