[17064]

The past year has been a nightmare for me. It is getting increasingly worse by the day. I went in last October for a colonoscopy and my doctor had to immediately stop the proceedure. He said that he has performed over 30,0000 proceedures and has never seen a more twisted, turning, redundant colon. He obviously could not complete the proceedure because the risk of perforation wes too high. I had a barium enema a couple years ago and the photos were inconclusive due to the fact that the barium was stuck in too may loops in my excessively redundant colon.I have been suffering greatly with extreme bloating, constipation, nausea, back pain, unusual weight gain in-spite of eating only 1,200 calories a day and walking for 30 minutes a day. And I also have a general ill feeling a great deal of the time. Now I am suffering from depression from the weight gain and a huge abnomin. (I look like I am six months pregnant especially in the afternoon and evening)I have had many tests (Cat Scan, Abdominal utrasound, blood work etc...) All came back normal, yet I look and feel terrible. My doctor perscribed zelnorm and that has not helped. Only noticed improvement for the first couple days. Have been taking zelnorm now for 5 weeks. I have been taking herbal laxatives & colon cleaners which have helped with the constipation. Now I can have a bowel movement every other day instead of every 9 days. Whenever I have a bowel movement. My heart is racing and I feel so ill, I have to lie down for a bit afterwards.Is this IBS? If so, what can I do to put a stop to the extreme bloating and weight gain? (I have gained 16 pounds in the past 8 months. For many years I was a consistant 124 pounds so this is very unusual for me.Any help to remedy this problem would be greatly appreciated!!

 

[14826]

The weight gain may be just from fluid and retained stool.I also have a redundant colon - found by barium enema. The tech said to me "I can't believe for as little as you are you have that much colon in you" Great.... Dr just said yeah I have that too. Gee thanks for the help Doc.

I guess there is nothing for a redundant colon. I think maybe in extreme cases they may consider a colon resection?

 

[15483]

I thought they would perform surgery to untwist the colon or even remove the redundant section that's twisted.Sorry to hear you're feeling so horrible. I hope the doc does something to help you.

 

[Kathleen M.]

Part of the problem is that you don't know if the redundant section is causing the problem.It is often asymptomatic. Lots of people have this with no symptoms of anything at all. The extra colon is not likely to be the source of the IBS symptoms. It may mean you have more colon to be effected by IBS but removing a couple of feet of extra colon probably won't do anything to change the IBS.Removing parts of the intestine (or anything else) surgically can have complications, so they usually just don't remove spare parts when you get more than your fair share. I know someone with three kidneys, they didn't pull the spare one out just because it was extra. Some people have serious long term pain from adhesions and scaring from abdominal surgery. You do not want to do it in cases where you can't be fairly sure that things will be better enough afterwards to be worth the risk.

 

[14826]

Yes I have witnessed many colon and small bowel resections in my line of work (never from a case of redundant colon). It is a scary surgery (IMO). There can be a multitude of complications.I had read online somewhere that this can be corrected with surgery (the redundant colon) or untwisted via colonoscopy. I also thought surgery was very extreme treatment. You are right, many people are asymptomatic.