# Trouble with Amitiza



## desperateforrelief (Sep 15, 2017)

Hey all. Right now it's almost 3 AM and I wonder if I should go to the ER because I haven't slept in 2 days. The reason? I am in so much pain! I am a 25 yo f with a gluten/dairy intolerance and I am very good at watching my diet and I exercise 3 hours a day. I've been diagnosed with IBS-C since I was 17 and have been on Miralax literally every night since that time. It's gotten less effective over time and I have a long family history of colon cancer, so I went to a GI who did a colonoscopy on 8/31. It was clear, no polyps, just hemorrhoids, and the doctor put me on Amitiza 24 mg 2x day with food, to try to see if that would help me.

It's been two weeks now, and I haven't had a BM for the past five days. I called them and they told me to keep sticking with it, but that's not the worst part. About four days ago, I realized that my stomach was severely, severely bloated and that my stomach made sloshing sounds whenever I walked. Fast forward to now, my legs and ankles are bloated, the bloating has gotten worse, the distension makes it difficult to wear clothes, and I honestly look like I'm pregnant. The sloshing in the stomach is the worst part. It makes it painful to exercise. Usually I walk a mile to the grocery store and back every morning just to keep myself walking to try to keep me regular, but walking has honestly been so painful these last few days and I find that I'm quickly short of breath. I also find, as weird as this is to say, that I can't really fart. I find myself "micro-burping" where it feels like I need to burp and I can't, but I seriously can't fart to save my life. I've been doing all sorts of different yoga poses to try to push the wind out of me, but nothing is coming. I've taken two Gas X chewables with dinner (last night was grilled salmon filet and a quarter cup of roasted carrots) but that hasn't helped much either.

I don't know what this is, and the nurse told me that it doesn't sound like a side effect of Amitiza, but I have never had this problem before I started it. I've read through at least 200 reviews on different sites and seen people complaining about bloating and gas, but nothing about sloshing in the stomach. The nurses keep telling me to just keep taking it, but I am seriously worried that it can somehow get worse from here instead of better. I'm at wits end and I honestly don't know what to do. I honestly can't even bring myself to eat anymore because it is literally just too painful, like my stomach feels like it's literally hanging out of me.

So I guess that's where I'm at right now. I'm sorry if this is long. It's 3 AM and I decided to make an account just in the desperate hope that someone out there has maybe gone through the same thing and they can help figure out how to relieve this. Thanks so much in advance!!


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## annie7 (Aug 16, 2002)

sorry for all your misery.

i took amitiza. i tried both dosage strengths. it did nothing for my bms and yes, made me very bloated, gassy and nauseous and also made my ankles and calves swell up, which i found especially alarming. the website says that edema can be a side effect of amitiza. i stopped taking it after three days. i couldn't stand the side effects, i wasn't able to go on it, and i figured if it didn't work in three days , it wasn't going to work at all.

amitiza is supposed to add liquid to the stool, so maybe that's the reason for the sloshy feeling you're getting---all the liquid stool sloshing around in there.

there are other meds out there--linzess and trulance. hopefull one of those will work for you.

good luck.


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## desperateforrelief (Sep 15, 2017)

annie7 said:


> sorry for all your misery.
> 
> i took amitiza. i tried both dosage strengths. it did nothing for my bms and yes, made me very bloated, gassy and nauseous and also made my ankles and calves swell up, which i found especially alarming. the website says that edema can be a side effect of amitiza. i stopped taking it after three days. i couldn't stand the side effects, i wasn't able to go on it, and i figured if it didn't work in three days , it wasn't going to work at all.
> 
> ...


Thanks for the reply! It's good to know that I'm not alone experiencing it...and I'm definitely going to stop. I didn't take my morning dose, and I don't think I'll take it again. I actually took a bottle of magnesium citrate after my message, and oh boy, that was a trip! I didn't expect much to come out of me, but there was a LOT of stuff. I think just based on that it shows that Amitiza isn't really working for me. I never felt nauseous when I had it, like at all, which is weird since that's one of the more common side effects, but the bloating and swelling is too much to live with.

