Super Discouraged!

Bigmomma

My own personal experience has been that when I overdo the amount of fiber in my diet, things tend to get very soft indeed (although I have not yet experienced difficulty passing). My suggestion would be to take a look at the amount and type of fiber - maybe you're getting too much? As far as helping things to pass, I find that vigorous walking, especially uphill, seems to help move things right along. I have no professional medical/nutritional background - this is just my 2 cents worth...

I hope things are looking up for you soon - I always find November depressing (living in New England starts to get rough at this time of year).
Wishing you well (-:

J.

Hi Big Momma,
Katharine again. Talked to you in another forum. Like you, I have trouble passing soft stools. I have found that using vaginal estrogen cream or any vaginal moisturizer (KY Jelly included) actually softens my stools to the point where I can't pass the stools. Too much fibre can also soften stools too much. If my stools are too hard, they hurt and seem to cut rear vaginal wall and rectum. I try to stay away from vaginal estrogens and use e-string vaginal estrogen ring when I'm able although this too presses uncomfortably on rectocoele, but at least it doesn't soften stools too much the way vaginal estrogen creams and vaginal moisturizers do. For me, stools must be EXACTLY the right consistency for me to be able to pass a whole stool, otherwise, I pass pieces of stool, and the rest gets "stuck" in the rectocele, which to me, feels like a pouch where stool is stuck. Sometimes I feel stool gets infected in this pouch. Awful.

Anyway, I have found that when things are their worst, taking "Dicetel" an irritiable bowel medication for 2 or 3 days gets things cleared out of there and you can feel better for awhile. Bowel surgeon told me to use cholace daily (over-the-counter stool softener), but this makes stools too soft and also gives me gut pain so really doesn't work.

Soluble fibre may help. There are 2 types of fibre - soluble and insoluble. Insoluble fibre is stuff like metamucil, wheat germ, flaxseed etc. All this type of stuff makes my rectocele worse, and seems to cut into the rectum. Painful. Soluble fibre is in things like apples, pectin (powder used in canning jams...you could actually buy packages and drink it). Apricots, prunes (not too many), applesauce, banana, pears may help more than metamucil stuff. Play with the fruits I've mentioned. Try a couple of apples a day. Eat a baked apple for dessert after dinner. Stay away from the gritty whole wheat and grains. See if this makes a difference.

Anyway, I totally, totally get what you're saying. You're not crazy. If only doctors would recognize this problem.

Katharine

I find your comment interesting about having to go too much, which I presume means many times a day (3 or more) when you eat too much fibre. I think I have this problem as well. I tried ground flaxseed and dipped banana in it as Christine advises in her "hints" section. However, this just seemed to "grate" the rectum raw and seemed to make me have a bowel movement too often. So, I've cut out ground flaxseed and am just eating one apple a day and a couple of prunes for fibre. I'll see if this helps. I've also contemplated doing only a liquid diet, BOOST, or ENSURE, for 2/3 of the day and just eating a light dinner to give the rectum a break and see if it heals. I find I cannot eat too much at one time or my belly bloats very badly (it didn't do this before hysterectomy). Grains and pasta make belly bloating worse. I used to love spaghetti, but can only eat limited amounts now (I'm very thin, not fat), and I find rice or corn pasta easier for my bowel to digest. Perhaps try staying away from grains entirely, pasta, bread, and all. This will be hard.

May I ask if you are menopausal? If so, do you use estrogen?

Do you use or have you heard of e-string (vaginal estrogen ring) making rectocele worse? I find the e-string feels strange, and it seems to put pressure on rectum. Do you know anything about this?

I wish you luck with your adjustments in eating. It is hard to regulate your food intake to such a degree.

Keep me posted.
Katharine

Hi Big Momma and Katharine,

I know what you are feeling. I did have mine under control but I started taking mega doses of magnesium for my muscle problem and now have a too soft stool. It does make the bulge, too, but it's only first thing in the morning and is ok the rest of the day. I do eat as much certified organic food that I can find. The research I've done is why I eat organic. I truly believe a lot of the problems we have is because of the chemicals in the food. My sister bought a boxed cake mix she wanted me to fix (I don't usually eat sweets) so I decided to read the ingredients. The number of chemicals in it was totally amazing. There was no food in it - just enriched flour which isn't good for us either. Our bodies don't know what to do with the chemicals and stores what it can't get rid of in our fat cells. I have not been able to eat spaghetti for years because of the bloating, but occasionally do have organic angel hair spaghetti made in Italy - they don't use chemicals over there. I also get an organic basil and tomato sauce to pour over it and don't have a problem with that. Once one starts switching to organic food, they find it's not so hard on the budget after all. Because we quit buying things that have no food value.

One other thing I remember from long ago was that the sigmoid colon retains the pectin from the apple because it needs it - for what - I don't know. So I should think 1 apple a day would be good.

Blessings,
Grandma Joy