# Dealing with firm stool followed by loose stool.



## MrJingles

Hi everyone long time lurker here with my first post.

Like many people on this site iève been struggling with IBS-D/anxiety for almost a decade now, (21 currently). I have a strongly believe that many of my IBS symptoms are linked with anxiety. As such, i have been able to manage my anxiety for the past few year and life has been "relatively" normal.

My IBS-D mostly comes in the morning right after I wake up. After i wake up i usually have bloating and gas followed by the obvious need to have a bowel movement. When i do have my BM it always starts with a nice firm stolid stool, this stool comes out easily and within 30 seconds of me sitting on the golden throne. However, the problem starts after. After having the initial bowel movement, 2-4 minutes later i experience another massive bowel movement of loose stool, diarrhea like. It comes out very quickly and during this time i experience cramping, gas, and most annoyingly, the feeling that i still have stool left.

As a result of this loose stool, i tend to spend 30 minutes on the toilet. At the end of it, it feels like I am empty, but i still have some lower bowel discomfort (like a mild cramp). However, after finishing, i immediately (like 1 min after getting off the toilet) get the urge to go again, along with the sensation that something is still there. So i usually wait 10 minutes and go have my second trip to the toilet. After this BM, I am usually good for the day but i still continue to get "that diarrhea feeling" in my rectum when i leave the house. This feeling usually subsides after an hour, and if not, i have to have another BM.

So my question is would it be wise to just have the initial (firm solid) bowel movement and then immediately get off the toilet so as to prevent my colon from forcing the undigested stool towards my rectum for evacuation?

I've gotten this idea from : http://ibs.about.com/od/livingwithibs/qt/CalmBowels.htm .

Anyone have any luck with this techniqueÉ

PS: i have tried calcium, psyllium husk supplements, and probiotics, nonehave had any real effects, I stay away from immodium since i dislike the idea of being bound to medicine (plus that stuff is expensive).


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## vanilla_bean

I often have the same problem, but I get a fluffy/mushy stool (mud butt) instead of full-fledged diarrhea. Today, I looked at my stool (type 6), which felt like it started out ok, and I saw almost a perfect line in the stool where the log had gone from normal color and texture to type 6. It was surreal. Clearly it started to digest and didn't finish it.

I really feel like it's going through my system too fast and it needs more time to digest. I thought hyscomine would've helped, but all it does is make my mouth dry, so presumably it isn't bowel spasms causing it...

I get plenty of fiber with no effect, flax makes me bloated and doesn't help, and all Imodium does is stop me up and bloat me. L-glutamine cured me for a few days until I had a full relapse, but it does help with my bloating.

Specifically to your question about holding it in.... Well, I don't know about you, but once I start it's hard to stop. It's certainly hard to know when it's going to go from good to bad with my poop, too.

I've actually tried holding in my entire bowel movement when I could tell it needed more time, and it didn't work - not enough to make a difference. So to answer your question, I've tried it, it didn't help. But I think we're in the right direction. This is the second thread about it this month.


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## JustJoe25

I have the ssme problem right now. I will wake up everyday around the same time and have a regular BM which then turns into diarrhea after my second or third BM. All take place in the morning and the first one I'll especially have an urgency to go.

My main problem is this is affecting my appetite greatly. I've never been a morning or breakfast person but I'll force myself to eat something even if it's just a fruit smoothie, banana, or if I'm feeling it sometimes even some eggs. However I tend to get a discomfort after I est, ususlly after dinner but sometimes after lunch. I'll get gas which doesn't seem to let up and I will feel like I need to have a BM at times but ususlly can't. If I do it's a very small BM. Some nights it'll affect me trying to fall asleep but most often it lets up by bedtime, but then in the morning I wake up crampy and gasy again until I have a BM and eat something small. It just seems like a never ending cycle. Is this normal?


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## kamma29

This exact thing happens to me every morning. I'll start out with one or two normal bm and think great everything is fine and then within a couple of minutes I'm having cramping and urgency and will have diarrhea or very loose stool multiple times over the next hour. I continue to have the diarrhea feeling anywhere from an hour to the rest of the day. The only thing I have found is taking immodium which sometimes takes a couple of hours to work. Plus then it makes me constipated for a day or two so I wouldn't recommend going this route if you can stop it. I only take it to get through the work day. It's good to know I'm not alone but I wish I had a solution!


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## jaumeb

I tried holding it and it didn't help in any way.


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## mlarosa84

Hi all. I know this is a bit of an old post, but I am hoping that someone will see it. On Sunday, I woke up and had a normal bowel movement as I would. I then had an Arizone Iced Tea, Oikos Triple Zero Yogurt, and a Boost Shake. Within about a half hour, I had a mushy BM which I normally don't. It wasn't watery diarrhea but literally had a muddy consistency. I am so scared. Last year I had blood work, a CT, and MRI which all that turned up was a fatty liver, but my bowel was clear on the CT and a GI did a rectal exam which was negative for blood. This was April 2015. I a scared it is cancer


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## Akn1965

No,it is not cancer.mushy stool is common in ibs-d.it depends on diet you have taken.most times mushy stool occurs.
First trip of my BM is normal.But 2nd trip of every day is mushy, muddy type,porridge like stools
On the other hand your testing reports are normal.So your thoughts about cancer is baseless.

Thanks.


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