# New.. sick of C.. sick of it all



## Frankie-too (Dec 15, 2007)

Hi all I am new and I have been reading up on things and learning quite a lot. I have been C forever, but I can't remember ever paying as much attention to my poo as I have recently. I think back to when I was in college and I can't remember ever having this kind of obsession. But now, I can tell you how often, color, size quantity.. SAD! A good day is determined by finishing this sentence "Today I______ poo".Anyway. I did not start taking anything for the problem until about 3 years ago. I mena I would take a lazitive periodicaly, but after a particularly awful week one week, I decided never again and I started taking colace daily. For a really long time, like 2 years, 1 pill a day before bedtime did the trick, with an occasional stop up that required a Sennakot-S. But then about a year ago I had to up to 2 colace, one every morining and one every night. This still led to a poo about every 3 days not always very easy and somtimes instead leading to fairly bad D. For the past 3 weeks, though, this is no longer working. I still poo about every 3 days or more, but it is extremely difficult to get out and causes pain on my lower left side. As of last night, I had only pooed a little bit and I took a Sennekot-S before bed last night, but today, so far... nothing. I am wanting to switch to Miralax and start to get a hold on this. I think I am going to eliminate dairy as I think this has been part of the problem. I have a few quesitons though:~ It seems the better I eat, the worse it gets! It got really bad another time when I cut out soda, fast food and meat and increased my water... man I thought I would NEVER poo again during that time! Oatmeal seems to be ok, but any kind of whole wheat is the DEVIL... no matter how much I drink. Is this common??~ I take a medication called Deplin, which is basically a prescribed concentration of Vitamin B. I just started it recently. Could this be a contributor?~ I am freaking out that my body is simply getting used to things and that I am just going to have to deal with increasing and changing my poo meds on a reguar basis forever! Is this pretty much something taht goes with the territory? Thanks for your time!Frankie


----------



## SpAsMaN* (May 11, 2002)

Honestly,i think we should request this minor surgery in America.I have follow few people on-line in Spain that have their life back.I want to get it done personally.Haven't had luck with local surgeons tho.See for yourself:www.cecopexia.com


----------



## IBSCinGeorgia (Oct 6, 2007)

Frankie,Whole wheat breads, muffins, bran cereals, and oatmeal always seem to make me constipated even more than I already am too. I tried cutting out dairy, everything including milk, butter, and eggs. I never eat cheese other than on pizza and in lasagna, and in spaghetti, because if I eat cheese on a sandwich or on crackers, even Cheez Whiz, it turns everyting in my colon and rectum to cement.After eliminating dairy from my diet, I wasn't able to go any better, and missed drinking my 2% milk and having my scrambled eggs at breakfast every morning. So I started eating those again and decided to try whole wheat breads and muffins. That made me REALLY REALLY constipated. Usually a Fleet enema or two or Fleet Suppository or two will get me going, but on the Wheat and Bran diet, I had to borrow an enema bag from a neighbor who heard me on the toilet SCREAMING and straining all the way from my apartment on the floor above her. Have you given any thought to enemas or suppositories?Depending on how severe each episode is, stool softeners have mixed success with me. I once waited for a week for Colace to work, and actually I think in waiting for it to work, I made myself more constipated. With IBS and Chronic constipation it sometimes can be a game of switching meds. what works this month might not work the next


----------



## annie7 (Aug 16, 2002)

yes, ibs is so frustrating--for many of us it sure does require a lot of experimention with all sorts of things--- otc stuff, scripts, herbals, enemas, whatever is out there---to find out what works for you and often it's not just taking one thing that will work but a combination of things. and i personally have found that i have a tendency to build up a resistance rather quickly to drugs, herbals etc so i take things intermittently and switch them around a lot--zelnorm intermittently, senna intermittently, etc etc. keep trying different things and if something works for you and then quits working, try going off it for a while and then try it again later. it may work better when taken on an intermittent basis. and then of course sometimes i have the really bad days when nothing works. just gotta ride those out i guess.


----------



## Frankie-too (Dec 15, 2007)

Auugghh... surgery!(screams and runs)Ok, minor surgery...maybe not too bad...!


