You described this (our) condition VERY well! And yes, I have suffered with this all my 70 years of living. Then I came down with C-diff from an antibiotic, Clyndamycin, prescribed by my dentist for an oral infection. I almost died, my husband tells me. I felt like I was going to. That will be one year ago this coming February. In the course of recovery from that AND dealing with my tortuous intestine, someone recommended Prunelax to me on this site. It took some adjustment time but it is working well, or a heck of a lot better, than anything else I've tried! i'm very sensitive to routine and times like the holidays, running around, different schedule than normal, can throw me back into the constipation and misery of it all. That just happened. So I had to take some Bisacodyl to clean out the system and start over again. If this regimen continues to work for me, which I pray it will, I can live with that and would prefer that over surgery. I hope that you can find a regimen also and use surgery as a very last resort. But I do know people that have had portions of their colon removed and they are just fine. So I hope you find what works best for you. Happy New Year! Jacque