Constipation Better - Still Have Lower Abdominal Pain

Posted by sassydottie @sassydottie, Jun 9 11:54am

I am a 53 year old female who had a hemi colectomy 2 years ago for IBC. After the surgery, I still have to take stool softeners and Trulance to go.
Recently, I had a severe bout of constipation. It’s horrible pain in my lower right side which is what’s left of my colon.
The constipation finally subsided but I still have terrible pain in my lower right side, where I think, the stuck poop was stuck. It feels like an overworked muscle or body aches.
Anyone have anything similar?

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I had a right side hemicolectomy 17 yrs ago following an ischemic event which every follow up test failed to find a cause for. No diseases, but I do lots of follow up surveillance. Constipation since then, though all of my providers were expecting diarrhea with 1/3 of my colon missing to do the job of water removal. In addition to whatever your providers are recommending
(mine recommends 1 cap Miralax nightly and a few days a week of 1.5 Oz mineral oil) I find massage very helpful. I start at the right hipbone level of my abdomen, move up to the bottom of my chest, across the chest right to left and down the left side. I repeat as many times as I want, lying down or sitting up. This approximates the path stool takes in a complete and healthy colon. It helps get things moving along. Use as much pressure as feels good to you, you need a little but not so much as to hurt when you do it. It’s trial and error but always in this path. There are massotherapists who are trained to do this as well, I’ve never gone to one but I’m open to the idea if I’d ever feel the need. You probably already know that drinking lots of water and eating lots of fruits and vegetables also helps with constipation. Keep some little cans of prune juice around and drink a couple when needed. Walking also stimulates intestinal activity, be careful not to walk too far from home after drinking the prune juice though. Sometimes it fast acting. I wish you good luck, this isn’t a minor inconvenience but I haven’t found a lot of help from conventional medicine. I think since it isn’t life threatening or a progressive disease, our system of care isn’t too interested until we hit a crisis. Take care.

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@m4416

I had a right side hemicolectomy 17 yrs ago following an ischemic event which every follow up test failed to find a cause for. No diseases, but I do lots of follow up surveillance. Constipation since then, though all of my providers were expecting diarrhea with 1/3 of my colon missing to do the job of water removal. In addition to whatever your providers are recommending
(mine recommends 1 cap Miralax nightly and a few days a week of 1.5 Oz mineral oil) I find massage very helpful. I start at the right hipbone level of my abdomen, move up to the bottom of my chest, across the chest right to left and down the left side. I repeat as many times as I want, lying down or sitting up. This approximates the path stool takes in a complete and healthy colon. It helps get things moving along. Use as much pressure as feels good to you, you need a little but not so much as to hurt when you do it. It’s trial and error but always in this path. There are massotherapists who are trained to do this as well, I’ve never gone to one but I’m open to the idea if I’d ever feel the need. You probably already know that drinking lots of water and eating lots of fruits and vegetables also helps with constipation. Keep some little cans of prune juice around and drink a couple when needed. Walking also stimulates intestinal activity, be careful not to walk too far from home after drinking the prune juice though. Sometimes it fast acting. I wish you good luck, this isn’t a minor inconvenience but I haven’t found a lot of help from conventional medicine. I think since it isn’t life threatening or a progressive disease, our system of care isn’t too interested until we hit a crisis. Take care.

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Very useful info. I never would have thought of a self massage as you describe to help with constipation. Thanks so much. Joe

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@m4416

I had a right side hemicolectomy 17 yrs ago following an ischemic event which every follow up test failed to find a cause for. No diseases, but I do lots of follow up surveillance. Constipation since then, though all of my providers were expecting diarrhea with 1/3 of my colon missing to do the job of water removal. In addition to whatever your providers are recommending
(mine recommends 1 cap Miralax nightly and a few days a week of 1.5 Oz mineral oil) I find massage very helpful. I start at the right hipbone level of my abdomen, move up to the bottom of my chest, across the chest right to left and down the left side. I repeat as many times as I want, lying down or sitting up. This approximates the path stool takes in a complete and healthy colon. It helps get things moving along. Use as much pressure as feels good to you, you need a little but not so much as to hurt when you do it. It’s trial and error but always in this path. There are massotherapists who are trained to do this as well, I’ve never gone to one but I’m open to the idea if I’d ever feel the need. You probably already know that drinking lots of water and eating lots of fruits and vegetables also helps with constipation. Keep some little cans of prune juice around and drink a couple when needed. Walking also stimulates intestinal activity, be careful not to walk too far from home after drinking the prune juice though. Sometimes it fast acting. I wish you good luck, this isn’t a minor inconvenience but I haven’t found a lot of help from conventional medicine. I think since it isn’t life threatening or a progressive disease, our system of care isn’t too interested until we hit a crisis. Take care.

