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Bowel Obstruction?

For a little over a week I had been having severe pain in the upper right quadrant, right under my ribs aswell as nausea.  I scheduled an appt. with my doctor thinking something was wrong with my gall bladder.  Doctor agreeded that based on the symptoms it was probably my gall bladder but took x- rays to confirm.  We were both a little shock at what we saw on the x-ray.  I had an obstructed bowel (I assume just obstructed with stool) The doctor told me to get a bottle of magnesium citrate and some miralax.  I drank the bottle of magnesium citrate at 6 pm night before last (Monday).  However by the next morning I hadn't passed anything.  I took the miralax as instructed by my doctor.  I also took a stimulant laxative aswell as a suppositorie.  Nothing happened!  When my husband got home and I was still dry heaving he called my doctor back and told them what all I have taken and that I still have not had a BM.  I think it is important to note that before I went to the doctor I had been regular, I had not noticed a change in my BM's. So I don't know how this obstruction got there??!!  Well the doctor suggested an enema. I did the mineral oil enema as suggested.  Once again Nothing!  So I tried another suppositorie, nothing. Took another dose of the stimulant laxative, nothing.  Then although I hated to I drank another bottle of magnesium citrate, I drank this bottle around 8 pm last night.  We have had a little progress but I still haven't passed very much.  I would think with the large amounts of different laxative's I should be living on the pot..lol.. But that is not the case.  My mom and husband have been trying to get me to go to the ER.  However this is not an option, to embarrassing.  I would rather take care of my bowel trouble at home.  I am beginning to think there is just nothing there to come out, despite what we saw on the xray.  Does anyone have any suggestions, maybe something else I can try to get my bowels moving?
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Avatar universal
Havnit, call your doc back or do go to the ER. Forget the embarrasment. An obstruction can cause a lot of problems besides just feeling miserable.
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
I have had alot of constipation and bowel obstruction, I use Miralax twice daily, went to the health store and bought a bottle of Aloe Vera w/Cascara Sagrada and also take Amitiza, a prescription laxative that I take 1 time daily.  I went on a 4 day liquid fast with all of the things that you have tried and still had food bezoar in stomach when doctor did and endoscopy.  Good luck!
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
Your obstruction could be a physical problem with the bowel, and if it isn't taken care of, this part of your bowel will die and gangrene will set in.  To avoid going to the ER because of embarrassment is crazy, you're talking about your life here!!!  You need to take this seriously, and get to the ER ASAP!
Helpful - 0
1030526 tn?1252290533
um HELLO, I think you need to get to the ER before you die.  i have had 3 bowel obstrutions.  They told me if you wait to long you could actually die.  i was in soooo much pain, I had to call 911....it sounds like your not in that much pain....because you if you were you couldn't stand it.  Are you passing gas? Please go to the ER>  This is serious!!
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Avatar universal
Thank you for the replies.  Although I am 30 years old my mother ended up making me to go the ER.   She has colon cancer so it is understandable why she was so worried.  At the ER they did a cat scan.  It showed that I did not have a bowel obstruction which is why with the massive amounts of laxatives I have been taking noting was coming out.  There was nothing in there to come out.  It did show that I have colitis.  Now I am wondering why the X-ray showed a bowel osbsruction when there wasn't one?!  I asked the nurse at the ER if colitis could apper to be an obstructed bowel on x ray and she had no idea.  The ER doctor said I needed to follow up with another doctor and schedule a colonscopy to determine the cause of the colitis.  However I don't have medical insurace and as we all know a trip to the ER is very expensive so I will have to hold off on the colonscopy for a little while.
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1030526 tn?1252290533
I'm so glad your ok....When i had my 3rd bowel obstruction, i went to the ER and it didnt show up on the Xray, So they gave me a shot that wore off in 2 hours, I knew I had a bowel obstuction, so I go back to ER and they do a CAT scan and it showed up that I indeed had a bowel obstruction. Strange how some things show up better on Cat or x-ray. I was thinking for your case they might of been mistaking because the pain is sooooo bad , you would not have the strength to sit down and write your post. The pain is 50x labor pains.   I'm glad you did't have one. ;}
Helpful - 0
681148 tn?1437661591
I have to agree about the pain.  I have IBS-C and only a couple of years ago I had a partial obstruction.  It was so bad I couldn't even walk on my own and had to call 911 and go to the ER by ambulance.  It's funny how you compared it to being worse than labor pains.  I've never been pregnant, so I wouldn't know about labor pains, but the pain does radiate in that part of the abdomen.  I mentioned that I thought it could be compared to labor pains to my friend.  She mentioned it to her shirt-tail relative who has IBS-C as well.  She has had bowel obstructions herself and told me that my description of it being like labor is right on the money.  Wow, for someone who has never been pregnant and who has never gone into labor, I'm amazed that I have found out what labor can be like.  That was the only time the IBS-C ever got bad enough that I needed ER help because of the obstruction.  I sure am glad it was only a partial obstruction.  Partial or not, the pain was so bad that I couldn't even walk at the time.  You're so right that a person isn't too likely to be able to even sit up at the computer.  I wouldn't have been.  I know that much.
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
I was taken 4 laxatives a day and nothing was happening, I couldn't go I was in so much pain and no medical insurance. I couldn't eat or walk. It was unreal I said to myself this is it I am going to die. I was brushing my teeth and using listerine the smell on my mouth was horrible and also bad taste, I have a siamese cat that likes to sleep in top of my tummy and he started doing to my stomach like when he goes in the litterbox, I think he was able to smell the stool thru the skin, I was so depressed and not even able to sleep on my bed, I was just sleeping in a recliner. One night very late I saw a commercial for Dual Action, it was quite expensive and money was of the essence, but I was so miserable that I decided to try it, I' ve been in the plan for over a year now and thank's God things are a lot better, I still have to observ a diet and watch what I eat so I don't get in trouble. This Dual Action has a lot of natural ingridients like Cascara Sagrada and it really works for me, I was desperate.
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
I had a severe bowel stricture at terminal ileum (diagnosed as crohn disease) and nothing working for me including immune system suppressors.
Finally I found out resveratrol which exists in grape seed.
It also exist in some kind of white wines with different ratio.
I used it for one year and observed considerable improve in my health starting from the first week.
You can try and see the results...
I just wanted to share this information with people who have similar symptoms with me and have no hope about cure.
I hope it works also for you.

Note: when you have severe bowel blockage and pain, you can heat some olive oil and drink a few spoon, it will relieve you
Helpful - 0
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