Rosemary I am back from asia

Hi

I just come back, in hong kong at first, my constipation getting better, but before I come back that week, i constipated again, I already here for 2 weeks.
Now almost 2 weeks, the laxative only work so little. In hk I saw the Chinese medicine doctor, they do a test

Smarty, what test did they do?

Why did your brother cancel the appointment? He must be worried about you. Tell him you are sick and that you want to see if the doctor in HK can help you, rebook your appointment and make sure you get someone to see you.

Smarty,

You need to sit down and have a talk with your brother and tell him that he is not in your body and he does not have a clue what you are going through. Tell him you are an adult and that you are in charge of you, not him! Tell him how horrid you feel. Ask him how he would feel if his bowels never moved.

Then rebook your appointment. You need a transit test to see if your colon works. This is easy. You take a pill that releases tiny markers that show up on xray. They take an xray every few days to see if the markers are moving or not. Even if you don't poop, supposedly the markers move along anyway, IF your colon works and is not inert. If your colon is not working the markers at the end of 5 days are spread throughout your whole colon.

Then you need an anal manometry test (hardly felt it, easy test), then you need a defecogram where they put paste in your rectum and have you drink some stuff and they take a movie of you pooping. This tells if you have pelvic organs blocking the exit of stool and if your rectal and pelvic muscles move normally or not. It also tells if your rectum straightens for defecation to let the poop move out.

Then you need a pudental nerve terminal latency test. A doc just touches some rectal nerve with a sensor on the end of a gloved finger and it registers on a machine. Not a big deal as he greases up his finger and you feel a slight buzz.

Those are the basic tests. They are available at most large hospitals. DO THIS SMARTY! THIS IS YOUR LIFE NOT YOUR BROTHER'S LIFE! Tell him if he REALLY cares about you, he will help take you to these appointments to help you get a diagnosis and the right help. Making you suffer and cancelling your appointments without telling you IS NOT LOVE, IT IS CONTROL! TAKE CHARGE!

Rosemary

Smarty,

Go to the Mayo Clinic. THey can do that transit test in a different way with a special machine that can tell in 24 or 48 hours ( 1 or 2 days) if your colon is working or not. If it is not, they can take your colon out, hook your small intestine to your rectum (if they find your pelvic floor muscles and rectum are working) and you will likely be fine. If that does not work, then they can give you an ileostomy. Then you will poop into a bag out of your small intestine, but at least you will be pooping. At first, there is a LOT of output from the small intestine once the colon is no longer being used. BUT in time (like in 6 to 9 months) the small intestine slows down because it realizes you are no longer using your colon, then you don't have diarrhea.

Get going on this. If you cannot go on with what sounds like a colon that does not work, then go for tests and take action. Trust me, over time the small intestine will slow down, you will not have huge output from the small intestine forever. The body adapts. That is how we are made. Good luck. Rosemary

Smarty,

It does sound like you are having true problems.  I would continue to do research, and like Rosemary said, get the full check-up.  Don't be afraid of the diarrhea; it doesn't happen to most people!  As for me, things are still far from perfect, and currently, I am taking laxatives to help with bottom pressure I get, and make my stool slide out easier.  I didn't think I would have to, but I am still trying to experiment and develop a routinue for myself!  But what I can say, is that I am still recovering, still stay away from some foods, and some of the laxatives like MOM (that never worked before); I can take such a low dosage and get it to worked; something I would have never said before!!!!  Just remember; any type of surgery puts your body in shock, and it takes time for the body to heal.  I thought I would be perfect after surgery, but I am not.  I am hoping by at least the end of the year I will be feeling somewhat normal again!

Smarty,

Yes, ileostomy is a bag outside of the body from the small intestine. They make a stoma out of the end of the small intestine then a few times a week you change the appliance. This is like a picture frame type of big band aid that goes around the stoma with a hole cut in it for the stoma to stick through. Then you attach the bag that clicks onto a little ring. Then the poop goes into the bag. I tend to get diarrhea easily IF I eat too much salt or sugar. BUT out of 4 years, I have only had about 4 serious bouts of this. Once was from bad water in Greece and immodium stopped it.

I could not have my small intestine hooked to my rectum because both my colon and rectum were too injured to save. Plus my small intestine had bad adhesions. This all from a PRIOR surgery that on review did not need to be done. BUT I was lucky to find someone to fix my small intestine and give me the bag. Better than dying which is where I was heading. So I'm thrilled to be alive, traveling, and ballroom dancing.

You would not go down the road I did as what you would need likely is your colon removed and your small intestine hitched to your rectum if tests proved your rectum worked. This could even be done laporoscopically and not open so fewer adhesions. So you may get a great result. But get all the tests no matter where you have this done.

All of us on here did not get perfect results no matter what our original issue was. BUT those not on here who did get perfect results have moved on and no longer post, So you have to figure there are a LOT of successes. Most of us are on here because we were made better or are looking for info or improvement. Any surgery is a gamble. Just decide if this affects your life enough, then get a full workup, go on many radiology AND surgical consults then make your choice. My first surgery, removal of sigmoid colon, turned out to be based on an incorrectly read radiology scan. this was where I got into trouble not knowing the scan was misread in the first place. No patient thinks to have their scans on DVD read by other radiologists. So just a word from one who has been there, get the testing, then have other radiologists look at it. THEN you will have covered all your bases. Then check out your prospective surgeons by looking to see how many medmal suits they have (if any) at the court house nearest them (civil superior court clerks office). ANy doc can have one or two, but my original surgeons had 13 combined suits counting claims against them with our state medical board, I did not know how to check this out at the time. So here are helpful hints from me. They are the ones who injured my colon and rectum beyond repair.

MOST docs you need to realize are accurate, caring, and wanting what is best for you. I just happened to fall into bad hands. BUT I was also lucky to find one to save my life. That is how I got my ileostomy. It is my "life saver" The stoma sort of looks like one. Do remember also in time the small intestine slows down to partially take over the function of the colon, so the fast moving really thin liquidy poop all mostly quiets down in 6 to 9 months or even less for some people. I had normal transit, so for me, it took longer to slow, BUT people who had transit issues, their small intestine calms down in likely fewer months.

Rosemary