women suffering constipation - page twenty
The tale of...Lisa
I have had IBS forever it seems. I have had it since I was a child but no-one knew what was wrong with me. When I was 20 I learned I had IBS, even though they had thought I had colitis and I went through many meds for this. I suffer from both constipation and diarrhea. I have been to so many doctors I have lost count over the years. I sometimes feel so alone in my IBS prison.
My latest torture was being put on a drug called Effexor XR. It was awful for me, I only took half a capsule and I had awful side effects for three days. I would rather have IBS then ever feel that way again. I have no faith in doctors anymore and I can't even get relief from the anxiety I feel. I am scared to leave my house at times - what will happen to me again, 100th time in the toilet again. I feel like I should have a toilet tied to my butt whereever I go. As I get older it gets worse. All doctors want to do is throw pills at me and put hoses in my butt! I'm so tired of this. The one thing that helps is knowing there are people like me out there.
E-mail Lisa: nygl67[at]aol.com
The tale of...Linda
Several years back I was officially diagnosed with IBS - irritable bowel syndrome. I asked my gastroenterologist what that actually meant. He said 'It means you have trouble with your intestines.' I asked him if he could be more specific, as in, what kind of symptoms do people usually get. He said 'You’ll have gas, bloating, pain that is either minor or severe, diarrhea or constipation'. The list goes on... I then asked him what causes it. He said 'I don’t know'. I then asked him if he ever speculated. 'No. I don’t believe in that' he said.
After trying every diet possible, both removing and adding foods, and after trying every supplement known to man, my symptoms gradually worsened. I once asked my gastro doc if he knew anything about a yeast infection we can get in our digestive system called candida. I told him I’d found it in a diet book and that I’d found several references to it online. He said 'I don’t believe in that'.
The last medication he tried on me gave me unbelievably bad indigestion. It almost helped me to ‘go’! Instead, it caused everything inside me to move around just enough to hit nerve endings which shot pain down my lower back and legs. It was so bad one morning that I could barely walk. I woke because of the pain at 4am and fell out of bed when I put my weight on my legs. I didn’t expect the pain to be that bad. I told my gastro doc all about it. He said 'That’s not normal. I’ve never heard of that medication doing that. You’re weird'. I think that was an official diagnosis.
I have been going to a naturopathic doctor for the last few years as well. I like her much better, even though many of the things I’ve tried with her haven’t worked either. Psyllium fiber, some awful prune, cornmeal and date breakfast, halibut oil, flaxseed, probiotics, digestive enzymes...I’m sure if I go through my pill baskets I’d find 30 or more bottle of things tried and failed. Some seem to work for a week or two, but nothing has lasted any longer. In the end (pardon the pun) I have no choice but to resort to enemas and sodium phosphates, my explosives, or anything that my intestines aren’t supposed to become addicted to.
My gastro doc once put me on sodium phosphates for three months. He said 'Your bowels need a little vacation. They’ll start working on their own after this'. Anyone who has ever had a colonoscopy knows what this stuff is. It turns everything in your belly to liquid. First, you swell up like a balloon and then the faucet goes on. My husband gave me a new nickname during this period: Squirt!
My belly didn’t start to work after that. Apparently they either didn’t receive a long enough vacation or simply never had any intention of doing their job. It’s kind of like having a difficult employee. You know you can’t fire them and you can’t replace them either.
I’ve begun to believe that my stomach has a mind of its own. It’s on its own schedule. It’s incredibly lazy and it’s a pack rat. It wants to keep everything it comes into contact with. It’s grumpy and it’s ornery. It has some serious issues. It not only has a mind of its own, it’s neurotic!
That’s why I was so amazed to hear on the news one evening that scientists had discovered that our stomachs have grey matter - the same kind of tissue we have in our heads. I looked it up. It’s true. In fact, 95% of the serotonin in our bodies is in our intestines. Nerve cells in our tummies use serotonin to signal information to the brain about digestion, like pain, gas, comfort and terrible ‘gut’ feelings from anxiety. Our bellies work in tandem with our brains, but they also work in isolation.
My mother attributed my IBS complaints to stress. I think she also thought I was a hypochondriac, just like some of the old medical texts would have me diagnosed. Well, for once, I can say to my Mom 'You were right, sort of'. Apparently we all have two ‘brains’.
Before I came to the conclusion that my bowels had a mind of their own, I thought I had alien DNA (it’s possible!). I looked up foods and herbs that increased serotonin levels in the body. Bananas, cheese, beer (alcohol), and sugar and carbs have been known to make me ‘go’. No - prunes, coffee and all the rest of the normal stuff never worked. This has led me to self-diagnose myself as having NBS - Neurotic Bowel Syndrome.
I’m going to my doctor to ask him if he’ll send me for a blood test to measure my serotonin levels. I may have too little or too much of the stuff. I may have to go on some happy pills! I should ask my gastro doc what he thinks. I wonder what he’ll say?
E-mail Linda: artist[at]lindalaforge.com
The tale of...Charlotte
I was diagnosed with IBS today. As my doctor told me: IBS is a diagnosis of exclusion, and the tests we've run have ruled out everything else. This started rather suddenly for me on the evening of March 23rd. We had celebrated Easter with my in-laws. Though stomach upset after eating my mother-in-law's cooking is not unheard of, I had diarrhea that night, and it lasted for three full days. Then I became very constipated for several more days. I had a couple of days of feeling relatively normal, then that all ended for good on April 6th.
I am an avid runner and duathlete, and I was prepping for an April 13th marathon. I was doing my last long run before the marathon. Four miles in I suddenly had intense abdominal cramping followed by an even more intense need to defecate, NOW. I wasn't far from a McDonald's at all, less than half a mile. I turned and ran for it at top speed. Unfortunately, I had to wait for traffic to cross the main road, and that was just too long. I had to stop my marathon long before the midway point and ask to be taken back to the event site, because the first porta-potties were just too far away.
I have been dealing with alternating days of diarrhea and days of painful constipation since. Also terrible bloating and sometimes scarily painful gas. Oddly, I now also suffer from heartburn and gastric reflux, which I never did before. I had to call my mom and ask her what heartburn and gastric reflux felt like.
My doctor did a range of bloodwork and stool cultures, all normal. He then referred me to a gastroenterologist who did a gastroscopy and colonoscopy (normal). Then an abdominal ultrasound, an abdominal CT scan, and, when those came out normal, a pelvic ultrasound (which showed two small ovarian cysts which require monitoring). I just got the results of the CT scan and the pelvic ultrasound today, and from these things the gastro determined IBS. I want my normal, once very active and non-painful and non-uncomfortable life back.
E-mail Charlotte: CCRaces[at]tc3net.com