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Constipation and gut

Pain and no movement — when to be worried

Started 14 July 2024 · 24 replies · 293 hearts · read 2.4k times

TamzinPoole, UK · 14 July 2024
2 years ago

Pain and no movement — when to be worried — putting it in its own thread so it does not get lost in the check-in.

Before anyone says it: yes, I have an appointment booked. I would still like to hear from people who have had this.

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

I have had a fortnight of this and then three good days and then another fortnight, and the pattern is the bit I would most like to understand.

Sorry to be graphic. If anybody has had this, I would rather hear it plainly than politely.

98

VeraRiga, LV
#1

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

9

PerryCardigan, UK
#2

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

15me too 2

TomásFacilitatorLisbon, Portugal
#3

I want to say that the honesty in this thread is exactly what makes this circle worth having, including the parts nobody enjoyed writing.

22

HarlanDenver, CO
#4

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

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.

13

OdessaLviv, UA
#5

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.

13

LeniLeipzig, DE
#6

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

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.

8

GwythFishguard, UK
#7

Harlan — yes, and the bit that took me longest to accept was the next part.

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.

10

XanBerlin, DE
#8

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

10

IvorLlanelli, UK
#9

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.

14

TeganNewport, UK
#10

Building on what Xan wrote rather than answering the original question.

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.

9

TamzinPoole, UK
#11

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

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.

10

VeraRiga, LV
#12

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.

12

PerryCardigan, UK
#13

The thing nobody says is how much mental space this takes up. It is not just physically uncomfortable, it is on your mind constantly, and that is worth naming.

9

PoppyLeeds, UK
#14

Tamzin — yes, and the bit that took me longest to accept was the next part.

Mine was much better on the days I ate at regular times and much worse on chaotic days. That pattern held over about four months of notes.

14

HarlanDenver, CO
#15

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

12

OdessaLviv, UA
#16

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

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.

9

LeniLeipzig, DE
#17

Agreed, and I have nothing to add to it.

10

GwythFishguard, UK
#18

Mine improved when I stopped ignoring it. That sounds glib and it is literal — I had been putting it off for hours at a time and that was making it worse.

14me too 7

XanBerlin, DE
#19

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.

12

IvorLlanelli, UK
#20

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.

9me too 1

TeganNewport, UK
#21

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.

9

TamzinPoole, UK
#22

Building on what Xan wrote rather than answering the original question.

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

16

TomásFacilitatorLisbon, Portugal
#23

Facilitator note: I am leaving this open rather than closing it, because the question has come round three times this year and this is the version I want people to find.

21me too 3

PerryCardigan, UK
#24

Somebody here described this as the least discussed and most common part of the whole business, and my experience matches that exactly.

13