Anyone else have a Redundant / Tortuous Colon?

I am also very curious about the same questions that you @seasalted asked @ellemorgan and wondered what kind of life adjustments you referred to?
And thanks for sharing what you both have shared! xx

Ultimate fibre helped me for a long time better than Lactulose and prunalex and coloxil senna and all the other fibres and homeopathics and what not. Its quite powerful. I used dulcolax occasionally and colonic hydrotherapy. Then my surgeon told me to use dulcolax daily - I was afraid my body would get dependant and it did. It responds to nothing else now; its painful and Im looking at surgery. I tried Motegrity too and capsuled magnesium....didnt work. They might have earlier though. who knows
I want to ask my surgeon not to recommend using dulcolax daily to other people because it made things heaps worse for me and I would advise anyone who uses it to try minimize it and alternate with other things. We re all different of course as to how we respond to things.
If I seem short in my responses - apologies. I really appreciate this space and everyone's sharing. I find I have very little energy to talk about this and to research it and so on, as it already takes up more energy than I have 🙂 x

Im glad to hear that you are healing @chenry44 and totally relate to wanting to eat healthy foods and stop needing to consume more supplements than anything else to make any tiny anything else pass / managable. It makes me question getting the operation more for me and for you I so so so hope that changes for you and you can tolerate the healthy foods you miss and get what you need from them.
Thanks for sharing

I am 71 years old. I was told my colon was "redundant" on my last colonoscopy report 5/21. In October of 22 I started experiencing severe diarrhea once a week, finally went to my PCP and all bloodwork and stool samples came back fine, but I had a "moderate bowel burden". So I was to start MiraLAX and see a gastroenterologist, but not till 1/9/23. She had me add fiber and scheduled a colonoscopy, which ended up not being until 3/30/23 along with an upper GI endoscopy. I experienced a lot of diarrhea and pain in the middle of my belly right under my sternum. If I felt like I was stopping up I used Smooth Move tea. It was almost to the point where the Smooth Move Tea and MiraLAX did not seem to be helping much. I now have dx of a "severely tortuous and redundant colon", Dr's words, not mine. And some other things also, but seem to me to be minor in comparison. I see the gastroenterologist on 4/12. She has me on MiraLAX once a day now. Increase my fiber, drink more, exercise and I am also trying to increase my Omega 3 and 6. I can barely eat much for the evening meal, because I almost immediately have a lot of discomfort and pressure right under my ribcage, in the center. I choose to take the MiraLAX before bed because I work evenings, not mornings. I have tried heat to my abdomen, some yoga stretches, massage, with very little relief. I have noticed that the increase in water and natural food fiber has seemed to help. I just don't know what else to do except wait for my appointment and hope she has some suggestions, prefer natural things, not prescriptions. I did have chronic constipation as a child, and can only a couple experiences as an adult where I felt like I could not have a bm. It has turned my life upside down, so just trying to upright myself again so I can successfully live with this.

My dr has suggested an X-ray defography. I believe I read somewhere in one of these posts, I could be mistaken as I read much everywhere!, but I thought it was advised not to use barium with a severely redundant/tortuous colon as to the possibility of the residual barium “hardening-up in all those bends and kinks and causing much difficulty after testing is completed. Anyone recall this or had this test done and had good or bad experience. My previous dr would have done MRI defography which does not use barium. My new dr feels xray gives much better results.

I just wanted to share my experience as what may or may not be related to the MRI defography . In 2012 I had a defography using barium which showed a modest size rectocele. Two weeks later I ended up with a bowel obstruction or better known as a sigmoid voluvulus. They had to perform emergency surgery and remove 2 inches of my sigmoid colon. Please discuss your concerns with your doctor.

I did. She told me they use water-soluble barium and should not present an issue. To be safe, I’m going to do an enema after.

I so relate to this! I’m super active, 39 years old, petite (except for a balloon belly). Just had anorectal manometry done and have Sitz Marker study next week in hopes of getting a surgery scheduled. I have tried holistic, pharmaceuticals, acupuncture, suppositories, etc. Motegrity (@thellman) did work the best but only for about 2 weeks. Those were the best 2 weeks I’ve ever had, motility-wise. I don’t know that I’d ever experienced a complete, clearing BM until then. I will have semi-regular movements but they are loose and small and pass right over the blockages. My lower left side feels like it’s on fire. I want to have the surgery and not waste time fighting with this anymore. There’s pressure on my bladder so I never know when I’m going to have to use the bathroom (urgently!) and my tailbone is even angled differently sometimes. Lots of lower back pressure and difficulty engaging lower abs. My heart goes out to everyone who understands!

So sorry you’re going through this at such an early age. I’ve also struggled since my 30’s but things only got really bad 4 years ago, I’m 65. I’m doing the Sitz Marker study on the 22nd and a defography on June 2. Really looking forward to a fun 3 weeks of no meds, colonoscopy preps and a somewhat “awkward” procedure! I’m also looking at surgery. Best of luck to you!

I have diverticulosis and a redundant colon. My primary guy Dr. gave me a script for an upper GI series.
I have benign nodules on my thyroid and hate to risk what I think is pretty heavy radiation (fluroscope)
as scatter radiation could affect those nodules. I am admittedly a type A personality and when I feel
stress at all, I tend to get a nervous stomach. Should I have the GI test?