# Can anyone please help me...



## adaas (Feb 18, 2009)

I am twenty one years old. About six months ago I began to have symptoms that I did not know were ibs at the time. I had terrible abdominal pain and was constipated. Laxatives didn't seem to help. I went to the doctor after a few weeks. We did an x-ray and found that I was backed up literally to my ribs. Needless to say, this scared the #### out of me (no pun intended) but he didn't seem too worried, prescribed me mirilax and sent me on my way. I later was diagnosed with depression, and after another xray was still backed up. My doctor prescribed me anti-depressents and also told me to take mineral oil for two weeks. I did so, still taking mirilax. Go back in about two months ago and I was still backed up, though not quite as badly. Still, I am constantly bloated, in pain and nothing seems to help that much. I was sent to a specialist, who did absolutely nothing for me besides echo the obvious, that I have IBS. Told me to take citrucel and up my mirilax dosage. I feel like I have tried so many things, eating more fiber and soluable fiber, taking vitamins and probiotics...and I swear none of it is helping like it should. I don't get how me being backed up nearly to my ribs for months is not concerning to anyone! The idea of living like this is bleak...honestly, I don't know what to do. Has anyone had this same thing? I've read that many have been constipated for weeks...I'm going on MONTHS here! Anyone have any advice?


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## robbiemac57 (Jan 7, 2009)

Hi,Sounds like you need a new doc!!! You have my sympathy. I'm blessed that I have never been as bad as that. I do find when I am not empty the depression sets in, and as soon as I have a good BM my mental and emotional state changes completely. maybe you haven't really got depression at all and if they could only get you empty it would go away. But I hear for some people antidepressants help with the constipation and IBS, not in my case though.Are you passing anything with the miralax etc, or nothing at all?


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## adaas (Feb 18, 2009)

Hi Robbie, thanks for replying!With the miralax I am passing. I can go to the bathroom if I am on miralax every day, some days more than others. I find that the mineral oil really helps but I can't be on that very long. I guess my biggest concern is that even when I had been going more and all the last couple of months the xray still looked so bad.







And I wouldn't doubt the depression is a symptom of this. My general doc was a lot more helpful than the specialist. Going in and him having nothing to say was really hard to take.


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## robbiemac57 (Jan 7, 2009)

Hi,I'm glad you're at least moving something. Just need to get a bit more of it shifted! did you ask your GP or specialist why they don't put you under and do a clean out? seems really strange they would leave it go so bad for so long.have you tired either doing the max dose of miralax for a few days straight, or doing a couple of days on epsom salts? That's what my dietician has done with me when I've been really bunged up. It might even be worth getting the golytely bowel prep or similar stuff they use to clean you out before a colonoscopy. they are fairly gentle but thorough. you just need to make sure you don't have to leave home when you're doing any of these things!Are your MB's hard or is the miralax keeping it soft? And are you drinking lots of water? Nothing you do will work if you don't keep the water intake up (I average about 2 - 3 litres a day of just plain water over and above any tea, lemonade or other drinks I have) You particularly need to keep up the water when you're on something like miralax and/or if you're taking a fibre supplement.Of course it's always possible the antidepressants are contributing to your present C situation and helping to stop things moving. why can you only take the mineral oil (presumably parrafin??) for a short time? What does it do to you? I've been on it for years, started at 20ml twice a day, even while I was on other laxatives, have gradually cut down now though.I guess at the end of the day the good news is you are moving something instead of nothing, eh?? It is obviously going to be a slow process, but hang in there, and try not to get too panicky about it (easier said than done I know) because the added stress will only constrict the bowel more and prevent things moving, ending up making it worse for you. (been there, done that!).


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## poohandtiger (Feb 22, 2009)

Sorry to hear your in so much pain, hubby dealing with the same thing, first off he went and got a real "Enama" not the boxed kind they did'nt work. (Can only be used at the once a week.) Now you have relief don't eat the same old things that got you into this. You must eat 5 to 6 SMALL MEALS A DAY before your meals take a couple of teaspoons of benfiber with water. SLOWLY, do not gulp anything in the furture. Do not eat fast. Don't drink water during a meal. With a meal take an 8 oz water with 2 tsp of Apple cider Vinager, and a splash of lemon. Sip during your meals SLOWLY. To help with pain sip mint and ginger teas. Eat only french or sour dough breads.Now for your DIET. No Dairy, egg yolk, whole wheat, red meats, chocolate candy, (but you can make thing from unsweetened cocoa powder) coconut, ALL FRIED FOODS, ALL OILS INCUDING BUTTER. coffee and teas, alcohol. and carbonated beverages, artificial sweeteners and all insoluble vegs. Which is about all you normaly eat right? After that enama start fresh, make simple meals, steam veg. (no oils) a small piece of fish. and some rice noodles. Simple but it will sit better on your colon. You can add foods later after the pain goes. Stay away from all the laxatives. But do take Benifiber before your meals. Away from home take Fibercon pill before you eat. Plan your meals awy from home. so they fit into your new diet. Cook extra a night so you can take a sack luch. And don't ever let your stomach get empty during the day. Go on line and get reicpes for IBS It's not going away and we need to re-educate yourself for the reat of your lift. Good book I've found, "Eating for I.B.S. by Heather Van vorous. No many check out you local libary, it's free and it should have a few books on the subject.Good luck pooh


