Warning: this blog entry is going to talk rather frankly about a subject I am not all that comfortable discussing, heh, but am going to discuss anyway, because I’m getting frustrated and am open to the idea of this discussion in the hopes of getting some suggestions, ideas, or just advice. That subject? Bowel movements. But I swear, it relates to pain, which is the only reason why I am bringing it up. So, consider yourself warned, and now’s your chance to hit the X button or the back button or the whatever button.
With that said, a common “side effect” of gastric bypass surgery is a decrease in bowel movements, both size and frequency. The reason being that less food being consumed equals less food being digested equals less waste leaving the body. Simply put, decreased input equals decreased output. This has been the case with me. After my gastric bypass surgery (November 18th, 2009), I went from “normal” to once every two to three, sometimes four, days. But when I did finally have to go, it was smooth sailing.
Then I had my gallbladder removed (October 12th, 2010). Exactly four days after surgery, and eight days after the last time I went, it took stool softeners and a big dose of Milk of Magnesia to get things moving along. Worth noting: narcotics can cause constipation. Also worth noting: the removal of the gallbladder can often lead to constipation issues, due to the loss of the bile generated from the gallbladder, which helps in keeping things moving along. And in my case, having gastric bypass surgery may have slowed things down, but having my gallbladder out brought things to a screeching halt. Ever since that fateful (read: traumatic) day, I’ve had to rely on stool softeners, taken every single night, to keep things going, and going comfortably, if you know what I mean, every 1-2 days.
Anyway, I took the time to provide you with that oh-so-exciting peek into my bathroom habits for a reason. Since a week or so after my gallbladder was removed, I have been dealing with sporadic, spontaneous and quite painful “attacks”, for lack of a better term. I’d call them gallbladder attacks, except I don’t have a gallbladder anymore. Also, the pain seems to be spread out a bit more, and perhaps a bit higher up, though at times it’s concentrated in the middle or on my left side. The attacks come on fairly suddenly, though there is a bit of a build-up, and they last anywhere from thirty minutes to 1-2 hours. I’ve had times were moving a certain way or taking a deep breath makes the pain worse; other times the pain is constant and doesn’t seem to increase or decrease.
Two variables remain fairly “constant” with these attacks: when they do happen, they happen within 15-30 minutes of eating, or 3-6 hours after I’ve gone to the bathroom.
Another variable: intense, narcotic-worthy pain. It’s more than just distracting. It’s incapacitating.
I saw my surgeon’s assistant back in December about this, and she suggested that a partial bowel obstruction may be to blame. She scheduled me for scans/ultrasounds and an endoscopic procedure; I missed the scans/ultrasounds appointment (I can’t remember why, but I know the reason was a valid one), and decided not to reschedule it until after I had the endoscopy done, since the endoscopy is supposed to be more “precise” and would be more likely to pick up on a problem.
However, it didn’t. The doctor who performed the endoscope saw nothing out of the ordinary (though I’m not sure how far down he went), and suggested that constipation is the problem. Only it can’t be, because the attacks don’t seem to occur in between bowel movements, but after, when there would be nothing there to cause this kind of pain. I told him that at the time, but he just wrote me off as being full of crap (literally), and suggested nightly doses of non-stimulant stool softeners.
I had another painful attack yesterday, almost as bad as the one I had for hours on Halloween that prompted me to have Dan take me to the hospital (it was my first attack, and at the time I wondered if it was appendix related, but a quick CT scan ruled that out), and then another early this afternoon, though this one went away in less than half an hour, which was a relief. A major relief, in fact, because while it was happening I was very tempted to cut one of Dan’s pain pills in half to get some relief; the pain was just that severe.
I need to call my surgeon’s office again and make another appointment, but first I’m going to call the center where my scan/ultrasound appointment was and see if I can get that rescheduled. I’m assuming I can, since it’s something my surgeon ordered but never got “fulfilled”.
In the meantime, I thought I would blog about this issue to see if anyone might have any insight or similar experiences.
Also? Gel caplet stool softeners work rather nicely for “predictable” bathroom habits. And Phillips’ Milk of Magnesia works in a pinch to get things going. And finally, nothing sucks more than taking this stuff to get things going, only then not having the opportunity to go to the bathroom because you have to go to the grocery store and pick up your six year old from the bus stop first! *eyeroll*
After hearing my brother sounding like he was in labour (I’m not joking, he was screaming/moaning in pain) for the fourth night in a row after being discharged from hospital for the third time, I called the ambulance and had him rushed to hospital.
It was 3 days after this he finally had part of his bowel/small intestine removed due to complications from Chrons disease had caused an infection/twist in his intestine.
Even after 4 xrays, 3 ultrasounds, an endoscopy, a colonoscopy and goodness knows how many doctors appointments we didn’t actually know he had Chron’s disease.
He was suffering very similar symptoms that you are describing, aside from he lost nearly 4stone in weight in a very, very small timeframe because he couldn’t keep any food down, and any that he did was causing him agony hours later.
You poor thing
I have no suggestions. I am pretty irregular and constipated a lot, so I’m probably not the best person to ask, but I definitely bet it has something to do with us missing our gallbladders.
I have similar issues 1,5 years after my gall bladder removal surgery and it’s directly connected to what I eat. Strictly forbidden for me — and spasm-attack -inducing — are red meat, cucumber, onions, all dairy products, anything too sugary, anything too spicy, some veggies, pears, grapes, apples, chocolate, any kind of alcohol and white bread. Consuming those pretty much guarantees a trip to the ER for a pain relief drip. The diet limitations after having the gall bladder removed (and you have to remember, your body no longer processes *anything* normally) can be massive and failing to follow a food therapist’s diet plan can lead to repeated gallstone attack -like pains.
Sometimes I have seizures so bad I feel like my heart is stopping, and I have to have two-week fasts of nothing but salt water consumed (I believe the term is “flushing”) to clear the liver and pancreas ducts when they get blocked.
And following on a TMI note, I have the exact opposite problem… when I’m not watching every gram of food I consume, I have loose bowel movements, hideous gas pains and daily vomiting.
Welcome to the literally shitty life of a gall bladder victim!
I’m with Melissa. My grandmother had a bowl twisting incident twice. I guess when it happens it’s prone to happening? It’s odd, they pinned hers to get it to stop spazzing in the same spot and turning. It went from Oh, this will pass in a day or two and we’ll pump you full of meds to get you through, that was the first time. The second time when they did the testing the bladder was actually dying because of the twist and not twisting back. That’s when it got pinned up to make it stop.
I’m actually worried that if that is what is going on it might get so bad that part of it might start to die. In that case though, the pain would not ease up, so if you end up at the ER again in excruciating pain before you get those tests done mention that to them so they can go right to the source instead of blowing you off and saying it’s poop related.
It sounds like the actual going to the bathroom issues are totally separate from these bouts. My grandma said it felt like gall bladder attacks too, but they intensified way worse. In any event, get that test done ASAP. I have no clue what causes this to happen, but it sounds horrible.