Could it be stress?
Can you filter your water or buy drinking water the store?
When constipated try drinking white grape juice to unclog your pipes.
If you started a new job have you changed your eating habits during the day?
Have you tried laying on your stomach, standing up and touching your toes, or doing the downward dog to help get the gas out? I also bend over as far as possible while sitting on the toilet to help get more gas out and empty the pouch all the way.

I hope you are feeling better soon.

I live where the water is very hard and don't have these symptoms. What is your frequency like? Have you ever had a stricture?

Sue

Hi there. I live in Calgary and have all my life and I don't have an issue with the water. Sometimes I'm simply dehydrated and there is not enough lubrication in the bowels to move things along (or I ate some nuts and they are glued together in a little ball).

Here's something that changed my life: eat a Metamucil wafer and only have 1/3 glass of water with it. It tastes great and you will move things along nicely. I have half a wafer before breakfast and one before dinner (about 30 minutes before).

Please let me know if you try it! I like the apple cinnamon flavor and you can get them at Shoppers or Superstore!

Cheers,
J

Stress, and any change from my normal routine since moving might be playing a small factor. I have noticed that I am not getting enough veggies/fruit for dinner, so that too may be a cause.

What is bothering me the most is that I literally had nothing coming out. I would have the urge to go, sit on the toilet, and then nothing; not even gas. I experienced horrible pain which made me have to go to Emergency (two weeks ago), and it took about a day after that to actually poop. They gave me this laxative stuff. This time around I just called in sick at work and was attempting to weather it out myself, but I had to go to a walk in clinic. They did x rays (which was SO cool to see!!!!) And I could see that there was this lump of poop that just wasn't moving. I was given two enemas and this powdered laxative, which helped as I pooped (somewhat) normally earlier this morning.

I'm just confused and a bit worried as to how my system could completely stop like that, its never happened to me before :/ As for the water, I grew up in a city with really soft water, and I recall going to visit my boyfriend at the time who lived in Utah (which has hard water) that the water felt heavy in my stomach. Maybe I'm grasping at straws? What is a stricture??

Thanks!
-j

This sounds like an obstruction.

Sue

A stricture is a narrowing. It would show up on imaging, unless it was at the anus. Anal stricture is a common complication of this surgery. Basically, it is a tightening of the connection between your pouch and anus. Since it is circular, tightening means a smaller opening. If your stool is loose and watery, you may not notice it. But, if it gets too solid or you have too much undigestible fiber, you get blocked.

Sometimes motility of a section of intestine just quits, becomes paralyzed. It could have been that way for a long time, but did not cause problems for you until the stool became too thick.

Since it was the laxative that moved things along, you probably need to really pay attention to your output from now on. This may not be the case for you, but some people find this change to be a permanent problem and have to take gentle laxatives like Miralax on a chronic basis. Be careful with fiber supplements until you know for sure what is going on, as they can create too much bulk.

As always, drink plenty of water and other fluids. I doubt the hard water would be constipating, unless you drink less because you don't like the taste!

Another thought, since you mentioned stress as a factor, is perhaps IPS (irritable pouch syndrome), which is essentially the same as IBS. Usually it is associated with diarrhea, but like IBS, I imagine there could be a constipation type. Hopefully, if this is the case, things will settle down as you settle into your new surroundings.

Jan

It sounds like to me that you are really backed up at the pouch, which is what your x-rays showed as well. So it is constipation, but for us pouchers, it's like an obstruction, except at the end of the digestive tract. Until this is resolved, I would stick to lot of fluids and juices. This happened to me after my bowel obstruction as the antibiotics thickened up my stool so much. I pushed a lot of grape juice and ate light meals until things got back to a regular consistency.

Some sort of obstruction.