Emma and Peggy: a family matter.
Emma was always close to her mother – too close you might say. The only girl in a family of four, abandoned by their father, Reg, while they were still … Continue reading
It’s not just the symptoms.
It is not just the symptoms of being ill: the pain, nausea, bowel upset, bloating, breathlessness, that are so distressing. It is also what they mean. This includes the fear … Continue reading
When life becomes pain.
Jenny was upset. ‘How on earth can I carry on when everything I want to do is so painful? Last week, I fancied cooking some pasta with a bolognaise sauce, … Continue reading
Healing: observing, listening and ‘a laying on of hands’.
Some of my encounters with patients are so shocking that they remain etched on my mind as lessons that have altered the way I practice. It was 1994 and I was … Continue reading
IBS: An Existential Issue.
There is an absence about Irene. She lives alone in a small village in the Yorkshire Dales, forty miles from the nearest town. Her husband works abroad for much of … Continue reading
IBS: fact or fiction?
By the nineteen nineties, I had been conducting clinical research for 20 years. I knew my trade, had published several hundred papers in academic journals and was in demand on … Continue reading
Delusion: a necessary refuge from life and illness.
It is Wednesday and I am writing from my cottage in Derbyshire. All seems safe outside, a soft rain is falling and a thrush is singing from the gable end, … Continue reading
The Gardener’s Question Time Model of IBS Management
One of my favourite programmes on the radio is Gardeners Question Time. I often listen to the wisdom of Pippa Greenwood, Bunny Guinness, Matthew Beardshaw, Bob Flowerdew and Anne Swithenbank … Continue reading
You’ve heard of FODMAPs; now read about FoMO.
Jack might be said to have had it all. In his early forties with a lucrative law practice, an affluent life style, happily married to a beautiful woman, three lovely … Continue reading
IBS: Working with Complexity
I was taught medicine from the bottom up, First understand the components, anatomy, physiology, biochemistry, pathology and then put these together to understand the whole patient, but human life doesn’t … Continue reading
The Sensitive Gut 