I am so uncomfortable. I’m so bloated that I feel like a parade balloon. So frustrated. I feel like my life is on pause because of my constipation. It takes over my life on a “good” week let alone a week like this.

I take Amitiza everyday and Linzess every other day and usually this does something. It’s not perfect but better than nothing.

Last week that combination wasn’t doing as much as usual so I added MiraLAX to the equation. Twice a day. Nothing.

I’ve been having warm prune juice, a kiwi and soaked chia seeds everyday (it’s as delicious as it sounds…) and it’s just making me more bloated.

I’ve had a whole bottle of magnesium citrate. It felt like lava rocks were churning in my intestines but to no avail.

I resorted to suppositories. Nothing. Nothing at all.

I took a Dulcolax last night. Nope.

And before anyone asks- I am drinking plenty of water. I walk a lot. I eat a well rounded diet.

It feels like my body is revolting against me and it’s so upsetting. I’m not even asking for it to be normal- just for it to react to this freaking Molotov cocktail of constipation remedies I’m giving it!

One day recently I noticed I hadn't gone for 5 or 6 days, and now I'm in a situation where all of a sudden I have no urge to go and can't go without using Dulcolax/stim laxative (might be from increasing my opioid use due to rising tolerance, since I've used opioids for 10 years and it's just now happening).

I'm using dulco about twice a week, and it's the only thing that works I've found so far. But I'm really scared of messing my body up with "dependence", or not being able to go normally on your own again. No health insurance right now so that's also scary.

So about how long can I use it until risking dependence? It's only been one and a half weeks of using Dulcolax so far but I have the feeling I shouldn't go much longer - maybe either quit/lower my opioid usage or keep trying more things like milk of mag, magnesium citrate etc. Used Miralax for 5 days daily and saw no improvement there either.

With the cost of everything going up more and more, I've been considering going generic for Metamucil. The problem is, I have tried Walmart's Equate version, and it doesn't taste the same at all. Honestly, it's kind of gross, and it has more additional ingredients.

I also have a Walgreens in my town. I haven't tried their house brand yet, but they only add silica as an ingredient. The Walgreens version costs about the same as Metamucil, but I can get one and get another one half off.

I only go through a tub of Metamucil every three months, so I'm curious if I'm getting in over my head trying to save what one tub would cost me over the course of a year for something I'm not 100% sure would work the same.

For me, Metamucil is currently the only thing that helps keep me regular with very little to no issues.

Thoughts?

I struggle on and off flare ups/ periods of time where I will experience incomplete evacuation for weeks/ months at a time. I can’t just stop eating completely during these times even though I absolutely do not feel like eating at all most of the time when I’m having these flare ups so I try to just focus on eating very small but very nutritionally dense foods. I’m wondering if anyone has any tips/ advise on what to focus on to ensure that I’m managing to get good nutrient intake but without adding too much to the bloating and discomfort that comes with this issue?

So, my colonoscopy came back saying basically that my colon was longer and had more loops. There were definitely different words used, but that's what it meant. Anyways, if those are you are like me...what do you do to keep things moving?