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Constipation and gut

Kiwi fruit. I am serious

Started 11 December 2024 · 18 replies · 194 hearts · read 3.9k times

HarlanDenver, CO · 11 December 2024
1.6 years ago

A question rather than an update: Kiwi fruit. I am serious

Squeamish subject, so I am going to be plain about it and get it over with.

I have written down when it happens and how long it lasts, because I could not answer either of those questions when my GP asked and I felt foolish.

The physical part is manageable. What is wearing me down is the constant low-level monitoring of it, and I would like to stop doing that.

No advice needed if you would rather not. Recognition is genuinely enough.

65

PoppyLeeds, UK
#1

Fluid was the single biggest lever for me, by a distance. Far more than any of the other things I tried and much less interesting to talk about.

9

IvorLlanelli, UK
#2

My pharmacist walked me through the options in about eight minutes, unprompted, and was more practically useful than either appointment I had about it.

11

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.

12

VeraRiga, LV
#4

Ivor has already said most of this and I want to add the one part that was different for me.

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.

12

TamzinPoole, UK
#5

Sitting with you on this one.

8

PerryCardigan, UK
#6

My honest report is that mine took about three months to find a stable pattern and has been fine ever since. Three months felt very long at the time.

10

XanBerlin, DE
#7

Perry, thank you for that. It gives me somewhere to start from.

Coming back to close the loop: settled, manageable, no longer something I think about. It genuinely does get less interesting.

10

TeganNewport, UK
#8

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

13me too 3

LeniLeipzig, DE
#9

I would say gently that if anything is bleeding, that is a different conversation and it belongs with a clinician rather than in a thread.

8

OdessaLviv, UA
#10

Leni, thank you for that. It gives me somewhere to start from.

Getting up ten minutes earlier so I was not rushing was the change that helped most, which was not the answer I was hoping for.

15

HarlanDenver, CO
#11

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.

10

PoppyLeeds, UK
#12

Coming back to what Leni wrote further up, because it is the bit I keep thinking about.

I tried four things at once and had no idea which helped, then took them all away and reintroduced them one at a time. It took six weeks and I finally knew.

10

IvorLlanelli, UK
#13

Picking up Poppy’s point rather than starting a new one.

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 8

GwythFishguard, UK
#14

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.

11

VeraRiga, LV
#15

Reading Poppy, 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.

11

TamzinPoole, UK
#16

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.

15

TomásFacilitatorLisbon, Portugal
#17

Thank you all. Somebody arriving embarrassed and being answered without a trace of it is the whole reason this circle is worded the way it is, and it takes everybody to keep it that way.

17

XanBerlin, DE
#18

Here, reading, and glad you posted.

5