Aa
This is ridiculous....
Hi:
I have never been diagnosed with IBS, but I strongly suspect I may have IBS with constipation . My mother and my sister both have it. For as long as I can remember, I have had bad issues with constipation. Its been getting worse and since the week after Easter, I have not been able to go, or very little. My lower abdomen is noticably bloated and full of gas and it is giving me awful heartburn. I have to actually suck my stomach in because it hurts to let it loose.
Every place I go to for advice just gives me the same crap- fiber, water, and exercise. I take Metamucil 2x a day and try to eat foods with fiber, I drink 128 oz of water alone a day, and work out 5 days a week. I have taken Colace- nothing. Milk of magnesia- nothing. Did an enema the other night- nothing. I decided to try Magnesia pills and then found out they had calcium in them!
I don't know what else to do right now. I am so gd miserable. My weight has gone up a couple pounds and I am suspecting it may have to do with this bout of constipation. I really don't want to have to resort to taking a laxative, although at this point I am ready to take Magnesium Citrate. My mother insists I take too much Metamucil, although I did cut back on it this week to once a day and still nothing. I don't want to give up the Mucil because it does work at times and until I started to take it, I was often doubled over from gas pains in my lower left side after nearly every meal. I know one can have too much fiber, but I am starting to wonder if when you take a supplement like Mucil, if it is possible to drink too much water.
Thanks,
Nikki
I have never been diagnosed with IBS, but I strongly suspect I may have IBS with constipation . My mother and my sister both have it. For as long as I can remember, I have had bad issues with constipation. Its been getting worse and since the week after Easter, I have not been able to go, or very little. My lower abdomen is noticably bloated and full of gas and it is giving me awful heartburn. I have to actually suck my stomach in because it hurts to let it loose.
Every place I go to for advice just gives me the same crap- fiber, water, and exercise. I take Metamucil 2x a day and try to eat foods with fiber, I drink 128 oz of water alone a day, and work out 5 days a week. I have taken Colace- nothing. Milk of magnesia- nothing. Did an enema the other night- nothing. I decided to try Magnesia pills and then found out they had calcium in them!
I don't know what else to do right now. I am so gd miserable. My weight has gone up a couple pounds and I am suspecting it may have to do with this bout of constipation. I really don't want to have to resort to taking a laxative, although at this point I am ready to take Magnesium Citrate. My mother insists I take too much Metamucil, although I did cut back on it this week to once a day and still nothing. I don't want to give up the Mucil because it does work at times and until I started to take it, I was often doubled over from gas pains in my lower left side after nearly every meal. I know one can have too much fiber, but I am starting to wonder if when you take a supplement like Mucil, if it is possible to drink too much water.
Thanks,
Nikki
Hey there, I was wondering how all your efforts have been working out for you. I have to second the suggestion for miralax. It worked for me a bit, and if u don't have a serious colonic issue that should do the trick. If not. I would go see ur gi specialist and do a sitz marker test. Hope u have been feeling better. My best.
Any opinions on something like the Sanar Colon Cleanser 2002? All the reviews make it sound like it is safe to take in general and safe to take long term, but then I read up on the ingredients and get another story. Any input or personal experiences?
Okay just double checking about the Miralax. I wasn't sure if you just had confused it with the Metamucil or if you meant just don't even bother trying it! :)
Oh I am definitely jotting down most of the suggestions on here. I am to the point where I am desperate to try ALMOST anything (not desperate to the point of trying wacky dangerous things though) to get my DS working better. I need to go to the doctor about this, but I have no insurance right now and while I probably could afford to pay for just the visit, any testing or anything is out of the question. I have had constipation problems for so long and it just ends up getting worse over time. Since I started the Metamucil over a year ago, I actually do have a week here and there where my stomach functions pretty well. But most of the time, its constipation. I'm sick of it.
HA, the Dulcolax, with the exception of the nasty cramps I got, worked great. That was the best my stomach felt in a while.
Oh I am definitely jotting down most of the suggestions on here. I am to the point where I am desperate to try ALMOST anything (not desperate to the point of trying wacky dangerous things though) to get my DS working better. I need to go to the doctor about this, but I have no insurance right now and while I probably could afford to pay for just the visit, any testing or anything is out of the question. I have had constipation problems for so long and it just ends up getting worse over time. Since I started the Metamucil over a year ago, I actually do have a week here and there where my stomach functions pretty well. But most of the time, its constipation. I'm sick of it.
HA, the Dulcolax, with the exception of the nasty cramps I got, worked great. That was the best my stomach felt in a while.
Yes, Metamucil, my boo-boo. And I mentioned antibiotics since you did not specify as to when you may have taken any. But the rest of my examples do carry some weight, so please consider those items whilst on your saga of getting your digestion straight. Take what you want, leave the rest. And by the way, you CAN throw any past, present, or future Miralax out the window, too, since the Ducolax gave you the best movement recently. Smile.
Hi ggreg:
Well the good news is my period FINALLY did just come yesterday. It actually used to be pretty irregular (one time I didn't get it for 6 months and that time I had everything checked out and nothing was out of the ordinary) but for the past couple of years, it was coming every month. Usually weight loss or gain will throw it off, but I have had neither in the past few months.
