# Afraid to eat!



## em_t (Jun 8, 2010)

The past week I ended up with an impaction / bowel obstruction again! I'm worried because this seems to be happening on a more regular occurance for me again. Had to give up my job earlier this year because of it, and thought I'd finally found a laxative regime / diet that was working well for me. And then about a month and a half ago it happened again! Its strange because at the moment on the sodium picosulphate and a stool softener I move my bowels at least once a day, so its not like I'm even really badly constipated but just seems like I have a hard bit that gets stuck there and even though I can pass BMs with it there it doesn't clear the obstruction!Started the disimpaction treatment on Wednesday, which involved drinking 8 Movicol sachets (Miralax in the US). About half way through this I started to feel very ill, sore head, lethargic, confused and my mum had noticed when talking to me on the phone that my speech had completely slowed down and that I sounded very confused. Anyway, proceeded to feel weaker and weaker during the course of the day and rang my doctor who warned me that it could be an electrolyte imbalance or severe dehydration. She wanted me to come up to the surgery to have blood tests done but I couldn't drive in that state and had no-one at home to drive me. She said the only other option was A+E which again wasn't really an option as I had no way of getting there, plus didn't want to wait for 3 1/2 hours like the last time. Continued taking the Movicol until I started feeling VERY sick, despite taking domperidone for nausea and plenty of water to prevent dehydration. Started to feel very full with water until I eventually vomited! Felt a bit better after that and then slept until my parents came home. I know I should have gone to A+E at that stage but when you've been as many times as I have, just to fob you off and either send me home with more Movicol or some paracetamol for the pain, then its not really worth it! I eventually rang out of hours because I still hadn't had the watery diarrhoea or anything much that you expect when taking it and he finally prescribed me 2 Miralax micro-enemas (mixture of sodium citrate and phosphate salts) which finally shifted something. I'm just wondering why every time they make me take the Movicol treatment - the last time I ended up with a massive migraine, which left me so disorientated I couldn't walk and again my speech slowed down like a stroke patient, and then this time vomiting! Why don't they just do an enema and get it over with?!The last few days have just been concentrating on getting my fluids up but have been afraid to eat anything! After taking the Movicol treatment I have the worst gas pains for days afterwards and the stomach pain is agonising when I eat, which is really bad cos starting to get hungry again! I know not eating doesn't help the constipation but I'm so worry about ending up with an obstruction again - this morning after taking all my usual laxatives I felt the need to shift something but couldn't and as well couldn't pee (usually the first sign of an obstruction with me) - after getting very emotional and upset I finally passed a bowel movement and after plenty of water had something to eat, but now I'm in agonising pain - feel like someone has kicked me in the stomach and that I'm being ripped apart inside - this is no exaggeration, the pain is making me go crazy! And yet I can't take anything for it, my GP has told me not to take aspirin or ibuprofen and even paracetamol leaves me bunged up! At the moment I'm afraid to eat, in case I make the pain worse! I'm eating all the fibre I can, which only makes the pain worse but eases the constipation!My poor family have been getting the brunt of it because at this stage I'm hungry but afraid to eat - which makes a change because I'm usually never hungry or so nauseous I don't feel like eating! Feel like I've got a huge mass on my left hand side which just gets bigger and sorer everytime I eat and don't know what to do!For any other chronic constipationers, do you get blockages on a regular basis and how do you cope? I've had this maybe 7-8 times now and its not like I over-eat, far from it - wish I could just be normal!For anyone from the UK, how do you deal with you doctors? Mine just seem to fob me off each time, I've gone in crying and begging with them to refer me to another gastroenterologist - I just don't see how this can be normal and I'm worried that's its not actually IBS I have! Have had OGD, colonoscopy, small bowel series and an ultrasound carried out, which showed nothing and so my gastroenterologist said it must be IBS and that can be dealt with my GP as opposed to a specialist, but surely if I keep ending up impacted its not as simple as that! Have also been waiting on a psychologist referral, but the last time they said that they had huge waiting lists as referred me to a telephone line to ring in distress - its a bloody joke!Does anyone have any tips on how to get more help from your doctors? I've told them how depressed I am. I'm looking for jobs at the minute and worried that I won't be able to continue working, which depresses me even further because I love my job - I'm a Science teacher, but who would want to employ someone who has to take time off all the time and is tired ALL the time!Wow just read the length of that, sorry it was so long, just opened a can of worms!Thanks for listeningEm


