Recently much, much worse. Horrible constipation followed by urgent, painful "going" - little after that it turns to urgent diarrhea, to the point I can''t leave the house and soil myself. Then everything stops. Now, pooping small blood clots, lots of air, but no BMs.
Rinse. Repeat.
Help!
Every time my doctor calls me she talks about one symptom and I have to tell her I'm on to the next.
Colonoscopy a few weeks ago showed no polyps. Inflammation lower colon/rectum which she biopsied and no results yet. One internal hemmerhoid - some external.
Beside myself. 70 and sick, housebound because I never know what's coming next.
Written by
NewEnglander
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It looks like you need to work on the constipation. The diarrheoa following is due to liquid food getting trapped behind impacted stool. This can leave you tied to the house, due to seepage. This is what happened to me.
What is your fibre intake like? To improve constipation in the short term you can try ground flaxseed on your breakfast, starting at 1 teaspoon and increasing at 1 teaspoon every 2-3 days - you'll need to consume extra water with it.
These foods are also high fibre:
8-9 Prunes
2 tablespoon chia seeds (soaked for 10-15 mins in milk or non dairy milk with cereal or water)
Shredded wheat (or if GF: Nutribrex)
60g Quinoa
Wholewheat bread
75g Whole grain pastas (if GF: Buckwheat)
2 Hard pears
5 Dried apricots
90g Raspberries
1 orange (contain a natural laxative)
2 kiwi.
I find that I need to have 1 orange or 2 kiwi a day and then another high fibre fruit later in the day to help with BMs. Introduce new foods and any fibre increases slowly, starting with one new thing at a time, waiting for 2-3 days for a response and keep a food diary. You may not need to consume as much fibre as I do.
For breakfast I make a porridge of 4 tablespoon of oat bran and 4 tablespoon all bran (wheat bran), 2.5 small cups of water and microwave for 10 mins. I then mix in 2 tablespoon of chia seeds and 1 tablespoon ground flaxseed and leave to stand for 15-20 mins since the chia seeds need to form a gel. On top of that I place 8 prunes and eat. The best thing to do is to start with normal oats in similar quantities and, if needed, replace one of the tablespoons of oats with oat bran for a couple of days, carrying on doing this every couple of days until you get to 4 tablespoon of oat bran and 4 tablespoon of oats. Then start replacing with wheat bran in the same manner. You can then add the other ingredients one at a time. You might find you do not need the complete 'recipe' to have a BM. All these individual components are down to tolerance e.g. you may not tolerate wheat (see later about Alflorex), so it is best to keep a food diary (I do this on a spreadsheet) recording symptoms for up to 2-3 days after each change.
I also take 30 drops of ginger extract before bedtime to aid motility. You may need to work up the dose to say 7 drop increments each night.
Exercise can help with BMs. The government recommends 150 mins of moderate exercise (e.g. walking as if you are late for an appointment) or 75 of intense exercise (e.g. jogging) per week. I also have a bit of a walk around straight after breakfast to get things moving. You may find this a challenge if you have mobility issues, but any form of exercise, even walking around your home helps.
You need to ensure that you are drinking enough fluids (2 litres of fluid per day).
There is some good advice about constipation here:
There are also medications that help IBS-C (constipation dominant IBS). I suffer from IBS-C and have been prescribed Linaclotide for it. I also take Alflorex probiotic which has made me more tolerant to taking in the extra fibre I need for a BM.
Failing dietary measures, you can try Optifibre, which needs to be worked up to a dose according to instructions. You may not need the full dose - watch out for gas and increment to a level that is acceptable for you.
Some people are more prone to constipation due to their intestinal anatomy. Through colonoscopies I have been told that I have a long loopy (redundant) colon. This means that food takes longer to pass through and in the mean time the intestines have more time to suck out water from the stool, drying them out and causing constipation. I have found that I need to consume much more fibre than other people to have regular BMs.
I have also found useful having most of my food at meal times, leaving 4-5 hours of not eating between meals, eating my fruit snack before a meal. This means that your digestive system has time to process each meal. Additionally, there are a number of mechanisms that help propel food through the intestines. One of these mechanisms is something called the MMC (migrating motor complex) which sets off 'cleaning waves' that sweep food waste from your small intestine into your large intestine. This only happens when you have an empty stomach. When people snack regularly, it prevents the MMC from working properly and could hinder this 'cleaning' activity. I also find the larger meals help to push things along better than drip feeding through snacking.
That was an amazing response with such valuable information. I rec'd my colonoscopy results which had no polyps but inflammation at lower colon/rectum - that has been biopsied and chronic colitis diagnosed - and they are doing more indepth analysis of the tissue. I actually thought colitis was a disease, but it is "inflammation" which I guess I knew. I'm eager to see what results come back but it could be weeks. It was already 3 weeks for these results from the time of the test. I do know if I keep things flowing I do better, so this is my strategy now. I had nearly stopped eating and the PA told me to EAT - I guess my insides were eating themselves and that was very bad. The words on the test were: ""Patchy active colitis with changes suggestive of chronic colitis; mucosal granulomas present" - again, thank you!
Good that you are getting a proper diagnosis now. I am not sure of the dietary regime for colitis, but perhaps you can ask for a dietitian referral from your GP? I know that the Meditteranean diet is anti-inflammatory.
There has been some promising news recently about colitis below:
That sounds rough NewEnglander. You may have diarrhoea due to severe constipation. I have ibsc. I recommend drinking 2 litres of fluid a day at intervals rather than loads in one go. Also keep a food diary. Maybe try going gluten free for a couple of months and then reintroduce things like wheat and oats. I've just reintroduced oats, which was OK, but felt uncomfortable after trying wheat.I also suggest going to the loo at regular times. If I rush out and don't do a poo around 9.30, I have a much harder time passing it later in the day.
I also take fibogel twice a day, which, as long as you are taking lots of fluids, really helps.
Thank you! Right now I'm housebound in the morning - once I get to mid-day I'm ok - Thanksgiving coming up and being marooned at someone's home is causing me great anxiety.
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