----------



## Frankie-too (Dec 15, 2007)

annie7 and IBSCingeorgia,Thank you for your input! I am trying not to panic becasue the laxative never worked today... that is unusual but I am just going to take another one tommorow morning (I think maybe they work better for me when I am up and moving) and hope for the best. I think the stress of worrying and freaking out is making it worse.I also think I will get some Miralax and keep the colace... and alternate them every few months or whatever. I don't know why it never accured to switch it up a bit. I think you just find soemthing that works and then get comforatble with it and (for me anyway) I am afraid to stop it and try something else because if it doesn't work, I know what I am in for!!!I also decided that I am going to try to stop dairy. I think I may be lactose intolerant, but I always heard that this gave you D not C... still I feel like I do notice a difference when I have dairy. On a positive note, I bought some rice milk and tried it on my cereal and I could NOT taste the difference. I am so thrilled. I feel like it's just one less disruption in my life. I don't drink milk straight, I use it in things so knowing that I can replace it with out noticing is thrilling. Does that make sense.Thanks again for the help!!!Frankie


----------



## annie7 (Aug 16, 2002)

hi Frankie hope the laxative worked for you today. if senna isn't working for you anymore you might want to take a break from it and try a different laxative like ducolax. that has a different ingredient---bisacodyl--and might work better for you. i rotate senna and duclolax. and yes--stress--that definitely makes c worse for me.and yes i know know what you mean about finding something that works and how hard it is to have to stop taking it and then have to take the chance on trying something else. i feel the same way--it's so hard to try other things because, yes, if they don't work, then you just feel worse. glad the rice milk worked for you--good luck with everything!


----------



## SKZ (Dec 1, 2007)

I am finding that taking medication for whatever ailments a person totally afffects the IBS and the constipation. I am taking something for Acid Reflex and I was in total stomach pain for several weeks. I finally put 2 and 2 together and its from the Aciphex. I was so bad I had to go to the ER. Now will esophagus will probably erode, but hey my stomach will be better. sheesh


----------



## SpAsMaN* (May 11, 2002)

Take it easy with laxative,they often have rebound effect...they do help sometime tho...


----------



## Frankie-too (Dec 15, 2007)

Grumble.Well, I took a second lax today and it BARELY worked! I feel like I've been through labor and I pooed about an inch. I have NEVER had a lax not work before. And I don't use them often, maybe once every 6 weeks, if that.I am trying to be positive... at least I don't have a blockage or anything and as hard as it was to "deliver" my big old INCH of poo, my arse doesn't hurt. However, I am feeling extremely clautrophic and wondering if I need to get a suppository. I have never used one before and it freaks me out a little... I mean, what if THAT doesn't work either???SKZ, I have weaned myself off all of my meds for fear that they are causing my problem. All that's left is the Deplin, which is just a vitamin... yet I still can't poo. I hate this. I know there are a lot of people out there with worse problems than this but right now, I am SO JEALOUS of people who can poo with any normalcy at all!!!Thanks for listening,Frankie


----------



## SpAsMaN* (May 11, 2002)

suppository does help


----------



## annie7 (Aug 16, 2002)

yes hopefully the suppository will help. if it doesn't you might want to try an enema, either with an enema bag or buy a fleets type enema from the drug store. you can either use the fleets enema as is or pour out the solution and use plain water instead. and you might want to contact your doctor and see what he/she has to suggest.good luck--hope things get better for you.


----------



## mandabell26 (Jul 1, 2007)

Frankie - I enjoy your humor!!







I know what you mean about the constipation I have suffered all my life and have yet to find ANYTHING that helps or even comes close!! I was taking zelnorm for a while & then they took it off the shelf soooo back to the ol drawing board!! What to do when you cant poo???!!!!


----------



## Frankie-too (Dec 15, 2007)

What do you do when you can't poo...indeed. My body is such a freaky thing. Seriously. I have ALWAYS had problems, but they have been...ummm...manageble. Take my pills and as long as it gets out, I'll live, right? So I decide I am going to eat healthier and lose that last 5 pounds... That's when all hell broke lose... well, I WISH it would have broke loose, I suppose its more accurate to say it plugged up!So after suffering for a few days and resorting to oranges and soup, I finally said screw it and picked up my pepsi bottle. My effin pepsi. All of the sudden things start moving again. Now bear in mind, that I am like everyone else, in which "normal" would be a regualr persons nightmare. But I'm used to it, so it's all good.Apparently, my body needs pepsi to function in any way that is vaguely normal. Pepsi.I am... a freak. But at least I am a pooping freak for the moment.


