New to this site and at my wits end with bowel problems!

Digestive health
1

Hello there, I don't know if anybody might be able to help.

I'm a 23 year old female and for the past seven weeks I have been experiencing issues with constipation. I am in low level pain most of the time and every couple of days it will get worse, like a cramping. When it is this bad, I cannot sleep. I have lost ten pounds in weight because I am struggling to eat with the pain and nausea.

I have seen several different doctors and tried several laxatives. Last week I took a high dose of Movicol and experienced diarrhoea for several days, so I thought the problem had resolved. However, I saw a GP out of hours after that (due to bad pain) who confirmed I still had stuff in there! So I took Movicol again for a few days along with one docusate (DulcoEase) pill a day (lower dose - between 2 and 4 a day) and when I saw the GP on Wednesday (2 days ago), he felt my abdomen and did not seem to think I was constipated any longer and to eat normally. I ate a meal that evening but by the next day I was in dull pain again and feeling extremely nauseous. I suffer badly with anxiety too (four years of anxiety disorder) so this did not help matters. This morning I did not get to bed until 5am due to the pain and am relying on heat pads (which have burnt my skin) because I am unsure if painkillers will exacerbate things.

As I type I am in pain, and I don't know what to do. To me, my abdomen feels hard again - I can feel stuff in there but I cannot pass anything solid and haven't done for a month (only liquid). It seems like my bowel just will not move things along. Everything just sort of sits there unless I cause the opposite problem of diarrhoea with high doses of Movicol.

I don't know what to do. I am at the end of my tether, in so much pain and discomfort and struggling to eat (partly because of how I feel physically and partly because I'm worried about overloading myself). I am not sure if diet contributes to my issues because I've not really been eating much to cause it! I am also having anxiety attacks because I'm so worried it won't sort. I am so desperate to just have normal bowel movements. I've not had a normal pattern since the end of May.

Any advice would be much appreciated. Apologies for the length of this post!

2

Hi Emma,

Not sure if any of this will help but it sounds like you're at the stage where anything seems worth a go, and I completely understand the anxiety of the condition feeding back in on you to make the symptoms worse.  Before I was diagnosed I lost nearly a stone in weight too.

So, here goes.  These are things which helped me and may or may not help you...

1) Drink lots of water, it needs to be water rather than anthing else.

2) Check that you're eating more soluable fibre than insoluable.  Avoid things like beans and anything green for a bit as I find them harder to digest.  So for example don't eat green pepper, eat any other colour.

3) Cook things like rice and potatoes from fresh each time and eat whilst still hot.  When these items cool it changes the startch to resistant starch, and re-heating makes this worse.  This could contribute to your symptoms, about 25% of sufferers have this issue.

4) I personally have a problem with wheat and can't eat it at all, but that's not the case with all IBS suffers.

5) Dairy can be an issue for me too but not all of the time.  Think of your triggers as an old fashion set of scales.  On one side you have triggers that speed up your insides, on the other you have triggers which slow everything down.

6) Eating too much meat can make things sluggish so try to eat more chicken or fish.

7) Eat little and often, so smaller main meals but snacks in between.  If you're going to have fruit with a meal eat it first as a starter.

8) I found drinking ice cold water used to help take the edge off the nausea, used to take a bottle everywhere at one point.

Hopefully something on the above list will help.  Good Luck and have faith, I know it doesn't seem like it right now, but you will find a way to reduce your symptoms.  

As with all advice, take what works for you and ditch the rest.  IBS varies from one sufferer to another, what works for one won't work for everyone.

3

The previous poster has offered good advice. If you're barely eating then you won't be passing much. Take an anti spasmodic and start eating plain easily digest able foods.

4

Thank you very much - there's some really good advice which I will definitely try! I know I need to drink more than I do.

5

Thanks leeniepie - I will try and get hold of an antispasmodic and eat some plain things.

6

I went a month last year and charted it in here and took movico regularly and then after about a month bang.  Also drink a lot of water and I mean a lot of water. I drank 8 - 10 glasses a day. Also chomped on almonds as a snack food and a few days before also added in dried apricots and all seemed to help.

My diet was terrible and positive it contributed to my illness which I still have now. Assess your diet and throw out rubbish. It is what I had to do.

7

I think different advice works for different people.  With my illness I introduced bell peppers and there is always a green in the pack. Definitely agree with water though. I introduced porridge instead of coco pops.  Once a student always a student. I introduced salmon even though I am not a fan and helped. Some good points though not all applicable to me for example I always finish a meal with a fruit salad.  When I do not I tend to get ill.

I have no idea why either.  Also I eat apple forbidden on fod map but essential for me. 

