Hello...I would like to explain what I have been dealing with. I have suffered with constipation since I was a baby. I am now 61. I have had true diarrhea 3 times in my lifetime. When I turned 55 or so, around the time menopause came into the picture. I began with having issues with different foods like coffee, salad dressing and red sauces. By morning when I would have a bm it would be very soft. For the last 2 years, it seems to be occurring every 5 months or so and lasting 2-3 weeks, then I go back to my usual hard stool/straining. I have weeks where I have normal stool with hardly any straining, then some days where I will go up to 3x a day, starting with hard stool, then minutes later, mushy stool, then minutes later back to solid stool. I have gone 3-5 days with no stool passing, then I finally do go. But last night was the worse. I hadn't had a bm in 3 days, but I did eat a lot, had a lot of cranberry juice, salads. Last night I had a late supper, all I had was a good amt. of my own potato salad. An hour later I started with bad gas pains and I was passing gas. (By the way, what I mentioned previous and now, there was never any urgency to go, and when the stool was soft, I usually had to push to get it out). I finally decided after 45 mins to try and go, there was no urge. I strained some and there was a lot of normal stool. A few minutes later, I thought I would try again, at this time I had gurgling in my side, this time the pain was back when I went, the stool was a small amount and mushy. Pain was gone after that. about
10 minutes later, went in to go again, it was liquid, but I had to strain a little to go. This also wasn't very much, but that gurgling sound occurred. about
30 mins later, I wanted to try and get it all out, I strained and it was small and hard. During this time I felt fine, no nausea, nothing. Because I deal with anxiety, panic and depression, I was shaking fearing the worst. I am sorry to be so graphic, but I am curious if this could possibly be IBS-A? Would the alternating from hard, to mushy to liquid to soft be IBS? This is pretty much the routine for me the last 2 years, rarely do I have the liquid. Thank you for listening.
