Bowel Movement Trouble

[Bob1128]

My wife has been having trouble with bowel movements for years now. She has had 2 colonoscopies within the past year and both were determined to be clear. Before the last colonoscopy a nurse had to give her 8 warm water enemas to clean her out enough for the procedure to completed. She now can't have a bowel movement at all without taking something to clean her out (2.4 g Monobasic sodium phosphate- a couple of times a month).
She has had a severe bipolar disorder for many years & has been taking Alprazolam 2 mg -4 times daily. She also takes Geodon 80 mg twice daily, Arimidex 1 mg daily for breast cancer, Amitza 24 mg twice daily for the constipation and an extra strength sominex nightly for insomnia. She usually only eats small amounts twice daily, a cup of activia EVERY morning and is afraid to eat any more than that because she can't pass anything but gas. Doctors have not given her anything definative about her condition and have not explained anything that can be done for it given that most all of the medication she has to take for Bipolar Disorder causes constipation. We are at a loss as to what she needs to do. She is about 5' 3'' tall and weighs about 135 lbs. She tries to drink water during the day but usually drinks 4 or 5 cans of cola daily. Can anyone tell us what can be done to get her bowels to work again. Again she does pass gas but cannot pass anything solid with sodium phosphate (which does work). She is worried about the warnings on the bottles of sodium phosphate but nothing else works and she gets bloated after 10 days to 2 weeks.

[Kbuz]

Geodon does this to me, too.  It's awful, but I have to take it for bipolar 1.  More fiber in her diet will only give her gas.  Even Miralax does nothing.  The only thing that works is a laxative.  I get about two hours of exercise a day, so walking or working out is not helpful.  I'm going to ask my doctor for a prescription strength laxative.  I also have no appetite and eat like a bird; if I don't, I would blow up like a balloon.  Another good option is latuda--it's weight neutral and won't leave her constipated.  It is expensive, but there are coupon savings codes that you may qualify for.  I think I'll go back to it if this doesn't pass soon.  Risperidone with topamax to control weight gain is also another good option that she could try.

[Morecambe]

Hi - I wonder whether your wife has been stereotyped into believing that only drugs and chemicals are the remedy to a normal bowel movement??  Why not try a diet that is very high in fibre - such as:-

breakfast : fresh fruit juice, home made muesli (organic oats + organic bran soaked in milk to which grated fruit and nuts have been added), brown wholemeal toast, tea/coffee

lunch : pulverised fresh vegetables to which some bran has been added, wholemeal bread sandwich, 2 items of fresh fruit

dinner : main course + lightly steamed fresh vegetables, pulverised fresh fruit + bran and organic yoghurt to which some bran has been added.

No processed food, cola, artificially flavoured/coloured foods - and drink ~2 litres of water per day.

Maybe this will help??

Good luck
Morecambe