curious if anyone understands this

Submitted by howdidthishappen on January 14, 2007 - 9:21am
Body: 

hello all:

as i've been posting about frequently over the past week, constipation has become quite a large problem for me as of late. my stools are extremely hard to pass requiring i manually assist in getting them out and they come out in hard rock-like pieces.

much of the reading talks about how that is symptomatic of rectocele. i don't get that. i really don't. the rectocele is a structural issue and the hardness of the bowel movements would seem to have nothing to do with that, as far as think. possibly the coming off in pieces part might make some sense with the recotcele pouch -- though i'd love to hea from other women who have rectoceles and have gone through periods like this -- and come out the other end where things had shifted (pun intended?...dunno....)

right now, this is definately affecting my quality of life and i would love to hear some reminders about the waxing and waning of this all. i recognize i am new on this journey and so i tend to think in a very black and white way --- it will ALWAYS be like this, or the other way. i hope to get to a more middle ground...i'm just not there this second.

yesterday and today i have found squatting to pass stools helped. but again, is this what it's going to look like for me forever? i find that...hard today.

thanks to all who are reading this, who have read any of my other posts. this is all such a work in progress. it's hard and scary and exciting to be here.

xxsusan

Lilly Anne

January 14, 2007 - 9:51am

Susan:

I am curious, previous to finding out that you had a rectocele, did you ever have stomache problems or have troubles having a bm? I ask because perhaps your issue is more then the rectocele.

If you can't get relief, perhaps you should make an appointment with a nutritionist, naturopath, or gastro. They may be able to pinpoint what is going wrong. Anxiety also may be playing a role. I do know this from experience. Try to take some time each day to do something you enjoy that is relaxing.

Feel better!

- Lilly Anne

P.S. I've read that prune juice is a natural laxitive. It has helped me in the past.

howdidthishappen

January 14, 2007 - 10:27am

you bet, lilly anne. thinking on this, i realize that i have long had a problem with bouts of constipation -- and then, of course, straining would happen creating the perfect set up for an already weakened situation. i also was notorious in my family as a child for getting frequent stomaches. i do as an adult as well, though less frequently than when i was younger.

i do think anxiety and stress are playing a big role in this past weeks' problems. and, the truth is, i woke up this morning already feeling the anxiety about what would happen with trying to go to the bathroom -- probably not the ideal situation for easing this up. but, geez, squatting over a bed pan and trying to manually help the hard bowel movement out (that as this morning's adventure...) not pleasant. not pleasant at all. and, again, though i read about hard bowel movements common with those the rectocele, i don't understand why. i don't get why the rectocele would CAUSE that and it frustrates me to no end that i read that.

i did get some prune juice and took some this morning. i also had a really wonderful talk with christine last night who offered me some very practical food/nutrition ideas that i already started implementing this morning (thanks again, christine!) i really don't mind the squatting to go part. it's actually pretty easy. i don't love having to stick my fingers in my rectum to help get it out -- THAT is pretty unpleasant and something i want to figure out.

susan

Lilly Anne

January 14, 2007 - 11:20am

Susan:

I'm no expert but I am not surprised to hear that you have stomache issues as well. Since you've joined this sight I've been reading your posts and there are a lot of similarities in what we write although we both have a differnt prolapse.

When you have a moment I'd love to hear what food advice Christine had for you as I am always trying to perfect my diet. Not knowing the severity of your stomache issue, try the food route first. See if it helps/makes a difference & drink enough water.

Food and diet were not enough for me in managing my digestive issues. I was taking colace and glycolax which made me feel 10 times worse. I had a normal bowel movement but felt lousy all day. I am now on day 2 of Zelnorm and so far so good.

Anxiety plays a huge role in digestion. After my initial diagnosis I would have daily panic attacks because I feared that having a bowel movement would make my prolapse worse. I walked around crying all the time, it was just awful.

Anyway, I just want you to know that you are not alone. Just try to relax and implement Christine's advice. I hope that you feel better soon. If that alone doesn't help, you can always check out the other avenues that I suggested in my previous post.

