[TummyDepressed]

Does anybody else here spend an inordinate amount of time on the toilet? I don't mean in total - frequent visits come with territory. I mean for one BM.Each morning I spend about 30-40 minutes. Initially I have bulky stools, but know I am not empty. If I am lucky, towards the end the remainder comes out, but in much smaller and/or wetter stools.Sorry to be so vivid, but wandered what the cause was. Why would stool formation alter throughout the course of a movement?

 

[Kathleen M.]

Sometimes stool is rushed through and the stuff at the end may not be from the same meal as the first meal so may have had less processing time to get all the exact perfect amount of water removed.Often IBSers have too big a "move it along" signal either from meals or from the morning burst of activity and stool gets to the end ahead of schedule.All stool starts out liquid. The colon has to remove that water to make it solid. You aren't turning stools back to liquid/wet/loose that were already fully processed.

 

[TummyDepressed]

Thanks for the responses Kathleen. I am very grateful.I know answering these questions doesn't earn you any money, but it does help us all.I think that is exactly what happening to me. The morning activity, or any other activity, is prompting a 'move it along signal'.It is as if my body, once it has started the process, needs to void itself of everything - almost as if peristalsis is happening on the go.I feel much more comfortable BEFORE I have had a BM. After I often need to go again because my bowel seems to have been sparked in life.Is there anything you can recommend that would alleviate this problem? Is it a spasm? So perhaps a green tea.Maybe I should time my eating so that by the time of my morning activity everything is ready to come out anyway.....! Or just hold on to the very last minute...Thanks also for being so candid.

 

[Kathleen M.]

Antispasmodics can calm down the "move it" signal but I would try to get that from peppermint tea rather than green tea. There are prescription antispasmodics and for some people the tricyclic antidepressants can help calm that as well.

 

[onyx]

Tummy - for what it's worth, the way you describe it is exactly my experience. It's like the peristalsis, once it gets going, is on overdrive to purge everything. Often I'll have one or two relatively normal stools, and think "Wow, this is cool, kind of like how it used to be when I was normal." But then hours afterwords my gut is purging stuff that it shouldn't be, like once it's been activated it stays that way for awhile.

 

[nrep]

Onyx,Yes, this is exactly how it is for me too. Sometimes I'll have a beautiful

formed, normal colored bm and I'll feel great about it and I'll feel great in the tummy. Then a little time passes and I'm back on the toilet for a while, and several times with cramping, soft stool, and it leads to diarrhea and cramping. ....yes, just seems like the bowel turns on and can't shut itself off at the right time. Sometime after my good and normal bm I've tried to take Immodium to see if that will shut things down and it doesn't, even 3 or more hours later. It really is a *functional* problem. The bowel cannot function correctly. Onyx, what doe you use to aid your symptoms?

 

[jmc09]

This symptom appears very common with IBS sufferers,so much so that it makes us prefer not to go as it triggers a knock on effect and makes us feel worse after BMs when we should feel better and even if we do it's usually only temporary.I think this is why it's called a functional bowel disease as the peristalsis is either much too fast or too slow depending on your type of IBS.I find that the longer I can go without a BM the more formed and normal my stools are.

 

[rbloom]

That is EXACTLY my problem for years. I think we all do so much to get things moving in the morning like taking KONSYL or other fiber supplements at night and in my case flax seed oil and fiber cereal in the morning etc. etc etc. After a great start in the bathroom things slow down and the cramps start. Maybe we need to cut back on some of the STIMULANTS. Any thoughts?

 

[onyx]

nrep, in answer your question, the meds I use are Imodium & Questran (both in their generic form). In the first year or two of IBS nothing really helped me much (in spite of much experimentation), but after some time things settled down a bit and now it seems I respond better to the meds. I've found that the schedule I take them on seems to matter. I take two Imodiums in the morning, and a dose of Questran before bedtime which seems to be the best combo for me. The only other thing that seemed to help me is doing the IBS Audio 100 self-hypnosis program (actually I only got through half of it, but I'm going to try again soon.) If you haven't heard about it do a search and you should find lots of info on this board about it. I still have the problem of the "time on the toilet", but it's more limited now. Instead of going 10 times I might only go 3-4 times, I don't spend hours and hours like I used to, the cramps are less frequent.

 

[TummyDepressed]

Hello again fellow sufferers. Sorry I haven't posted in a while.Thought I would give an update on this, it may help, I don't know.I went for some physiological tests today. It was fairly embarassing, but very interesting. In some of the tests, I was asked to 'push out' as if I was having a BM. In one test, I was asked to push out a stool shaped baloon. I was unable to do it. Apparently most people would easily be able to do so.As such, I have been referred for Bio-Feedback, or muscle retraining.Basically, I am not using my muscles correctly. I am pushing from my stomach, not bowel. This seems to tie in with years of problems.Could it be that it is not peristalsis being triggered, but that we are not emptying our bowels properly - because of improper muscle use.The improper use can relate to many things, including trauma during our formative years.....

 

[BQ]

Wow TD glad they discovered the problem! Hopefully you will be able to re-train those muscles in good time. All the best!

 

[TummyDepressed]

Maybe... but I don't believe this is the end of it! I think I have some other problems as well, but lets see. Thanks for your kind words....

 

[BQ]

Keep good thoughts! That does make a difference I find.