A peer support community, independent and not for sale. Since February 2024.

GLP CircleA peer support community

Constipation and gut

Fibre made it worse before it made it better

Started 23 January 2025 · 19 replies · 196 hearts · read 2.4k times

PerryCardigan, UK · 23 January 2025
1.5 years ago

Fibre made it worse before it made it better — putting it in its own thread so it does not get lost in the check-in.

I have avoided asking about this for six weeks out of pure embarrassment.

This started at the same time as two other things, which is why I cannot attribute it to anything with any confidence.

It is not severe. It is relentless, which turns out to be a different problem, and one I have found much harder to describe to anybody.

Before anyone says it: yes, I have an appointment booked. I would still like to hear from people who have had this, because I would rather go in able to describe it properly.

Thank you for reading something this unglamorous. Any experience welcome, and timescales especially.

65

TamzinPoole, UK
#1

Warm drink first thing was what did it for me. I had dismissed that as folklore and it turned out to be the most reliable thing I had.

5

LeniLeipzig, DE
#2

Reading Tamzin, I recognised more of that than I expected to.

I kept a very boring log for a fortnight and it made the conversation with my GP take four minutes instead of being a vague description of discomfort.

10

TomásFacilitatorLisbon, Portugal
#3

Speaking plainly as a facilitator: none of this is medical advice, none of us is qualified to give any, and that limit is what makes the rest of what we do honest.

12me too 4

IvorLlanelli, UK
#4

Mine alternated, which confused me and turned out to be extremely common. I had assumed it was one thing or the other.

12

HarlanDenver, CO
#5

Mine was worst in the first fortnight after each step up and then settled. Knowing the shape of it made it much easier to sit through.

10

PoppyLeeds, UK
#6

What worked for me was adding fibre very gradually rather than all at once. I did all at once first and had an extremely uncomfortable week.

9

VeraRiga, LV
#7

Gently disagreeing with Poppy, or rather adding the other half of it.

Movement helped mine more than anything I ate. A twenty-minute walk after dinner, nothing strenuous, and it made a noticeable difference within a week.

14

TeganNewport, UK
#8

The thing I would flag is that severe pain with it is a different question, and worth ringing about rather than reading about.

7me too 9

XanBerlin, DE
#9

Unglamorous and universal, and I am glad this circle says so out loud, because I spent six weeks too embarrassed to ask about mine.

9me too 5

OdessaLviv, UA
#10

The bit in the middle is the bit I needed to read.

7

PerryCardigan, UK
#11

What made the difference was doing three small things consistently rather than one big thing occasionally. Very dull, very effective.

9

TamzinPoole, UK
#12

I raised it at a review expecting to be waved away and instead got a proper conversation and a plan. I had underestimated how routine it is.

9me too 9

LeniLeipzig, DE
#13

Odessa said something I want to sit with for a second.

Prunes. I am sorry. Prunes, and I resisted them for two months on the grounds of dignity.

11

GwythFishguard, UK
#14

My experience is that this settles for most people and lingers for some, and I am in the lingering group, and it is still manageable.

8

IvorLlanelli, UK
#15

The bloating was the bit I found hardest, more than anything else. It made clothes uncomfortable and I felt ridiculous mentioning it and it was genuinely miserable.

8me too 5

HarlanDenver, CO
#16

What Gwyth described happened to me too, in a slightly different order.

I had already had a complicated gut before any of this and I would say the general advice mostly did not fit me. Bringing it to somebody who knew my history was what worked.

14

PoppyLeeds, UK
#17

Mine has never entirely gone and it is now a background thing I manage rather than a problem I have. That is an honest place to have arrived.

11

TomásFacilitatorLisbon, Portugal
#18

Thank you for writing something this unglamorous down. Half this circle has had it and almost nobody says so, and you have just made the next thread easier for somebody.

25

TeganNewport, UK
#19

Grateful you posted rather than kept it to yourself.

6