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## Delta 1-5 (Feb 22, 2009)

Frist off did you try a real old fashion enama, not the boxed kind, they don't work? Once that works you got to get the right kind of foods. throw out the Laxatives, and use only Benifiber, 2 tsp BEFORE each meal with an 8oz glass of water.SIPPING SLOWLY. No more gulping and eating fast. DURING A MEAL SIP a 8 oz glass a water with 2tsp of apple cider vinagar with a splash of lemon. Now your diet heres's the fun part.No dairy, egg yolk, cocoa, oils ( all oil will act as a slab of lard in your stomach), whole wheat, red meats, carbanated drinks, coffe, teas, alcohol. aritfical sweeteners, fruits and veg that are insoluble. no peels and seeds or nuts of any king. You can add things into your diet when you get healthier which will be a long time from now. After that first enama start with simple meals like steamed White rice, steam aspearious, rice noodles a little fish.You must eat 5 to 6 SMALL meals a day SLOWLY. Never let your stomach get empty. Slowly drink water through out the day it will help with constipation.Breakfast - i start with my benafiber, then a cup of organic ginger tea, then slowly, then i make myself a bowl of oatmeal and for a sweetner add a couple of tb of unsweetened apple sauce. Be sure to have a snack inbetween luch and dinner.Lunch - Benifber then follow it with a puried soup ( BOXED ) no dairy or wheat, Like '" Imagine" sweetpotao soup, or carrot ginger, or split pea. there are several like these. Write down what you eat each day. And pay attention to the things that hurt, bloat and make your constipation worse.You can get pritzels and unsweetened apple sauce for snacks. Dinner - Benifber, then steam some sweet potatos , a little fish and spinch rice noodles. Sip your apple cider vinagar drink, SMALL MEALS (use a small plate it will help to remind you) ! Slowly.In between meal sip ginger or mint teas. Ginger aid in digestion and mint helps relieve gas. You can add things as you get to feelig better. It has taken me about 3 weeks to get this under control.


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## TexasMom (May 27, 2006)

Constipation can be a sign of hypothyroid.... have your doctor do a GOOD thyroid workup.... NOT just TSH but the whole thing..... constipation can also be a sign of celiac disease. Check that out. Even if you don't have celiac, you can still be gluten sensitive, but don't go gluten-free without testing for celiac first since going gluten-free will invalidate a celiac test..... if negative to celiac, then you can try eliminating gluten from your diet and see if that helps. You can also try avoiding dairy for 10 days, which I've found is quite a culprit for digestive symptoms... substitute with Rice Dream rice milk in the refrigerated section of the grocery store..... even Wal-mart carries it. In the meantime, what about prune juice? A tea you might try is Smooth Move Tea with Senna which helps stimulate the digestive tract...... one supplement that you might try too is Boldavera........ or Digest RC..... (you might call and ask, but I think Digest RC is contraindicated if you've had your gallbladder removed, not sure about Boldavera)http://www.cxresearch.net/zen-cart/index.p...035af1e6fb5d42ahttp://www.cxresearch.net/zen-cart/index.p...p;products_id=2Hope this helps, Susan


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## adaas (Feb 18, 2009)

Thank you for the replies. I tried a miralax "clean out" with the drinking eight ounces every fifteen minutes, along with two senna laxatives right beforehand. My stool was extremely watery, which was weird and there was quite a bit of that but nothing too solid. Next day my stomach seemed either gassy or had still some liquid, I wasn't sure. I seem less bloated though, so I think maybe I am not as backed up as I think I am (the last x ray was a few months ago). One thing about the mineral oil, my Dr. said that it would cause vitamin deficiency, so not to take it longer than two weeks. However it always seems to help. To be more specific, I can go....but sometimes it's really thin and there's not much of it. After this whole miralax "cleanse" I don't know where I'm at. It seemed to help, but Should I go in and get x rayed again? I've felt better lately, incorporating changes in diet (slower some days than others, but surely) any advice on this? And thank you so much for the replies.


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## sally-p (Nov 1, 2001)

Hello, I am a 25 year veteran of IBS. Been through it all. I think having your thyroid checked is a good idea. I have that problem as do others. You can help get things moving with magnesium 250 mg with lots of water, some Milk of Magnesia, I use NOW brand peppermint gels, they help alot. But on the drug side, I still use Zelnorm (generic) from India. Also, Ativan and small dose of Zoloft. This has evolved over many, many years. I no longer eat meat. The stool softeners help but be careful not to overdo. An internal medicine doctor for me has been more helpful. He thinks (along with other docs) that small doses of anti-depresant drugs help with the pain, and it works for me. Ativan helps with the anxiety. GI docs don't/can't give these drugs. They want you to rely on fiber, which for me and lots of others, does not work alone. You can google generic zelnorm and find it on the web. I only take it in the morning one hour before eating. You can get anti-spasmodics, go easy on these too. It's a recipe you have to figure out for yourself. Having said all that you have to watch your diet, no artificial sweetener, milk (but I tolerate some cheese), coke and pepsi, chocolate (but I can tolerate some after a meal).Tweaking takes time, you cannot do it all at once, everyone is different. Summary: Go to an internal medicine doctor for help and get that thyroid checked.


