surgery? slow transit colon, chronic constipation, ibs-c

[barbeezee]

Hi there, I'm new to this site. I am a 31 year old female and have had problems going to the restroom as long as I can remember. The last year and a half has become worse. I started paying more attention to my gi tract and wanted to help myself become more regular. So I started with the fiber, water, diet, exercise change and it only seemed to make things more heavy in my stomach. I tried miralax, stool softeners, laxatives, colonics,herbal teas, prescription meds and nothing is working to make me regular.it now, it actually has made things worse and more uncomfortable.  After a year of struggling, it seems as though my gi does not respond well to any meds or supplements. When I take meds my bowel seems to just turn to mush and sit there or swim back and forth like a fish bowl, but no release. When I push on my right side its all mushy and swishy sounding and my stomach makes a lot of noise - like clogged drains.  When I don't take meds, I get very bloated and feel full all the time, constipated. It usually takes 4-5 days or more and then ill have a release. Sometimes very lil, sometimes one big load. I feel sluggish and fatigued most days.
I have been in and out of the gi dept with plenty of tests. All blood tests come back normal, my heart rate is a lil above average but they say normal. I have had the sitz marker test and on day 3 they sit in my sigmoidcolon. I just did the camera capsule a wk and a half ago and waiting on results. My doc mentioned removing my colon/large intestines. I'm anxious for a resolution as my quality of life...honesty, *****. I am tired and just want to lay down. But really what I want is to feel normal and get out and enjoy the world.
Should I push for surgery? Larposcopic or open? Surgery is scary but living life the way I feel is even more scary to me. I feel I just want the surgery, recovery, and get back to my life.
Anyone have the same weird gi issues and/or results from doc? Please respond. Thanks.

[Caryopteris]

Oh cool it's Dr. Watters!  Small world.  You took out the gallbladder of a partner of yours (or previous partner), who then took my gallbladder out six weeks later!  Then he told me to get off gluten because I have Celiac disease, and he was right.  I saw primary docs every year, but a surgeon gave me my most important medical diagnosis ...  over the phone.  

How nice of you to help people here.  

[Christopher R Watters, MD]

Adhesive issues affecting the colon are not in your gynecologist's scope of practice. You would need to see a general or colorectal surgeon. My high school biology teacher had a saying that seems appropriate here - "You only see what you know".

[AVOCADO1]

I think that this may be what is going on with me ever since my hysterectomy 14 years ago. I have a sense of things being tethered down on my left pelvic side and have difficulty evacuating as well as a sense of swelling. I think it could be vaginal cuff adhesion and maybe even an abscess. I have gone to gynecologists who did a pelvic exam and lab tests and they insist they cannot find anything. Although one of them did say that I probably had vaginal cuff adhesions but she trivialized their importance and made me feel like a whiner. I also get left-side vaginal pain and vulvar burning.

I have gone to physical therapists who all said I had a lot of tough adhesions, including the sigmoid area which I think could be causing my difficult and incomplete evacuation issues where I feel like I'm never done. I think that things get stuck both in the rectum and sigmoid area.

The problem with adhesions is that they do not show up on imaging tests. And it is pretty much impossible to have an exploratory lap without enough evidence, even though I do have a history of several surgeries and in fact one of them did mention that adhesions were seen- this was on the report for a right adrenal gland removal a few years ago.

Of course, most people think that if I had post-hysterectomy problems then the gynecologist who did the surgery shoud have followed up with me but once I had the surgery he pretty much dropped me like a hot potato and refused to sit down with me for a discussion as to how I was doing.

[Christopher R Watters, MD]

It sure sounds like your sigmoid colon has gotten stuck down in the pelvis due to adhesions from the hysterectomy. The worst adhesions that we see and the cases most likely to require operative intervention are following GYN surgery due to the intestines flopping back down into the operative bed and getting adhesed.

[TishNTn]

I had regular bowel movements until about 3 yrs when I had a complete Hysterectomy! Little by little, over time I started getting constipated. I just had a colonoscopy this last week. Already I'm experiencing bloating and that sickening full feeling. I'm trying a combination of miralax, kiwi, and morning star products.(veggie products) Gonna try and eliminate meat all together. I often wonder if alot of mine is the stuff they put in our foods! I have a follow up appt on monday. I stay tired and sick all the time. Right after I eat it seems I get sleepy. It's terrible! I never imagined I could feel like this because of the lack of bowel movements. And in the last month it has gotten so bad that my face stays broke out! Before my colonoscopy I would go up to 4 days without any movements. I started using enemas. It gave me a little relief. I knew I couldnt keep doing it cause it had to be bad for my colon! Only been 3 days since my colonoscopy and I woke up feeling like I was gonna throw up! And when you wake up feeling like that you certainly don't want to try and eat until that feel subsides. But I'm not off to a good start. Oh, and they didn't find anything wrong. Whatever! Something is wrong!!

[ng1031]

So had a special doctor visit after hours with some of the staff (gi specialist and colon surgeon) at a hospital I have been having all these tests done at. They talked to me about all the results and all that I have told them and they feel I have 2 issues going on

1.) Colonic inertia = constipation/slow transit
2.) SIBO/IBS

they told me that the only way to be sure if the large intestine is working is to do a temporary jpouch for about 4 - 6 weeks. Test the waters and see if I feel better without use of the large intestine. If I do then we know the large intestine is to blame and they can remove it. They told me that they would remove the jpouch and the large intestine and then connect my small intestine to my rectum.

Did anyone else go through this before having their large intestine removed. It means 2 surgeries for me.