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My Doctor was/is the same. Not interested until we hit a crisis 🙄 Like you said, she thought the surgery would fix my problem. I still take Trulance daily with extra Miralax. I did a lot of PT afterwords who did a lot of the massage you described. It does help. I’m going to try the mineral oil. Oddly, I can’t eat a lot of fiber as it makes the constipation worse. After I was dismissed & discharged after surgery, I ended up back in the ER a week later where it was discovered I had an anastomosis leak. But thank you for taking the time to respond. It validates many of the struggles and fear I’ve had since the surgery. 💜

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@sassydottie

My Doctor was/is the same. Not interested until we hit a crisis 🙄 Like you said, she thought the surgery would fix my problem. I still take Trulance daily with extra Miralax. I did a lot of PT afterwords who did a lot of the massage you described. It does help. I’m going to try the mineral oil. Oddly, I can’t eat a lot of fiber as it makes the constipation worse. After I was dismissed & discharged after surgery, I ended up back in the ER a week later where it was discovered I had an anastomosis leak. But thank you for taking the time to respond. It validates many of the struggles and fear I’ve had since the surgery. 💜

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I used to eat lots and lots of insoluble fiber and my gut loved it. Since the hemicolectomy though, it’s not my friend like it was. Soluble fiber is better for me, and the relatively small amount of insoluble fiber from fruits and vegetables is fine. GI docs are big into fiber for constipation, but you’re better off listening to your body. I’ve always been a big water drinker and that helps too. Good luck with all the changes you have to make following bowel surgery. I haven’t found anything about it easy, and the changes have changed over the 17 years since mine, but I make changes and then practice “benign neglect” until the next message my body sends. I don’t like to be “sick” in any way, and chafe at the limits this imposes, but I’ve had to accept the limits before I can move on. We’re going to Ireland next month to celebrate our 50th Anniversary and that’s going to be situation where I don’t have a whole lot of control over food like I do at home, so fingers crossed!
Take care.

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@heyjoe415

Very useful info. I never would have thought of a self massage as you describe to help with constipation. Thanks so much. Joe

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You’re most welcome! I hope it can help, it’s pretty relaxing too.

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@m4416

I had a right side hemicolectomy 17 yrs ago following an ischemic event which every follow up test failed to find a cause for. No diseases, but I do lots of follow up surveillance. Constipation since then, though all of my providers were expecting diarrhea with 1/3 of my colon missing to do the job of water removal. In addition to whatever your providers are recommending
(mine recommends 1 cap Miralax nightly and a few days a week of 1.5 Oz mineral oil) I find massage very helpful. I start at the right hipbone level of my abdomen, move up to the bottom of my chest, across the chest right to left and down the left side. I repeat as many times as I want, lying down or sitting up. This approximates the path stool takes in a complete and healthy colon. It helps get things moving along. Use as much pressure as feels good to you, you need a little but not so much as to hurt when you do it. It’s trial and error but always in this path. There are massotherapists who are trained to do this as well, I’ve never gone to one but I’m open to the idea if I’d ever feel the need. You probably already know that drinking lots of water and eating lots of fruits and vegetables also helps with constipation. Keep some little cans of prune juice around and drink a couple when needed. Walking also stimulates intestinal activity, be careful not to walk too far from home after drinking the prune juice though. Sometimes it fast acting. I wish you good luck, this isn’t a minor inconvenience but I haven’t found a lot of help from conventional medicine. I think since it isn’t life threatening or a progressive disease, our system of care isn’t too interested until we hit a crisis. Take care.

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I do this massage. And nightly Miralax. Occasionally I need a couple of Ducolax but not often. Lots of veggies as I’m pre diabetic and too much fruit raises sugars.

The massage works. Thank you.

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@kaystrand

I do this massage. And nightly Miralax. Occasionally I need a couple of Ducolax but not often. Lots of veggies as I’m pre diabetic and too much fruit raises sugars.

The massage works. Thank you.

Jump to this post

I’m glad to hear it works for you too Kay! And I’m sure others who haven’t tried it yet are glad for the confirmation that it’s worth trying. The more tools we have to use the better off we are since this is an up and down condition. Take care.

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I had a colonoscopy and an endoscopy in March. The colonoscopy came back clear, and the endoscopy showed a small ulcer. My body never felt so great as the week after the colonoscopy cleansing! The doctor told me I should take Metamucil daily, which I started in April. It worked for about six weeks and now I am back to being completely uncomfortable most of the time with pelvic area pain on the left side and pebble poop if I’m lucky enough to go at all. Does anyone take stool softeners regularly? I’m afraid to do them daily because I know I would become dependent on them, but I almost feel like I’m already dependent on something to make me go. As others have said, the doctors aren’t too much help until it’s something really serious. I view this as serious, but my Gastro does not.🤷‍♀️

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