My stomach problems in all its glory detail

I try to not speak medical jargon but if I do, I'm glad to clarify. I've mentioned my GI problems a couple times by now. GI is gastrointestinal and I likely have the diagnosis of IBS, which stands for Irritable Bowel Syndrome. Here's a nice website describing IBS. I haven't been healthy (GI-wise) since I went to Ecuador, summer of 2003. When I was there I came down with some kind of food poisoning and ever since then, I just haven't been the same. I had all the regular tests done, looking for ova and parasites; I made sure there was no occult blood in my stool; I had a barium swallow test to visualize the upper part of my GI tract; I even had an ultrasound of my liver and gallbladder. Everything has come back normal. Yet, my "IBS" bothers me almost every single day. I usually have crampy abdominal pain, which occurs right after meals. Usually, I can endure it for a while, but sometimes the pain is rather severe. People are probably wondering why don't you just go to the bathroom? But sometimes it's relieved with going to the bathroom and sometimes it's not. Oh and I get incredibly massively bloated, like you wouldn't even believe.

I said all of that just to say, I have alternating bouts of diarrhea and constipation. I didn't mention the constipation- I've been constipated for like 6 days. It's horrible. Anyway, so I'm going to meet a GI specialist later this month to make sure I really do have IBS and not some other disease. Because the thing about IBS is that there is no cure. Sucks.

To end on a happier note. The baby panda is sooo cute!!