8

Thank you. Yes my diet has never been great but I've only ever had occasional constipation - but it's one of those things that when I do get it, I get it badly. I definitely most drink more water; I struggle most of the time to get enough into me so I'm going to need to make a real effort.

9

You and I could be related.  Me too and ex partners noticed more than I did and never really though constipation was an issue until it turned into running to the loo.  My diet was terrible processed food and chicken nuggets if I felt I needed to eat well. See my problem. I disliked anything healthy so no porridge, no salad, no water and no fruit was the old diet and now it is the main part of my diet.  

I was ill all the time and I mean all the time and even with my then partner and I suffered sickness as well so in the end consuming water was not too much of an issue for me as by that time I was in the going down to the crossroads with a guitar situation.  

The idea of being locked in the loo, being ill and perspiring relentlessly just lost its appeal and out went the nuggets, processed ham and coco pops and in came porridge, salad and salmon.  Also more gentle exercise.  My illness came at a cost as I struggled to hold down a job and my g/f became fed up of me being ill so in the end it became easy to make the effort.  I still see my ex but I let her down so many times we will never be what we were so I have accepted the friends role and let her talk to me about potential suitors. At least we are still speaking and in my heart and even if it happened again I know long term I would only let her down again.  Also being on ones own makes it much easier to be ill and do the things you need to do.  

10

Sorry to hear of your troubles but glad your efforts seemed to pay off with helping your illness

11

I am still struggling with the constipation. I'm trying to eat more but it's not doing much at all and so (in my head) just literally adding to the problem. Was kept awake with stomach pain and heartburn the other night too.

With the drinking water thing, is it something that will take a while to help? I drank 8 glasses the other day and expected to go but I just passed most of it as urine

BMs are still very infrequent and are like small bits which are soft but difficult to pass. Have stopped Movico because even 2 sachets liquifies things. Tempted to up the dose of docusate as I feel I need a stimulant. So fed up of this

12

Hi Emma,  sorry to hear that things are still bad for you.  I'm afraid water alone won't fix the problem, what sort of things are you eating?  

13

Well I'm a little bit all over the place. I cut out the brown bread in case the wheat gave me problems but I've tried it again today as I'm very conscious I'm supposed to be eating fibre. Thing is, could fibre make things worse sometimes? I have to balance that with needing bulk to move things along though so I'm struggling. I'm not eating any meat because its not the easiest to digest I think?

14

Emma, you do need fibre but there are different types.  I've cut and paste this from the NHS site as it will probably explain things better than I can:

"Fibre

People with IBS are often advised to modify the amount of fibre in their diet. There are two main types of fibre: soluble fibre (which dissolves in water) and insoluble fibre (which doesn't dissolve in water).

Foods that contain soluble fibre include:

oats 

barley 

rye 

fruit – such as bananas and apples 

root vegetables – such as carrots and potatoes 

golden linseeds 

Foods that contain insoluble fibre include:

wholegrain bread 

bran 

cereals 

nuts and seeds (except golden linseeds) 

If you have diarrhoea, you may find it helps to cut down on the insoluble fibre you eat. It may also help to avoid the skin, pith and pips from fruit and vegetables.

If you have constipation, increasing the amount of soluble fibre in your diet and the amount of water you drink can help.

Your GP may be able to advise on what your recommended fibre intake should be.  "

Hopefully that clarifies things for you, so if you're constipated go for an oat cereal rather than wheat, and gluten free bread rather than ordinary bread which is usually made from wheat.

 

15

Thank you very much April, I really appreciate your help!

16

Just thought I'd say, I popped back to see the GP yesterday to see if I need to do anything different drugs wise. She has told me to increase my dosage of docusate along with one movicol a day. Fingers crossed. If that doesn't work, it may be necessary to do an enema. We shall see.

17

Docusate seems to be working pretty well so far. I'm still not totally normal but at least it has given some relief.

My issue now is the spasms/crampy tummy pain is worse. Buscopan has done nothing for me and paracetamol only takes the edge off. There must be something better for pain? Like another antispasmodic or something. I am trying to avoid ibuprofen.

18

I used to eat 2 loaves of wholemeal but back one one so now I regularly eat one per week.

I cut out meat too.  Interestingly I have had it this week as I have been away and I have been very ill but also suffered a close bereavement so it could be anything making me ill but I think you are right with the meat.

19

That will happen re: water but you still need to include this as part of your routine and from this work out what else you can eat.  This is how I did it anyway.  I used to little and often in case what I ate made me ill so I would eat scrambled eggs for example with a round of wholemeal toast.

Have an apple with a little yoghurt.

Good luck