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[meowmeow]

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I'm new to this sight but I've never heard of this happening to anyone else before, and I've done a lot of online research.About 4 years ago I noticed a dull pain in my sides around my waistline. It wasn't unbearable, but it was there and it let me know that something was wrong.I went to my family doctor and he told me that I had been constipated for so long that my bowels had swollen up to a strangely large size and they were, hence, causing me pain.He had me go home, drink a bottle of magnesium citrate to clear myself out, and told me to eat more fiber so that this didn't happen.I continued that, and since I was so young, I didn't realize the harmful effects of laxatives or how many common dietary mistakes I was making (white bread, cheese, too much red meat, etc), so over time, my fiber intake wasn't helping much.Over the years, the pain came back several times, no more than every five months at first, and each time, my doctor (stupidly) told me to take more laxatives - what a way to screw myself up.Now, ever since July, I've been in excruciating pain in my sides and almost nothing has helped. I get about 40G of fiber a day, I let myself have about 1 serving of cheese every 2 weeks, I can't remember the last time I had red meat, I do cardio and yoga and several strength exercises that are supposed to help constipation, I drink about seven water bottles a day, still no help. Magnesium citrate has almost NO effect on me anymore (anyone who's taken it should know how odd that is), all-natural, herbal colon cleaners that used to help have no effect now, taken gratuitous amounts of vitamin C every day used to work wonders and now it's 100% futile, and my constipation keeps getting worse and worse, and my sides are in so much pain so often, and I've often had to miss school/leave work early because of it.It's a dull (but now strong) pain on either side, right at my waist line, that feels like someone is pressing into my bowels with his knuckle. Often it gets so bad that it's like a pair of pliers is twisting my bowels up. They're huge (so weird sounding) from being constipated for so long, and it's awful.Whenever I start to have pains, I get really, really bloated. They're always related.Pains happen if I let myself cheat on my diet, like going to Taco Bell with my boyfriend and eating too much cheese and sauce. Pains happen if I go straight from school to work and go way too long without eating. Pains happen if I'm slouched over a lot for way too long. And sometimes, they just happen.Advice is nice, but I mostly, REALLY want to know who else has had this pain - is it more common than I realized? Have sufferers found a some sort of remedy that my family doctor is too dumb to tell me?(I've seen a GI once, but the colonoscopy is very, very expensive and I haven't been able to get it yet; IBS is just a guess made by both doctors and my own research.)

[Matilda001]

I have mostly right sided chronic abdominal pain, not relieved by a bowel movement. I get so swollen that I suffer incontinence from the colon pressing against the bladder and also suffer wheezing from the right lung when the pressure is at its worst. The pain is so bad, I have to sit tilted to the left as I cannot sit straight with the pressure on my rigght side. Even when I stand, I have to take pressure off the right side by putting more pressure on the left leg. I have had IBS for over 20 years and my symptoms are worsening. I am being refferred to a chronic pain clinic and also starting on prucolapride for severe constipation. Keep us up to date on your progress with IBS...

[Kathleen M.]

Have you tried peppermint for the pain. A lot of the antispasmodics are constipating, but peppermint usually isn't. Capsules or tea can help. And if you know you will have pain after eating you can take the peppermint ahead of time to see if that works better.I'm wondering if a sitz marker and/or pelvic floor test might be a better way to spend you limited health care dollars than a colonoscopy. A colonoscopy won't see why you are constipated or how bad, but the other tests (transit time--sitz marker test--and is the outlet working right--pelvic floor testing) can help figure out what all is going on with the constipation and may lead to a better idea of what treatment options could work.