Odd Question (don't laugh)

Seeker....no one is laughing...believe me. I also have had IBS-D for MANY years, and when I was put on lotronex and became "normal", I was continually afraid that I was becoming constipated, and all that was happening was I was starting to have normal stools!!! I had forgotten what it was like! I also had problems having my bm, because it had been so long since I had anything but urgency, pain, and watery stools, and had to do nothing to initiate the movement, that it was like my muscles were too weak to push at first (also was afraid of triggering the spasms, again), even the slight amount that it took to get things started. My husband told me that sometimes he just has to sit and let nature take it's course, and sometimes he has to give nature a little help. Hope that answers your question.....and now we can snicker at ourselves... (hehehe)....~Pat~

I think that in a normal bowel movement you basically let go and the colon takes care of the rest. I also think it is normal to have to push, just a little, but straining isn't.I don't know if biofeedback techniques would help to retrain things so you can go without excessive straining and pushing, but it might be something to investigate.It may also be possible to retrain yourself to go. Part of that may mean living with the feeling of incomplete evacuation. In IBS your gut nerves may be lieing to you, and what they are reporting is not really occuring. Most things I read say you should not stay on the toilet for more than 15 minutes at a time. What you want to do is get your body and it's nerves to associate the toilet with peeing and pooping. Do not do other things on the toilet (this is like when you are retraining your body to sleep in the bed, you only used the bed for sleeping (well sex is OK) so that you train your body to associate the bed with sleep).After 15 minutes, get up, walk around do other things for awhile before trying again.Walking and some yoga and Tai Chi exercises seem to be good at moving things along, and you might try some abdominal massage prior to trying again (up the right across and down the left). When I am having difficulties I will do a thing I learned in Tai Chi which is to squat. Feet on the floor, and butt against the calfs. Feet spread at shoulder width (some people have to put something under their heels if the calf muscles are too tight). You can rock back and forth, front and back, and it seems to move things along. I've also been known to perch in that position on the toilet. The sitting position we use is not the best for helping the colon do its thing. If you are not graceful enough to do this on the toilet, you can get a shallow pan and then dump it out.K.

Thanks for all your comments. I agree with you kmottus, although it's tough to remember when things were normal, this sounds right; "a normal bowel movement you basically let go and the colon takes care of the rest." The biofeedback is something I'm looking into. I understand that there's a test called anorectal manometry that you take to see if your muscles really aren't working properly. Like you mentioned, that feeling of incomplete evacuation could be just be a miscommunication between the gut and the brain that makes it feel that way, or I may really have incomplete evacuation. I guess that test helps determine that. Unfortunately it doesn't sound like a common test, and the biofeedback treatment sounds like it is even rarer.On a side note, the only thing I've found that consistently brings on a bowel movement is smoking a cigarette. I smoke one a day, just for the IBS, at night. If I don't, I have the urge to go at night but can't. And the next morning would be hell without that cig. I don't like the idea of smoking cigs, but that Nicotine at night really helps. Too bad they don't sell those nicotine inhalers over the counter. I've tried the nicotine gum, but it doesn't work, I guess it doesn't deliver as much nicotine.