Hello,
I'm a 26 year old male who suffers from what I believe could be constipation.
To cut a very long story short, when I moved to a dorm for school (about 10 years ago), I was unable to use the common bathrooms comfortably as I'm a bit of a germophobe and I developed constipation over the next few months that persists to this day.
I do not have Crohn's or IBD or Hirschsprung's as there is no blood, or diarrhea or mucus or hard stools etc.
My stools move comfortably but it's just that I never have the urge to go literally and I have to go sit on the toilet multiple times a day and eliminate a little bit each time just to feel comfortable physically and mentally.
Sometimes I can only go once in 2 days but never more than that.
Drinking large quantities of alcohol is a definite one time solution to have a full bowel movement but otherwise, my poop is usually much smaller than what is considered normal.
Also, if I go multiple times daily, the color is usually an ochre yellow (what is considered normal) whereas if I am going once in 2 days then it's darker. More of a dark brownish with a tinge of yellow.
One other thing is that my upper GI moves extremely fast.
Sometimes what I am eating starts to eliminate within 8 hours and is completely out by 16 hours.
But at any cost nothing I eat stays in for longer than 72 hours.
It's a really wicked situation as I don't know what the issue is. My only problem is that I never have that urge to go. The feeling where your colon is actually pushing it out unless of course I drank the night before.
It could be psychological, it could be idiopathic or it could be
parasites but at this point I am really done trying to figure out the problem.
For the last 8 or so years, I have tried every single thing out there from H. Pylori treatment to herbs etc etc etc and absolutely nothing works.
I have decided to concentrate my efforts on controlling my symptoms now and to that end, I have ordered an enema kit.
I have no practical colon motility anyway and at this point, I do not care if I have to do an enema every single day for the rest of my life.
I'd really like a clear cut answer on EXACTLY WHAT TYPE OF WATER TO USE. I have read so many different opinions that I'm back to square one and it's frustrating.
One thing I am clear about is using 1 tsp of
Sea Salt for every
quart of water.
Also, no tap water as it contains chlorine.
I am reading about terms like isotonic, hypotonic etc that I really don't care about. I know what they mean but I just want to know plain and simple where I should procure the water that is going into the enema bucket.
The tap water in my house is heavily chlorinated and I am not using that.
I can go to the store and get water but I just want to know what exactly to bring as I don't want to mess with my body seeing as I plan on doing it every single day.
Also, seeing as I don't have hard stools or impaction etc, do I still need to hold for 20-30 mins?
Lastly, how much water to use each time?
Otherwise, I am a healthy adult who eats really well (fruits, veggies, limited sugar, no red meats etc) and I am fairly physically active.
I really appreciate everyone who took the time to read my post and I appreciate ANY advice.
I am in a desperate situation currently as I started my master's program and if I don't take care of this right away, I will be in serious trouble.
Thank you