- Lilly Anne

granolamom

January 14, 2007 - 12:33pm

I'm not sure if or why rectocele would cause constipation. In my experience I've found the reverse to be the case, constipation worsens the rectocele.

My only guess would be that with a rectocele its more difficult to fully evacuate so the stools hang around longer losing more and more water as they sit, becoming harder and more difficult to pass.

My dd has been diagnosed with a Generalized Anxiety Disorder and she's got chronic constipation, poor thing, she's only 8.
but I've been reading here that anxiety and consitpation might be related, so maybe a good idea would be to keep eating well, exercising, drinking lots of water (and prune juice) and try to address the anxiety piece. Maybe once your mind is convinced it will all be ok, your body will get with the program. a long shot I know, but what have you got to lose?

good luck and definitely let us know when you figure out how to solve this.

howdidthishappen

January 14, 2007 - 1:23pm

thank you both so much for your words. again, just not feeling so alone with this is enormously comforting and soothing to me. thank you.

lilly anne, christine asked me about my diet and we talked about that for a bit. i was telling her that initially when diagnosed, i cut back to almost no meats/fish though this past week, i was eating fish nearly daily and chicken every couple of days. she thought that was problematic and suggested i just try out her style of eating -- a more lively vigorous way. some dried fruit, raw almonds for breakfast -- which i had with oatmeal this morning. some raw vegetables which i have always felt i couldn't digest well -- felt they constipated me, but things really couldn't get much worse so i am going to try that. a root vegetable stew for dinner and lentils (that will be tonight.) no dairy. and she encouraged me to take a break (permanently?) from coffee which i have always loved. i did, in fact, have green tea this morning instead of coffee and, though i expected to feel droopy by now in the day, i don't. oh, and she urged me to pass on sugar. that one is HARD for me. i have these organic dark chocolate covered almonds that i was aching to eat last night, though i didn't. we'll see how it goes. i feel like i need to try this for a bit and see what happens. i've just been so uncomfortable with this pooping problem that if i have to be a little extreme right now, i guess that's what it might look like.

you know, i was a vegetarian for a long time and then started eating meat again about 10 years ago. i felt physically better when i ate meat again, not to mention the fact that i easily lost weight. i do think the weight part was about eating lots of refined carbs when i was a vegetarian and that shifted when i ate meat. i was also a big white flour person when i was a vegetarian and became much more careful with that in past years. so we'll see how the no meat thing goes.

so, right now, i'm open to trying this. and hopeful about it actually. i was on another site earlier -- an herbal site -- and was reminded that the process to normalize and hopefully improve things might take some time. that's very good for me to remember. i was diagnosed with this late november and it's now only mid january. it's okay for this to take time. patience has never been my forte, though now seems like as good a time as any to start trying to find some.

i've actually been taking colasce though what good its done me, i can't tell -- none as far as i can see. what other issues are you having, lilly anne? and what is the med that you're taking now helping you with?

xxsusan

Christine

January 14, 2007 - 1:56pm

I'm sure you've probably tried this as well, or someone else has suggested it...sounds like it's in order too.

UKmummy

January 14, 2007 - 3:33pm

The occasional use of glycerin suppositories would probably do little harm for emergencies as well, though I am sure they could become habit forming if used regularly. Just another thought!

Michelle.

mommynow

January 14, 2007 - 3:55pm

Susan it seems like you and I both need to fiddle with our diets to see if that helps. I hope you get relief. Check out the posts that Christine did to me about diet too. You will find some more advice there.

howdidthishappen

January 14, 2007 - 4:19pm

actually, christine, i hadn't thought about enemas till this afternoon. i just went out and bought some but i wasn't certain if it was okay to use them or not.

i'd be happy to hear people weigh in on the use of one. i AM tempted to use one tonight, though i never have before.