----------



## linigh (Oct 11, 2007)

Well, Merry Christmas to all of you fellow IBS sufferers. My family had to wait the other night for my laxative to work b/f we could go out together looking at Christmas lights - talk about embarassing. I have typically had intestinal spasms & for weeks have been doubled over. Now, for whatever reason, that has seemed to have subsided & now I'm stuck with repeated constipation for about a week. Am not sure if my anti-spasmodics have done this or not. Am not sure what miracle of God occurred to make my stomach stop hurting for the most part, but am very thankful. But, now I'm stuck with a different problem. I am scared to become laxative dependent, & am wondering how fast this can happen. I've been taking dulcolax suppositories for a few days now, & tried a stool softener without much luck. It's difficult being at someone else's house & having to spend hours in the bathroom while other people are waiting . . . My main concern is, how fast can you become laxative dependent, & what seems to be the best thing to take when you have this IBS condition? I realize it's probably different for different people. I agree with some people on this board that I think I feel worse when I take the fiber. I'm sure if I called up my GI doc, the first thing the nurse will ask me is how much fiber I've been taking. Sigh. Maybe mineral oil? I think the hard part about IBS is how much trial & error it takes for this condition. I can't think of another medical condition in which the patient pretty much has to figure out their own treatment, but this seems to be it. Sorry, I got long-winded here.


----------



## Joan Mack (May 20, 2007)

I am sick of constipation too. I have found that zelnorm works but they took it off the market. I have had to help myself get well and experiment around with different medicines for different ailments. Alot of the doctors don't know much about drugs. They get a lot of literature and samples from the drug companies. They want to offer you something....which is nice but some of them are so dumb they want you to keep trying a medicine that doesn't work. This gastro guy was so enamoured with miralax...he was like a broken record.


----------



## annie7 (Aug 16, 2002)

yeah, Joan--my dr was exactly like that too with miralax. kept pushing it and raving about it. when i said it didn't work for me she just told me to keep on trying it. well i did try it twice--gave it about a week each time-- but enough is enough. it made me very bloated and gassy with absolutely no results. i know it helps a lot of people but unfortunately i'm not one of them. the dr was so gung-ho about miralax that it made me wonder if the miralax people had a special promo going and were offering the drs a free trip to tahiti or something if they rx'd a lot of it. and then shortly after that miralax went otc.


----------



## jennih (Jan 10, 2008)

Oh how I feel your pain. I've had IBS for about 4 years now but was only diagnosed with type c last year. It is really hard to say what foods are okay and what will triger the symptoms as I have found something you think you can eat one day you might not be able to the next. The only thing my specialist told me I can do is experiment with my diet. I am not on any perscribed drugs but I have just recently started taking flax seed oil pills every morning, I have not yet found this to be helpful but it has made me gassier so I do not know how long I will stay on them. I have a theory that the body needs to adjust to foods that we are not used to eating before they can reach their full digesting potential. That being said one persons diet for and IBS sufferer may not be suitable for someone else as we all react differently and have different trigger foods.I highly recommend keeping the milk products out of your diet, I have just recently cut it out of mine as well and at first I was like you and it didn't seem like it was making a difference now I can feel it. I find if I have anything with lactose in it I have severe nausea and will probably not have a BM for a good week. Also along with lactose I have cut out eggs as well as I get the same results from eating them.When it comes to bran and multi grains I have the same reaction as you it just seems to make it worse but still not as bad as eating white breads. I'm really not sure why this is as I thought the more fiber the better and I am starting to realize this may not be true. I've been having a really bad 2 weeks with my IBS and have only been eating fruits and veggies to see if that makes a difference. I'll let you know how that goes... Bottom line unfortunatley I think this sickness is all about trial and error and finding the foods that work best for you. Good luck to you and I hope you start to feel better soon!


----------

