With my IBS becoming an irritant not only to me, but also to my husband, and starting to affect my ability to do my job, Ambrose and I knew that the time had come for some experimentation.

We had been avoiding certain foods, such as oats and soy, for a while now. Sticking to cereal for breakfast rather than oatmeal. Switching from soy milk to almond milk.

But that didn’t help long term.

So the new plan is liquid breakfast. For the last five days, I’ve been drinking my breakfast.

And although drinking a nutritional supplement meal makes me feel like an invalid, it seems to be improving my situation. I’m still getting some bloating, but it’s less. Some pain, but not as much as before the switch. My bowels are moving more consistently, especially in the morning.

Of course, I’m not doing the experiment in an entirely fair way. I’ve also gone back to a goal of drinking a gallon of water a day, because that seems to help, too. I do think that the combination helps. I’m not eating solid food for about the first five to seven hours that I’m awake, and it’s an improvement.

But it could be just an improvement for now. It seems the one thread that ties together this whole IBS journey is the efficacy of change.

My diet changes, and I start doing better. I embrace whatever the change is with religious fervor, and before I know it I’m stuck in a whole new rut. Eventually, my gut tires of the rut and starts to complain. I agonize for a month or two, and then the bright idea comes about to change things again. Presto! The new change is the new path and I shall not stray from it!

Until next time the pains return.

I’m not sure what to make of that. Maybe I’ll try rotating what I eat every 30 days or every 60 days. The thing is, I’m really quite content eating the same thing most days. For breakfast, especially, I like to have a routine (can’t spell routine without rut).

So we’ll see how long this lasts. I really should start recording what I eat, and how it makes me feel, and probably my weight, too. But I just don’t want to. I don’t want to admit that I’ve got this condition that requires those tasks of me.

But if I don’t, then I’m never going to be able to track what’s going on and figure out if this stuff is really all random or follows some underlying pattern – even if that pattern is change.

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