yes im in wisconsin. madison to be exact :)
as far as my history goes...constipated since forever. only ever went once every 7 days or so and it was very hard. started taking laxatives occassionally in high school (my mom has had constipation problems since before i was born). saw 2 doctors who told me to drink more water, exercise, eat more fiber, blahblahblah. well that never worked. i started using otc laxatives to produce a bowel movement every 4-5 days. that worked well for a while.
when i was 19 the pain started in. excruciating abdominal pain. mostly in the lower left area, but occassionally it was my entire abdomen. so painful i couldnt even walk (when it was at its worst). the first time i experienced the pain i went to the hospital thinking that something inside me burst and i was dying. they took xrays. found nothing wrong. told me not to eat late at night.
suffered on my own until i was 23. my gyno took a medical history and sent to me a specialist. she was the first person to acknowledge that this severe constipation isnt normal.
the new doctor diagnosed me right away with ibs. gave me miralax. it worked really well for a couple months. the pain and bloating was still present (but less severe), but i was at least pooping. eventually the miralax stopped being effective and i was told to take more along with amitiza. that didnt work. it was a rollercoaster of all kinds of rx laxatives for quite a while. he even put me on a super low dose of amytriptyline for a bit since he said it can help people in rare instances. ive had blood tests for everything from allergies to celiac disease and everything in between. so many xrays i couldnt even tell you. sitzmarker test, sigmoidoscopy, rectal biopsy to test for hirshsprungs, ct scan, anorectal manometry. and im sure im missing something, but its been a long ride. everything but the manometry test came back normal.
so i was diagnosed with high tension pelvic floor dysfunction and sent to a physical therapist for internal releases as well as external therapy. my therapist has tried EVERYTHING she can think of. i was seeing her once a week. she had me stop exercising- because it increases tension. i was taking valium suppositories every night and had to give myself an enema every morning. still i would only go to the bathroom if i took an insane amount of otc laxatives. she was probably the person who was most against me having surgery. she swore she could fix me. but at our last appointment she even admitted that maybe surgery is the right choice for me as everything else has completely not responded.
i met with the colorectal surgeon today and he says he thinks im going to be a candidate for surgery. i still have another appointment with him in the near future. hes going to thoroughly review my whole history to make sure nothings been missed. i really hope that this is the year i get better.
ok i really didnt realize how long this was. but i swear its the condensed version! :)
D