I noticed that the sloshing is a lot less today...I haven't eaten anything but one baby carrot stick once an hour since I've been "going" all morning from the citrate and that's as much as I can handle right now. The distension in my stomach has gone down considerably, but it's still extremely tender to the touch, like it feels sore like I've never experienced before. I don't know what this is or what this pill did to me but I'm hoping it goes away soon!!


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## annie7 (Aug 16, 2002)

yes, you're right--sounds like you were really backed up, no thanks to amitiza. not going for five days is not good.

that's good that the sloshing is less. maybe your stomach is tender from all the bloating and constipation you had and also because of going so much with the mag citrate. hope you feel better soon.


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## nbagheri (Sep 20, 2017)

desperateforrelief said:


> Hey all. Right now it's almost 3 AM and I wonder if I should go to the ER because I haven't slept in 2 days. The reason? I am in so much pain! I am a 25 yo f with a gluten/dairy intolerance and I am very good at watching my diet and I exercise 3 hours a day. I've been diagnosed with IBS-C since I was 17 and have been on Miralax literally every night since that time. It's gotten less effective over time and I have a long family history of colon cancer, so I went to a GI who did a colonoscopy on 8/31. It was clear, no polyps, just hemorrhoids, and the doctor put me on Amitiza 24 mg 2x day with food, to try to see if that would help me.
> 
> It's been two weeks now, and I haven't had a BM for the past five days. I called them and they told me to keep sticking with it, but that's not the worst part. About four days ago, I realized that my stomach was severely, severely bloated and that my stomach made sloshing sounds whenever I walked. Fast forward to now, my legs and ankles are bloated, the bloating has gotten worse, the distension makes it difficult to wear clothes, and I honestly look like I'm pregnant. The sloshing in the stomach is the worst part. It makes it painful to exercise. Usually I walk a mile to the grocery store and back every morning just to keep myself walking to try to keep me regular, but walking has honestly been so painful these last few days and I find that I'm quickly short of breath. I also find, as weird as this is to say, that I can't really fart. I find myself "micro-burping" where it feels like I need to burp and I can't, but I seriously can't fart to save my life. I've been doing all sorts of different yoga poses to try to push the wind out of me, but nothing is coming. I've taken two Gas X chewables with dinner (last night was grilled salmon filet and a quarter cup of roasted carrots) but that hasn't helped much either.
> 
> ...


Hey! I'm so sorry to hear that. I completely understand what you're going through. I have pretty much all the symptoms that you have. I have tried several prescription and over the counter meds. Constella and Resotran helped me for a bit but I guess my body adapted to it because they stopped working. What I've found helpful though is drinking coffee 15 min after breakfast. Coffee with MILK AND HONEY (it has to be sweetened and have milk because i've literally tried black coffee and coffee with almond milk and it was ineffective). I've tried having coffee other times of the day and it didn't work. If you do decide to give this a try, make sure you give yourself a good 2-3 hours in the morning because you don't empty the contents in one sit. I've had to keep sipping on my coffee and go to the bathroom 3-4 times, and each time a little bit comes out. And even after all that, I still don't feel completely empty. And by nighttime, i feel extremely bloated, and sometimes with pain. But at least I know the next day, there's a chance of me defecating. That being said, I do go through phases where coffee doesn't work either and I go 5-7 days without emptying. These times are very difficult. But all I can say is hang in there because it's something that cannot be cured unfortunately, we just have to try and find what works and stick to that and hope for the best!


