Advice/Tips for possible "Constipation"
Posted , 3 users are following.
HI
I use the term loosely as I suspect a lot of people here would be happy to go to the bathroom as much as I do but anyway.
I've posted elsewhere with my ongoing issues of bowel discomfort, I float between thinking It's in my head/its IBS/its diverticular/its cancer. But anyway, Every since my period of proper full on constipation (passing 1-2 pellets a week) which happened nearly 10 weeks ago now and in turn changing my diet/upping my fibre to help - I've been for a BM pretty much every single day, oddly enough its almost good enough to set your watch by (pretty much every 23-25hrs) which is practically unheard of for me as I spent years growing up and only maybe going once or twice a week.
so my problem is - my stools are very dry, i would say 10% of the time I'm a type 1 and maybe 10-15% I'm a type 3 and the rest are all type 2, very lumpy clumps of dry stool, I'm regular but they are less than great, I've also got a long lasting hemorrhoid which I'm very cautious about trying not to bleed as its finally starting to heal up/shrink.
Anyone got any tips for dealing with this type of stool?
I'm gone from drinking 4-5 cups of coffee ONLY - all day, every day (my old self) to drinking anywhere from 2-3ltr of water with the odd coffee between (my new self)
I'm having 1 or 2 fybogel's a day long term to try and keep them soft and I'm either having all bran high fibre cereal or oat porridge with blueberries and banana in. There is literally no way I'm on less fibre than I used to be, my diet used to be awful - I must be on 20-30g of fibre a day and 2-3ltrs of water - yet I'm still having dry lumpy stools?
I know I could just try..stopping everything and hope it works like it used to but I'm quite afraid of ditching the added fibre now as I do have a lot of symptoms of diverticular (lower left discomfort) and IF it is that I'd rather not aggravate it.
I keep telling myself it actually must be bowel cancer and I have an obstruction hence I'm only passing small round stools..but then I go and have a relatively normal sized one (if not lumpy!) so I guess it throws the obstruction out the window.
Any idea what I can take to try? I've read about magnesium but I'm open to trying anything that could help. I do have a referral booked with a specialist but that's not till the end of May and its starting to worry me!
Thanks
0 likes, 1 reply
mary99261 john69530
Posted
Try to reduce or eliminate dependence on medications, especially laxatives. Long-term side effects include weakened bones, worsened constipation.
Even stool softeners have side effects, such as imbalanced electrolytes, i.e low sodium, chloride, potassium levels - that leads to worse problems
Few things to try
- avoid dairy such as cow's milk, ice cream. However, yogurt naturally has probiotics (for past 5000+ years) that will help relieve constipation
- squatty potty. aligns you to healthy position for complete bowel movement, roughly $30
- Perineal Self Acupressure.
Medical articles on Perineal Self Acupressure.
https://www.jwatch.org/na37783/2015/05/07/perineal-self-acupressure-constipation (requires free registration)
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4371012/
Video demonstration from Doctor of Perineal Self Acupressure study