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## em_t (Jun 8, 2010)

Also just wondering if any of you with chronic constipation have problems urinating as well? I drink at least 2.5 litres of water a day and apart from first thing in the morning, I pee very little during the day. I mean I do go, but just not very much. I've told my GP and my gastroenterologist about this on my last consult in June and he said to talk to a urologist, but I just can't help thinking its all related - when I have a bout of diarrhoea after all the laxatives it finally relieves my bladder but the rest of the time I just don't pee nearly as much as usual!I'm trying to drink even more water but it just blunts my appetite and makes me lethargic after a while!Thanks for listening!


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## Kathleen M. (Nov 16, 1999)

Unfortunately one of the ways to get the bowels moving is to eat. You might try 4-5 mini meals a day with 300 calories or so. You don't have to eat much at a sitting, but if you don't eat you don't get a "move it along" signal sent to the colon from the stomach when you eat.Some constipated people don't need to really push the fiber, it can cause you to block up if you have too much, although too little isn't all the helpful, either. I would work on keeping the stool wet (osmotic laxative and the stool softeners) and try seeing if small frequent meals help keep things moving.Peppermint tea sometimes helps with the pain without tending to be constipating for most people, so you might try that, or candies with real peppermint oil in them.


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## em_t (Jun 8, 2010)

Thanks Kathleen,I know that just eating can sometimes move the bowels, sometimes just a chew of food will be enough to get me running to the toilet! Just had something to eat and had a BM which relieved the pain somewhat, although it was on the loose side - think my pain tends to be worse when I have a diarrhoea type BM that I just can't pass!Its just really hard when I constantly feel so nauseous all the time, sometimes I feel really full and sometimes I have such a horrible taste in my mouth I don't want to eat. Probably need to get into a routine of eating mini meals again, for a while was only eating 2 big meals a day because thought it was actually helping but ended up being so tired I probably still wasn't eating enough!I know in the past that a lot of fibre has tended to constipate me - for example the first time I ended up with an impaction was when I was taking Fybogel and another time was when I was experimenting with linseeds to see if that would help with the constipation. At the moment, probably just have to eat rather than obsess about what I'm eating. Must try the peppermint sweets, see if they work, they sound nice and hopefully would help a bit! Can have quite a lot of cramping but am dubious about taking antispasmodics as they only slow down my digestive tract.Will persevere with osmotic laxatives, think they tend to give me a lot of cramping, but probably because they're the only ones that have a great effect on me!I'm just concerned at how quick I can go from having normal BMs to an obstruction again, and the inability to urinate - I drink ONLY water, no caffeinated drinks, no soda, only a little fruit juice, but the rest is all water and yet I hardly ever pee!Do you think this could be related to the constipation or is it likely to be something else?


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## Kathleen M. (Nov 16, 1999)

I don't know much about the volume water in volume water in pee equation. Do you have swelling in your ankles, a sign you are retaining the water. We do lose some from sweat and breathing and other things, so I know how much comes out isn't just a matter of how much you take in. As long as the body is in balance and you aren't holding the water in somewhere, I wouldn't worry about it too much.The longer you wait to eat the bigger that "gotta go" signal will be, so the mini meals may help regulate the system with smaller "move it" several times a day rather than just a couple of big "flush outs".


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## em_t (Jun 8, 2010)

No swelling in ankles, its just distressing because in the past I used to pee loads and now I hardly ever do, which seemed to happen around the time I started to get bowel obstructions. Oh for a simpler life! Appetite's still not great, just had something to eat for lunch and really had to force myself to eat because I felt full after a few bites! But will try again in a few hours time! Have lots of stomach gas today which is quite annoying because I think its blunting my appetite a bit! Really not looking forward to Christmas!


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