also, has anyone taken what feels like a huge step back in the rectocele department and bounced back? i wish i could shake the anxiety that this past week has done some irreversible damage to the area and the rectocele is...hopeless.

but back to enemas...love to hear thoughts and opinions.

with great gratitiude...

susan

Christine

January 14, 2007 - 5:30pm

In the absence of abdominal/rectal pain, bleeding, or flu-like symptoms, enemas are probably the most innocuous treatment - if used only occassionaly. It's really very simple. Put a large bath towel on the bathroom floor. Take off your bottoms and put a dab of "goo" (Burt's Bee's or other good salve) in the center of your anal area. Lie on your left side (this assists gravity-feed into the bowel) with bottle in hand. Draw up your right knee toward your chest and insert the bottle. Slowly and gently squeeze until the bottle is empty. Remove. Hold as long as you can but no longer than three to five minutes, if possible. It might be good to roll into the jack-knife position for a few seconds to help distribute the water further into the bowel. You can also stand up and take a few steps until the urge to evacuate is strong - don't go far! This should help immensely and I'm sorry I didn't suggest it days ago. Hope you feel better soon! :-)

AnneKane

January 14, 2007 - 8:47pm

Hi

chinese medicine and acupuncture would really help in terms of helping with anxiety and calmness and identifying the cause of you're constipantion.

For example constipation can be caused by stress sort of freezing everything up so that nothing is flowing properly. This could be seen in the bowel movement as the sort of stopping of the proper manufacture of a healthy stool. Like a centralised traffic jam.

ANother reason constipation can occur is from a kind of what tcm call's "heat" in the body, related to the emotion's or diet/lifestyle factor's, cofee, spicy hot food's working in hot kitchen's etc..

This can be seen in things like a big appetite, rashes in the skin (heat pushing through) red cheek's/ face/ bleeding gum's/ night sweat's big thirst..

These are just two possible reason's for constipation from this perspective.

anyway going to a tcm clinic, even a student one (more inexpensive) would help you figure out the cause which is individual to you..which you could then adress.

Plus acupuncute is fab. for anxiety. I have a favourite point for this called yin tang - it's the third eye spot (between the eyebrow's) and it's *deeply relaxing. Perhap's a tcm massage technique would help if i can explain it properly.

You place you're thumb on Yin tang and make a loose fist then gently and with little pressure go vertical or horizontal, moving the skin back and forth in a moderate speed for about two minutes.

It's a tui na technique (chinese massage). I tried it last week after a bit of stress and got straight to sleep.

Anyhoo, wishing you the best, i know constipation is distressing enough without the fear of exacerbating our 'cele's.

xx
Ann-helen

howdidthishappen

January 15, 2007 - 5:23am

ann-helen:

i think you hit a very important component of this for me -- heat. i actually do use chinese medicine and i think the herbs i'm taking are a big problem.

my accupuncturist gave me a formula that is a tradional one for proplapses -- ba zhong yi qi tang. i have always had more of a heat constitution and my previous acunpuncturist was always challenged by that with me. my present one seems not to really have addressed it because i also have some cold traits. i have been using this herb 3 times a day for about a month now and it occurs to me that there is the root of the issue. i have been very red cheeked lately. definately larger appetite. i have a large cold sore on my mouth this morning. coming and going rashes. and now the hard hard stools. (passed one this morning already. seriously. rock hard!) i know this is heat!

i will call him later to speak with him and also -- hopefully -- get in for a treatment today to release some of the heat which i know will help.

your post was like a total aha moment for me. thank you so so so much, ann-helen.

xxs

rosewood

January 17, 2007 - 1:35am

This keeps my stools very soft. Can be ground in coffee grinder (free of all coffee!). Eat lots of them. I put them on everything - oatmeal, rice, salads, yogurt. My dh and kid tease me. When I don't eat them, stools are noticeably harder.

Also, for diet, Check out Christine's cookbook. Also, another favorite is Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon. Soaking and drying nuts and seeds, and sprouting grains and beans helps with assimilation.

Hope you feel better soon.

Marie