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## robbiemac57 (Jan 7, 2009)

Hi Adaas,I was on Movicol for a long time, which is the Australian brand name of Miralax. I found that after large doses, or prolonged use of lower doses, I was left feeling very full, bloated and windy, and very irritated in the tummy/lower abdomen and rectum (never felt like it was empty). When i eased off taking it for a day or two, or really dropped the dosage down, I felt much more empty and had far less symptoms. In my case it was the laxative itself causing irritation which felt like it hadn't worked. If you are still taking large doses and only passing small and/or very liquid bm's my suggestion would be to ease off the Miralax (not necessarily altogether, but just lower the dose dramatically) for maybe two or three days. (It took two days for the irritation to start to settle down with me) Whether you are or you aren't as blocked up as you think, it is unlikely that missing a couple of days is going to make your problem any more severe, and if it turns out that you are just badly irritated you could feel a whole lot better instead! If you still feel the same after easing off for a couple of days then resume what you are doing. The way this particular type of laxative works is that when you are badly constipated you take high doses and pass lots of liquid. Gradually the liquid will thicken up and start to develop form, and eventually you should start to pass something more solid. If you are not badly clogged you will continually pass liquid/mush and never get to the solid stage. If you have been on it for a long time and are still passing basically liquid/mushy stuff EITHER you are still badly backed up and it hasn't fully worked yet, or you weren't as bad as you thought and could probably try lowering your dose.Just as an aside, after being on Movicol for a long time and then reducing the dose I discovered that I had been suffering a lot of side effects. Nightmares (really scary ones!), growling and churning in the belly all night long, general feeling of lethargy, tiredness and just being unwell, depressed, headaches, no appetite, sometimes nausea, sometimes pains. And of course on top of this was the general irritation it caused to my gut as well. Sometimes I felt really bruised and tender around the ribs and belly, like I'd been kicked. The side effects got worse the longer I was on it and where I first noticed them when I took high doses, I eventually found they developed as badly on lower doses, so I had to stop it altogether. I switched to epsom salts and found this was more effective and had less side effects. But I wouldn't recommend this without consulting your doctor as I know it is not suitable for everyone. (but it is a heck of a lot cheaper than the other laxatives too!)Re the mineral oil, i had read that too about the vitamin thing, but my dietician put me on it, and i've been taking it twice a day for best part of 5 years and can't say I've noticed any problems, other than occasional leakage if the dose was too high and things got a bit 'slippery'!I would avoid senna and other irritant type laxatives, as they not only are more addictive, they can actually end up making the C worse.When my son was about 4 he had bowel problems (seems like constipation runs in the family) The xray showed he was blocked up right through his intestine (sounds like you). The encopresis clinic at the hospital put him on a regimen ofay 1 - laxativeDay 2 - enemaDay 3 - suppositoryAnd a 15 minute sit on the toilet after every meal every day.We had to persist with this 3 day rotation for about 6 or 8 weeks before he was finally clear and we could start to train his bowel normally. So don't give up. If a 4 year old can get through it so can you!!







R


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## SpaceNeedle (Jul 22, 2000)

"..was left feeling very full, bloated and windy, and very irritated in the tummy/lower abdomen and rectum (never felt like it was empty)..."Same deal here. I had to take multiple doses of miralax per day in order to get a BM, but this started to irritate my gut at the dose levels ... I eventually quit trying it (and went back to Zelnorm).


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## adaas (Feb 18, 2009)

Robbie thank you SO MUCH for your reply. Per your suggestion, I stopped taking miralax and MOST of the pain and bloating is gone! Now I will add that I've added other things (enzymes, soluble fiber, probiotics) to my daily regimen HOWEVER I truly think it was the miralax causing me so much pain. I have yet to see, however, if I can remain at all regular without it. I've had very small BM's not so frequently since staying off of it, but the soluble fiber I'm taking is SUPPOSED to help ( it's from heather's ibs shop, great website if you've never heard of it). Anyway, I'm giving it a bit of time to see how it pans out. Not sure though what I'll do if I can't stay regular without it. I don't want to have to use enemas too often and further mess anything up. So you've been on mineral oil for a long time with no problems? The mineral oil/miralax combo worked for me pretty well, I think I'll start taking mineral oil daily to see if that'll do. Thank you SO MUCH for pointing out about the miralax, seriously. I have felt ten times better since stopping taking it....my only problem is now, what to replace it with.


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## leeballz (Mar 12, 2009)

So is benfiber a supplement you take before meals? Is this supposed to help with constipation? I can't tell if I'm really backed up, but I only have a BM every other day or so, and I always feel bloated and crampy.... would taking benfiber help this?Thanks!-Leeann


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