and Coffee Enemas

I am 60 years old. I was diagnosed many many years ago with IBS. I was constipated even as a child. I began taking Fleet enemas several times a week at the age of 19, because I just couldn't put up with feeling bound all the time. Also,
found that meat, dairy and some other things, like cold cereal, definitely cause horrible stomachaches, so I try to limit the meat meals, don't eat cereal and try to avoid cheese if possible.

After the birth of my first child, (taking Milk of Magnesia tablets every night), I decided to get my problem "fixed" and went to a GI doctor. She did some tests, found nothing wrong, and told me she preferred just "tap water" enemas. After I while, I was taking one every morning, and if I was horribly bound, I would add a little bit of gentle soap or baby shampoo. Extreme periods of stress along the way have caused many many episodes of bleeding hemmaroids, and a couple of fissures.
With the first fissure, I went to the Lahey Clinic in Boston to the head doctor of the colo-rectal surgery department. He gave me several tests. One test was to swallow 3 metal pellets, one every other day. After a week, (with no bowel movement), they did a flat xray to see if the pellets had moved through the bowel. They had not. The doctor recommended Ducolax on a daily basis. I tried really hard to take the pills and feel "comfortable" as they did produce a bowel movement (if I took enough of them,) but I still was horribly uncomfortable without a morning enema. Also, I found that the way to have the fissue heal was to soak in the tub 3 times a day, and to not take any laxatives or enemas, every other day, which gave the crack a chance to heal, since my body does not have spontaneous bowel movements. (This actually is especially convenient if you are planning an airplane journey and don't want to have a bowel movement on the plane.) The doctor also gave me some Nitroglycerine in a vaseline base, which was mixed at their own pharmacy, and not available otherwise. Applying that stuff, soaking, and having a day off every other day, resulted in the fissue healing by the time I returned to the Dr. one month later.

We moved across country almost 7 years ago, and I saw an ad to participate in an IBS study. I applied and unfortunately was not selected for the study. The physician was extremely knowledable though, and understood my problem exactly. I joked with him that I could never camp out at the Grand Canyon or anything since I always need a private bathroom available.

I became friends with a woman who told me that her husband had had cancer so she put him on alternative treatments including coffee enemas. She also takes them 3 times a week. She said that they clean out the toxins, etc., correct constipation, and other problems. I mentioned coffee enemas to the Study physician and he said that although he had never heard of that, he could understand where the caffeine would act as a stimulant to the bowel. He did not give me any negative feeling about the coffee. Also, I normally can't tolerate caffeine and avoid coffee, tea, chocolate and aspirin, unless they have no caffeine. Along the years as well I was "sipping" white wine as I felt that it "relaxed" my gut and helped with the situation.

I decided to try the coffee but could not make it in the kitchen, as this is so personal that I did not want my husband to know I was trying it. Just before I tried this, I had had a colonoscopy as part of the IBS study and it was fine. In order to try the coffee, I bought instant and mixed it with tap water, occasionally. It works pretty well, and I have been doing this for several years now.

I guess I am wondering if others out there are taking daily enemas, and if the coffee thing could be dangerous? I am embarrassed to mention the coffee to my physician, although he knows that I cannot tolerate constipation for very long and do take enemas. I also take two Ducolax at 6:15 everynight to get something "going" in the morning. If I take nothing, even the enemas are very very difficult. And a month ago, I joined AA as I realized that the alcohol consumption gradually became way out of control.

The problem now is that my daughter and her husband bought a lovely 48' catamaran and are cruising around the Carribean with their Golden Retrieiver. They want us to visit and stay on the boat as it has 4 bedrooms. But from what I can see, the bathrooms are little tiny areas. I don't know how I could stay with them with these bowel problems. I don't want to go and be miserable.

Any suggestions would be fine also.

Thank you

With bowels that unmoving, has anyone suggested surgery to remove part of them to shorten the transit time to hopefully get your stools out more normally? Usually, no one wants to have their intestines operated on, as it is a really big deal and it's so easy to make things worse, but it's hard to see how things could be any worse than not having movements at all. There's some things they can do short of a full colostomy. I just found out that one of my mother's cousins had such bad GI problems (can't remember what all was wrong with her), she had her whole stomach removed.

I'm not going to question your descision to go to AA--only you know when something like that is a real problem--but I will say that there have been some people who have come on here who have said that yes, alcohol definitely made their bowels better. I just see that you said that wine "relaxed" your bowels and I wonder if you think that you imagined that, and I just want you to know that in some cases, alcohol really does have a noticeable effect on people's bowels for the better. That doesn't mean, obviously, that you don't have a problem with alcohol in other ways, but you should consider it a possibility that you weren't imagining its help on your bowels. Maybe you do really have a problem with alcohol, and even with its benefits to your bowels, you can't take alcohol, but at the same time it would be sad if you thought that you were an alcoholic because you thought that you were imagining that the alcohol helped your bowels, when there's a possibility that it did. Like I said, it's up to you to figure out why you were drinking and if it's a problem.

Have you tried taking additional laxatives along with the Ducolax to see if the combination is enough to keep you regular? I'm guessing that the reason why you don't want to do on your daughter's boat is because you have little room in the bathroom in which to perform your enema and coffee prep, and if you could get buy on nothing but pills, you'd be okay with that. Miralax seems to be very popular on here (I originally misspelled that "poopular" LOL), although there are also fiber supplements, aloe vera pills, and prunes. Since you already don't have any bowel function, I don't see that you can get additicted to laxatives; how can they make you lose any more function when you don't have any to start with?

Hey, you know, when my husband got me to take Vitamin C supplements when I was coming down with a cold, I got diarrhea. I told him that it had to have been the Vitamin C, but he said he had never heard of that causing people problems (apparently doesn't bother him). So, it really did have an effect on my bowel movements!

I understand. The problem with cleansing laxatives and colon cleansing products is that they are just for a short term thing. They don't take care of the big picture. I know they have Miralx over the counter now and I haven't had to refill my rx of Glycolax (generic for Miralax). I'm not sure if I'm going to have a hassle getting it rx still but I've seen the OTC Miralax and its very expensive. If the doc can rx it for you, you may want to see if it works for you.