Justcantgo

Hello everyone, sorry this is long, I’m new to this board and I’m hoping someone out there has some experience with what I’m going through. I’ve just been diagnosed as having IBS with constipation.

Some history: I’m 30 years old and as long as I can remember I’ve never been “regular”. I’ve always been very gassy, my stools were typically dry, hard, and sometimes painful. From age 22-28 I abused prescription painkillers which of course constipated me, but when I would run out of the painkillers I would go into withdrawal and have diarrhea. I was on this up down, back and forth rollercoaster for quite a few years. I quit the painkillers about 2 years ago and I would have a BM about once a week, sometimes more. Sometimes it was painful, but it wasn’t a big deal, I was going.

Then a few months later, I started following an Atkins type diet (no sugar, refined carbs) I lost weight and I became more regular than I ever have been. I was going once or twice a week in very large amounts, but I was having no pain, almost no gas and bloating, my stool was soft, and I passed it easily.

The problems I’m now having began Christmas of 2003. I don’t know if there’s any relation, but over the holidays I went off my “diet” for a few weeks (then went back to Atkins). During this time I ate lots of cookies, candy and typical junk food. I was still going at least once a week, but I started feeling like I hadn’t “emptied out” after I would go. I occasionally tried taking a few different types of laxatives but I still wouldn’t go until about two days later, no matter what I took, and I still wasn’t getting the relief I was looking for. This has been going on for several months now and it’s getting worse.

I finally broke down, went to my regular doctor and she gave me Miralax which I took everyday for a month. It helped somewhat, but I still have that feeling of fullness. I still feel like I haven’t “emptied out”. I just went to see a gastroenterologist and he seemed very nonchalant about my situation and told me I would have to be patient. He gave me Zelnorm (5 days now and still no BM, although I feel like there has been some movement). If that didn’t work he wanted me to try colace twice a day and Milk of Magnesia at night.

It doesn’t make sense to me to take a stool softener. I am definitely not having a problem with hard stool. Does anyone have any suggestions? I’ve already tried the fiber thing and it seemed to make things worse. Does this sound like IBS?