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## desperateforrelief (Sep 15, 2017)

nbagheri said:


> Hey! I'm so sorry to hear that. I completely understand what you're going through. I have pretty much all the symptoms that you have. I have tried several prescription and over the counter meds. Constella and Resotran helped me for a bit but I guess my body adapted to it because they stopped working. What I've found helpful though is drinking coffee 15 min after breakfast. Coffee with MILK AND HONEY (it has to be sweetened and have milk because i've literally tried black coffee and coffee with almond milk and it was ineffective). I've tried having coffee other times of the day and it didn't work. If you do decide to give this a try, make sure you give yourself a good 2-3 hours in the morning because you don't empty the contents in one sit. I've had to keep sipping on my coffee and go to the bathroom 3-4 times, and each time a little bit comes out. And even after all that, I still don't feel completely empty. And by nighttime, i feel extremely bloated, and sometimes with pain. But at least I know the next day, there's a chance of me defecating. That being said, I do go through phases where coffee doesn't work either and I go 5-7 days without emptying. These times are very difficult. But all I can say is hang in there because it's something that cannot be cured unfortunately, we just have to try and find what works and stick to that and hope for the best!


Oh wow, I'm so sorry to hear that. I actually can't have caffeine, so coffee is a definite no-no for me...I need to stay away from chocolate too, unfortunately. I've actually also allergic to pineapple, like my tongue swells up and it's hard to swallow, but I've been pushing through it the past few days because I know it's for certain one of the things that really makes me go. The swelling has gone down, but I'm still bloated and uncomfortable...like I still feel like I have "to go" and it's just not "going!" I'm trying a combination of senna tea with Miralax twice a day to see if that helps any, otherwise I think I'm just going to adopt a liquid diet because I'm so tired of going through this!! Either that or just chugging a bottle of magnesium citrate every week, but I seriously worry about what damage it's doing to my body. I already restrict my diet to the point where I eat a low fiber diet of just carrots and grilled fish/chicken nightly 5 times a week and then just carrot sticks during the day when I get hungry. Not sure what else I can really do at this point.


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## annie7 (Aug 16, 2002)

hopefully the miralax/senna tea combo will work for you. it sounds like a good plan.

i was originally dx'd with ibs-c but after doing some research, i thought i had more going on than that so i asked my gastro doc for a sitz marker test (colonic transit study). this showed that i had colonic inertia and not ibs-c at all.

since none of the constipation meds worked for me, my gastro told me to take whatever i need to go which for me was a combination of osmotic and stimulant laxatives--milk of magnesia and either senna or dulcolax. if you try this, be sure to take milk of mag and dulcolax at least an hour apart or you'll get cramping. taking these daily was better than getting backed up and developing an impaction, he told me.

like you, i also ate a low fiber diet since lots of fiber just backed me up all the more.

good luck with everything. i hope you can find some relief. i do hope the miralax/senna tea works for you.


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## desperateforrelief (Sep 15, 2017)

annie7 said:


> hopefully the miralax/senna tea combo will work for you. it sounds like a good plan.
> 
> i was originally dx'd with ibs-c but after doing some research, i thought i had more going on than that so i asked my gastro doc for a sitz marker test (colonic transit study). this showed that i had colonic inertia and not ibs-c at all.
> 
> ...


Oooh, thanks, that's a really helpful tip about the milk of magnesia and the senna. I didn't think that it could cause cramping, but I guess that makes sense if it's too much at once! I have a follow-up with my gastro in December to check how I'm doing, and I think I'm going to bring up the sitz marker test to her. I know I told my last gastro about a time when I ate corn and it took 6-8 days for me to see it in the toilet and she said that it might just mean that I have an extra long colon, but she didn't have anything else to say about it.


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## annie7 (Aug 16, 2002)

oh, it's just the dulcolax/milk of mag combo that has to be taken an hour apart. not milk of mag and senna--- they can be taken together with no problem--i've done that many times. the instructions on the dulcolax box say you have to take dulcolax an hour apart from any antacids or milk products or else you'll get cramping because these things affect the special coating that is on the dulcolax pills.

oh yes--do tell your gastro again that you want the sitz marker test. based on your "corn transit" it really does sound like you could have colonic inertia. or, yes, like your doc said, you could have an extra long colon, too. my colonoscopy showed that i had one (long and twisted) but yes, either way, you do definitely need to take something daily to help you go.

maybe linzess or trulance would help you....


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