#auguts hard to talk about
I don’t have a diagnosed illness aside from old age. Walking seems to set my bowels off and I have no control.
I don’t have a diagnosed illness aside from old age. Walking seems to set my bowels off and I have no control. This is unfortunate as I love walking! Six or seven years ago I was given a colonoscopy but nothing was found so I was seen at the biofeedback clinic. The best advice that came out of this consultation was how to take Imodium (Loperamide). I had been taking a couple, before I went out walking but that didn’t work. The advice was to take them the night before to give them time to work which I now do and take another one in the morning. So if I am going anywhere where there isn’t easy access to a toilet I take the Imodium the night before. I have been caught out in the countryside, especially if it has been an unexpected walk and I have had to find a bush to poo behind. Not pleasant but not nearly as unpleasant as filling one’s trousers. My problem isn’t anything like others I have read on this site, I’m not ill and I have no pain, but it is inconvenient and unpleasant and on the whole I have learnt to manage it and live with it and to continue all the things I enjoy doing, especially walking.
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I was born 8 weeks premature with Intestinal Malrotation. My understanding is they weren’t sure what was causing me the pain as a newborn, being premature too. When surgery was eventually done it was found my bowels had twisted. Corrective surgery was done. I was christened in the hospital as it wasn’t looking great.
I have diverticular disease on the right side of my body and I believe only a few people have it on this side.
Mr Frank McDermott is a Consultant Colorectal Surgeon and Cancer lead for the Genomics Medicine Service Alliance in Southwest England. His grant with Bowel Research UK why some patients with diverticulitis experience serious complications such as blood infection, while others have milder disease.
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