Health scare 😨

Changes in bowel habits should be checked out. I've been on the bowel cancer pathway this year. Change in bowel habit, blood in Fit test and a virtual colonoscopy ( as I have a heart conditions). It was all done fairly quickly and I'm pleased to say it was all ok, it often is. Try not to worry, difficult I know.

bobbydog24

Please excuse me for jumping on this post but I’ve recently been very constipated and have to take a laxative to go to the toilet. For history I have always been stubborn but never this bad and in the past once I have taken Movecol it sorts. I have excess wind too. It is really bothering me and its on my mind constantly. I am guilty of not eating my five a day as living on my own I tend
to snack rather than cook a proper meal. Please, advice needed but no horror stories, I’m terrified enough as it is.

Long term laxative use is not a good idea.

Fybogel helps (disgusting, but it does help). Make sure you are actually eating enough too.

To snack I have grapes and raw carrots in the fridge.

Buy ready prepped salad, or coleslaw, and if you make a sandwich, add some (or red cabbage, or pickled onions) or tomatoes

Cut down on eggs for a while to see if that helps.

Whingey, I hope everything turns out well, but if there is a problem it is good that it has been found.

As for those who suffer from constipation, I have found that eating a small bowl of a reasonably cheap (Aldi) no added sugar Muesli most mornings keeps things functioning quite well. However, when I had my children by Caesarian and was offered bran to "get my bowels working again", I declined, ate two chocolate digestives and problem sorted in a much more enjoyable manner.

bobbydog24

Please excuse me for jumping on this post but I’ve recently been very constipated and have to take a laxative to go to the toilet. For history I have always been stubborn but never this bad and in the past once I have taken Movecol it sorts. I have excess wind too. It is really bothering me and its on my mind constantly. I am guilty of not eating my five a day as living on my own I tend
to snack rather than cook a proper meal. Please, advice needed but no horror stories, I’m terrified enough as it is.

It is tempting not to bother if one lives on one's own - but there's ready-prepared packs of vegetables in the supermarket (ie all you'd have to do is steam them for a few minutes over a saucepan and job done). Most types of fruit are very easy "just wash and go or peel skin off in the case of things like oranges/bananas". I grow a noticeable amount of fruit myself and so have quite a few bags of things like blackcurrants, chuckleberries, etc in the freezer - but I still buy bags of frozen fruit too.

Don't forget those prunes - by the time I've eaten a couple of helpings of canned prunes (or at most both the tins I keep in regularly) things are "moving" again - ie for those very occasional episodes where there is a problem.

Are you getting enough roughage? I've not been able to persuade myself to make my own bread for some time (as the same ingredients I've always used turn out nasty rather than nice for some reason now I've moved) - but artisan breadshops have sprung up. So I buy my bread from those local artisan breadshops.

Unhealthy diet is basically the culprit for that sort of problem. When my mother was bringing me up = I had a lot of problems with that sort of thing and she pulled a "It's just one of those things" stunt on me and complained when I went to the doctor about it!!!!. She'd caused me to have piles with her unhealthy diet - "rubber" bread/not being allowed much fruit/etc. But once I moved out as an adult and was feeding myself = things improved a LOT....and I think the main reason for that was probably down to I was having enough fruit at last. Generally - I knew that rice must be brown (not white), leave the skin on potatoes, rarely have readymade "food".

Don't assume it's okay to eat the diet you were brought up on - there are indeed mothers who know little/care little about what they fed you as a child. You may not even realise - until you review your diet yourself as an adult - and find that constipation has gone/or darn nearly so and your skin isnt as pale as you thought it was (as the colour of it/everything else about it has visibly improved since it was you that started feeding yourself). Don't assume the diet you were brought up on was correct - there are not-very-bright mothers that are bringing up children-that-are-a-lot-brighter than them. Or maybe their financial priorities are skewed and food is one of the things not put highest on the priority order.

Lots of people have health problems from still eating a similar diet to what their parents fed them as a child and/or catering for a selfish partner that doesnt want a healthy diet and you land up not having one either then to suit them.

A very simple thing would be maybe buy one of those individual cooked (brown) rice packets and a pack of that supermarket ready chopped vegetable packets and it takes minutes to make a meal from that (and, say, grating some cheese over it for easy protein). Those cooked rice packets do have sunflower oil in (ie not a good idea) but are fairly healthy apart from that. My version of cooking rice now is 1 cup of brown rice to 2 cups of boiling water put in my slowcooker and left cooking for an hour on high. Double that amount of rice and cool down the spare portion and put that in freezer - ready to defrost and then steam it several minutes over a saucepan of boiling water to reheat it - and then I get healthy cooked rice to serve with cooked vegetables.

So - I'd say "Diet diet diet" first....

I drink plenty of water and walk my dog 2 miles a day. As I stated my only downfall is not reaching my 5 a day but I do eat some fruit but possibly eat too much bread. My lifestyle has been the same for a while, what my concern is why my constipation has become worse just recently.

bobbydog you already know the advice. Drink plenty of water, eat fruit and veg. Coffee stimulates the bowel too. Also exercise. Nothing new or special about this practical advice.

Please excuse me for jumping on this post but I’ve recently been very constipated and have to take a laxative to go to the toilet. For history I have always been stubborn but never this bad and in the past once I have taken Movecol it sorts. I have excess wind too. It is really bothering me and its on my mind constantly. I am guilty of not eating my five a day as living on my own I tend
to snack rather than cook a proper meal. Please, advice needed but no horror stories, I’m terrified enough as it is.

I had anaemia due to a bleeding pulp. I had an iron infusion and eventually the pulp was removed with follow ups every year to 18 months. Took some time but try not to worry you are in the system. All is well now

At a low-level practical point - that area must be feeling a bit tender right now. So you certainly don't want to be "straining" so to say. So - if you get a bit constipated with all this = take prunes. I keep in a couple of tins of prunes for any "once in a blue moon" bit of constipation and eat my way through them and that's that issue sorted.

So have you had a faecal cal protein
Test and fit test? If they came back positive you would likely have a fast track referral to gastro for colonoscopy? You would be fast tracked under suspected camcer targets criteria ( not saying you have cancer...thats just how its done) ...might be a bit of delay with Christmas and doctor stikes

My DH had anemia he was sent to the hospital for endoscopy and colonoscopy this came through very quickly within 2 weeks. Thankfully nothing found.

Not got piles but blood shows anaemia.Not piles because doctor put finger up my bum 😭 too much information sorry

What has your GP said?
You might get lucky and get an appointment before the New Year if a fast-track appointment has been requested for you.

Try not to worry, although it is difficult not to. You have done the right thing by not ignoring it.

So sorry to hear this. And leaving you worrying over Christmas. It's still about 10 days to Christmas, so maybe have a GP phone appointment and ask them what will happen next and when it's likely to be. I expect it will probably be an endoscopy or colonoscopy to find out what's causing it. There are many things can cause it. Haemorrhoids, polyps, fissures as well as more serious causes. I think even if you went private it would probably be about two weeks for an appointment. It's really good you haven't had it again, and the test will have found non visible traces probably. You may still get an appointment before Christmas or shortly after. A positive test needs a follow up to find out the cause. I would think clots is a positive thing as it suggests a one off bleed somewhere if it's stopped now. Do you have haemorrhoids or diagnosed inflammatory bowel disease? Try not to think the worst. There are lots of reasons and causes. But bleeding needs to be investigated obviously.