Hi everyone. I guess I might as well put my questions here along with my story because they all go together. I don’t know what my problem is, but my bowels have never worked properly. Even as a young child, I had problems with bowel movements. I had IBS horribly as a teenager and now in adulthood at age 41, for over 20 years I’ve had severe, severe constipation.
I don’t go to the bathroom during the week. I work M-F. Saturday mornings generally, I will have a super bowl movement, sometimes two over the weekend. Afterwards, I realize how bloated I was. I am gassy after the bowel movement(s), almost as if it was air that was trapped.
I have learned what I need to do in order for these bowel movements to happen. If I do not consume several of a certain type of protein bar (and peanut butter ideally), I will have all the sensations of needing to go to the bathroom, but nothing moves. It’s quite scary. There have been a handful of times over the past few years I thought I was going to have to seek medical attention. If I don’t eat those certain things, I don’t poop. It’s as simple as that.
Treatment wise, I started from the bottom as I can recall getting recommendations of “fiber supplements”. Stool softeners. Laxitives. Delcolax was the only one that slightly helped. Enemas are problematic and though they can help ‘water things down’, even those don’t help in the most severe situations where I normally need one. Linzess didn’t help. I’m managing it on my own and have been for a while. I guess in a way, it’s convenient because I know I’m never going to need to use a public restroom…
What's interesting is I paid about $400 for a DNA test that checks for 'rare diseases'. According to that report, I have a 5-7x increased chance of having hirschsprung's disease. I guess that would make sense, given this has been an issue for as long as I can remember. I've been to several doctors but all just generally try to treat my constipation with medication and or supplements. There's never really any discussion about anything else. I'm stable with the way things are right now, but I'm wondering if there just might be more to my story. So many of these symptoms mimmick Chrons and that's why I'm here. There are not many spaces online dedicated to these types of issues.
I don’t go to the bathroom during the week. I work M-F. Saturday mornings generally, I will have a super bowl movement, sometimes two over the weekend. Afterwards, I realize how bloated I was. I am gassy after the bowel movement(s), almost as if it was air that was trapped.
I have learned what I need to do in order for these bowel movements to happen. If I do not consume several of a certain type of protein bar (and peanut butter ideally), I will have all the sensations of needing to go to the bathroom, but nothing moves. It’s quite scary. There have been a handful of times over the past few years I thought I was going to have to seek medical attention. If I don’t eat those certain things, I don’t poop. It’s as simple as that.
Treatment wise, I started from the bottom as I can recall getting recommendations of “fiber supplements”. Stool softeners. Laxitives. Delcolax was the only one that slightly helped. Enemas are problematic and though they can help ‘water things down’, even those don’t help in the most severe situations where I normally need one. Linzess didn’t help. I’m managing it on my own and have been for a while. I guess in a way, it’s convenient because I know I’m never going to need to use a public restroom…
What's interesting is I paid about $400 for a DNA test that checks for 'rare diseases'. According to that report, I have a 5-7x increased chance of having hirschsprung's disease. I guess that would make sense, given this has been an issue for as long as I can remember. I've been to several doctors but all just generally try to treat my constipation with medication and or supplements. There's never really any discussion about anything else. I'm stable with the way things are right now, but I'm wondering if there just might be more to my story. So many of these symptoms mimmick Chrons and that's why I'm here. There are not many spaces online dedicated to these types of issues.
