Posted 6/2/2015 3:25 PM (GMT 0)
OH gumby, I'm so sorry, I know exactly how you feel, it's so depressing, I too thought if my crohn's ever went into remission (which I honestly didn't think it would after 23 years of flaring and honestly I don't know how I don't have colon cancer by now considering how long my poor colon has been inflamed with no remission until last year) that I would finally feel normal again. Though I understand now why my GI said he suspected I likely had some IBS issue going on about 14 years ago, now that the CD is in remission (which I am thankful for) I'm still dealing with this IBS crap. It's a work in progress though, it helps that my GI is working with me to get me back to a real normal.
I totally get the pain (not from your stricture of course but from sitting on the toilet for so long of a time) after about 15 minutes on the pot my legs and butt cheeks get so sore and almost cramped up. Before when I was normal, I didn't have to spend much time to have a nice and easy once a day bowel movement so having to sit for a good length of time is so uncomfortable it's scary...I swear when I finally die they're gonna find me on the pot lol!
I've increased my water intake and now I pee like crazy, more than I poop but I still poop too many times a day (usually 5 or more times/day) but still have constipation issues for the most part, sometimes they come out okay but for the most part I still do a lot of straining and it scares me cuz of the fistula I had (inflammation has cleared up on my recto-vaginal fistula but GI informed me once the tract is there, it stays forever and we have to keep it un-inflamed---so to speak---which sucks cuz I didn't know that's how it worked with fistulas :( and I'm also scared that I'm going to at some point end up have a prolapsed rectum or vagina or both!
I think you should take a look at the low FODMAP list, there's actually a lot to chose from but you have to be prepared to cook in a new way to keep it low FODMAP and there are definitely things you shouldn't have (which are also healthy foods) but also, the low FODMAP isn't really meant to be a long term diet, it's more about eliminating high FODMAP foods, giving your body low FODMAP to see if there's any improvements with your bowels and then reintroduce high FODMAP foods to see if there are any food intolerance's or not from the high FODMAP list. I managed through it and found no change from being on the low FODMAP but would still struggle with many bowel movements with some straining (so still somewhat constipated) and I was still pooping frequently, the dietitian said I should have noticed less daily BM's and no constipation at all before I started doing reintroduction and that was a good 4 weeks of eating strictly low FODMAP, no fructose so she's chalked my cause of IBS-C as being mainly stress related and not food but I don't know if that's exactly true either because the low FODMAP allowed all the things that can generally cause constipation like coffee (caffeine, not ripe enough banana's, dairy especially cheese which can be constipating, chocolate and red meat, so I don't eat red meat everyday or cheese but do have coffee and chocolate and usually banana's but I don't eat them when they're not ripe enough which is what usually adds to constipation so for me I think it's the chocolate but don't know for sure so I'm going to have to play around with those 5 highly constipating items and either have to completely eliminate whichever I find is the main culprit(s) or only have them on occasion....still a lot of work ahead of me.
I think you should try it for 4 weeks to see if you notice any changes (good or bad), she also had me do wheat and gluten free to make sure I'm not sensitive to gluten or wheat. Honestly since doing the diet I found that my finger nails have become so much healthier so even though low FODMAP isn't designed to be used long term, I am still better off compared to the way I was eating and I was eating less times a day too, you know the notion for us IBDer's the less you eat, the less you go, sadly it never really worked that way so it's sad when you keep the thought in your head even though it made no difference in cutting BM's down/day.