Oh, I am not on any antibiotics right now; I have not had a UTI in a few years. I do try to follow the basic guidelines of preventing UTIs (wiping front to back, etc) and yet I still will occasionally end up with one. Currently, I do not take ANY medications and have not since....well, probably since the last time I took antibiotics with the last UTI, which was summer 08. So no meds are behind the constipation.
Now when you say throw the Miralax out the window....Miralax or Metamucil? I have never taken Miralax.
Well the good news is my period FINALLY did just come yesterday. It actually used to be pretty irregular (one time I didn't get it for 6 months and that time I had everything checked out and nothing was out of the ordinary) but for the past couple of years, it was coming every month. Usually weight loss or gain will throw it off, but I have had neither in the past few months.
Oh, I am not on any antibiotics right now; I have not had a UTI in a few years. I do try to follow the basic guidelines of preventing UTIs (wiping front to back, etc) and yet I still will occasionally end up with one. Currently, I do not take ANY medications and have not since....well, probably since the last time I took antibiotics with the last UTI, which was summer 08. So no meds are behind the constipation.
Now when you say throw the Miralax out the window....Miralax or Metamucil? I have never taken Miralax.
Wait a minute, wait a minute. What??? You have not had your time of the month for two months?? Hon, would you PLEZ go to your doctor, you need a checkup, nevermind all this other.
By the way, even tho you had a refreshing bowel movement, you've been stopped up so long, that's how come you bloated back up. It takes a while for the whole works to come out of there. Take the Ducolax again, get you a couple more good movements and then quit it.
If you've taken antibiotics for the UTIs, those will tend to cause constipation, so the advice here about aloe juice, probiotics, activia, all of that stuff should at the very least be consumed right after you finish the very last round of antibiotics whenever you finish taking those. And I do think if you will get some probiotics in you right away, it is going to help your digestion a lot. One more thing on the medicine list. I don't know if you take any other medications, but you should have your doc review the side effects of everything you're on, and could be one of those is contributing to your constipation. That happened to me.
Throw the Miralax out the window. If you eat enough fiber foods, and of course about five glasses of water (no more), you are not going to get stopped up. But you have to eat fiber foods every day as a routine. This includes whole grains of all kinds, like Cheerios, oat cereal, 100 percent whole wheat bread, spagetti. Also includes a salad every day, fresh washed whole fruit as a snack only, vegies of every kind, even V-8 will help. See, if you keep pouring Miralax in your guts, it will make fiber TOO MUCH, and all that will pile up and make things ten times worse.
As for water and UTIs, please do find a website where that's all they do, is talk about that, and find out what other people do, aside from what's been offered here, to find out what all can cause those and also how to prevent them. But if you've been taking a bunch of antibiotics lately, it can create a vicious circle, where your flora is so messed up, that your body's natural immunity won't work right, and this applies to UTIs. It's the same thing with kids and earaches, they get them over and over, becuz the drugs kill the "good" bacteria, so they are susceptible to more, at least in my opinion.
And since your relatives also have similar digestive problems, you might pay attention to what you all are eating (or not eating) that's the same, could be you all have perhaps an allergy to a particular type of food, or could be you guys use too much salt, or maybe your family simply does not like a particular essential type food group, there's lots of things a family can eat out of habit that can cause "group" digestive problems. Sorry to butt in, but when you said you hadn't had a period since March, I kinda freaked out, so thought I'd tell you everything I knew about the digestive situation, too.
By the way, even tho you had a refreshing bowel movement, you've been stopped up so long, that's how come you bloated back up. It takes a while for the whole works to come out of there. Take the Ducolax again, get you a couple more good movements and then quit it.
If you've taken antibiotics for the UTIs, those will tend to cause constipation, so the advice here about aloe juice, probiotics, activia, all of that stuff should at the very least be consumed right after you finish the very last round of antibiotics whenever you finish taking those. And I do think if you will get some probiotics in you right away, it is going to help your digestion a lot. One more thing on the medicine list. I don't know if you take any other medications, but you should have your doc review the side effects of everything you're on, and could be one of those is contributing to your constipation. That happened to me.
Throw the Miralax out the window. If you eat enough fiber foods, and of course about five glasses of water (no more), you are not going to get stopped up. But you have to eat fiber foods every day as a routine. This includes whole grains of all kinds, like Cheerios, oat cereal, 100 percent whole wheat bread, spagetti. Also includes a salad every day, fresh washed whole fruit as a snack only, vegies of every kind, even V-8 will help. See, if you keep pouring Miralax in your guts, it will make fiber TOO MUCH, and all that will pile up and make things ten times worse.
As for water and UTIs, please do find a website where that's all they do, is talk about that, and find out what other people do, aside from what's been offered here, to find out what all can cause those and also how to prevent them. But if you've been taking a bunch of antibiotics lately, it can create a vicious circle, where your flora is so messed up, that your body's natural immunity won't work right, and this applies to UTIs. It's the same thing with kids and earaches, they get them over and over, becuz the drugs kill the "good" bacteria, so they are susceptible to more, at least in my opinion.
And since your relatives also have similar digestive problems, you might pay attention to what you all are eating (or not eating) that's the same, could be you all have perhaps an allergy to a particular type of food, or could be you guys use too much salt, or maybe your family simply does not like a particular essential type food group, there's lots of things a family can eat out of habit that can cause "group" digestive problems. Sorry to butt in, but when you said you hadn't had a period since March, I kinda freaked out, so thought I'd tell you everything I knew about the digestive situation, too.
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