I got a prescription for it and use a Canadian or online pharmacy I pay $18 for 100 tablets. There is no need to pay huge prices for this stuff. It comes prepackaged in blister packs and stays fresh a long time. You must have the prescription to get it tho.

My MD wrote for 90 tabs at a time, and they come 100 to a pack so remember that when asking for the script.

Let us know how it goes.

Dejibo,

I don't have the words to thank you, properly.

I appreciate knowing I can save money, as my DH is retired. Although, this is not the retirement either of us ever expected. I spent two years in bed, in such miserable back pain, until my D.O. finally sent me to a Pain Management Clinic, and I had diagnostic nerve blocks, and one showed the pain is coming from the medial branch nerves. I don't understand, why, my former Neuro did not know about these nerves, when I told him I had the nerve blocks done. He was angry that anyone did nerve blocks on me.

DH retired young, 11 & 1/2 years ago, at the age of 57. So glad he did, because we had fun before November of '05.

I often think of when we 1st got married 38 years ago, he is nine years older than me, and my Mother was concerned that I would have to take care of him when he was older. Wish she was alive to see who is taking care of who.

Chelle

Oh my, I have THIS exact problem! I have been telling my doctor for ages "It's constipation", but it's really not.

I go MAYBE every 3-4 days if lucky, though I've sometimes reached up to 5. I don't have hard stools, in fact, my stools otherwise appear quite normal and healthy.

I noticed what you've been distinguishing Chelle... it gets to a point where the bowel just 'lets go', like it's finally so over-full, it all comes out at once. That's the ONLY time I feel truly like I've emptied my bowel.

I've done all the recommended: lots and lots of water, lots of fibre, magnesium. I tried stool softeners and bulk-forming capsules. Nothing's really made things better (it was harder stools before, now with the increase in water/fibre they seem otherwise healthy).

It's the fact that I'm only going every 3 days, if lucky, and as you describe, it seems only when the bowel's overfull that it finally lets loose. Otherwise I am bloated for days.

Maybe I should present my case to GP not as 'constipation' (which gets fluffed off) and instead as part of my intestine doesn't seem to be cooperating (or is dormant).

Read Dejibo's posts. She is a wealth of information!!!!

I feel, due to her, I may actually be able to get this issue resolved.

Do you get an "urge" to have a BM? I never get an urge. And I cannot feel after I have had one.

Well, I really had better get off of the computer, and finish packing or my DH is going to give me one of his "looks".

Chelle

Dej is awesome! I'll read her post in a moment .

The urge question... I don't quite know how to describe mine. I just am conscious of how long I've not gone (I keep a diary) and out of the blue (usually after I go out on a walk), I will feel like if I don't get to a bathroom ASAP, it's going to be messy.

Once there, then it's literally no 'involvement' on my part to go, it just goes. Rather, I don't have to put in an effort for it.

I don't really feel any less bloated or 'empty', but I know I've successfully ejected the cargo otherwise, you know?

I did not get an urge either, but knew that my belly was bloated, and I was uncomfy. I always looked bloated too. Xray showed I was full of poop! MD was impressed. He ordered laxatives and such, but I never get the "push" urge or the best way to describe mine is that even if my brain tells my bum to push, it never gets the message or its a confused message and while I can be some what effective most just sits there. I gave up long ago and started rescuing stuff. its gross, but it kept my hemmorhoids from going crazy. Material sitting on those veins of the exit gate can cause some humdinger hemmorhoids. I had a few thrombose or clot off because normally the passage of material massages the veins and helps the blood flow but when stuff sits, so does the blood.

NAsty business. I would never get the "dumping" syndrome unless I was over heated and then BOOM! without the sun or heat I just couldnt get my bowel to figure out what its job is. Like I was speaking french and my colon was speaking German. They didnt understand each other.

Internal a_n_a_l sphincter spams is perhaps my most disabling issue. However, unlike most of you, I have no colon or rectum, as they were removed in 2002 due to severe ulcerative colitis. They then reconstructed my ileum into a "j-pouch" (a reservoir to replace the colon) and reattached it to my a_n_u_s right at the sphincter (called an anastomosis).

Without a colon the stools one passes are not completely neutralized, nor are they nicely compacted and "smooth" like they are when they pass through the large intestine. This means that digestive acids and enzymes are still active, bits of undigestible fiber are present (and can be quite irritating on the way out) and because the small intestine is constantly in motion, bathroom urges are ever present. We j-pouchers have named this "inconvenience" butt-burn, because we tend to suffer severe skin breakdown from leakage.

In addition to all this, I have scar tissue and strictures built up around the anastomosis, and these lead to severe spasming of the internal a-sphincter, which in turn has caused a_n_a_l fissures to develop. If you are feeling a severe knife-like pain or burning, it is likely a fissure causing your pain. Now, add to a fresh cut, which is what a fissure is (in the most tender skin on your body), caustic stool in an imperfect colon-rectum replacement (the j-pouch) . . . you can lose entire days to the bathroom. You have a picture of my life. Fun? No!

I have been on a regimen of regular manual dilation of this internal a-sphincter for some years now, either using a dilator or a gloved digit. I use a compounded ointment containing lidocaine for pain and diltiazem for relaxing the muscle. Some people use nitroglycerine but it can cause terrible head-aches, so I opted for the diltiazem. For several years I had pretty good maintenance of my issue, but lately it has become more difficult to relax that stubborn muscle. (By the way, we do what we have to, right? Self-dilation has become so second nature, I carry a small vial of ointment and gloves in my purse at all times. I have dilated at 29,000' in a tiny airplane bathroom, in a porta-potty, and and many times in public restrooms. You do what you gotta do, right?)

The idea that there may be a herbal approach in vinpocetine is exciting to me. My surgeon's next step was to try botox, but that could render me incontinent, which means not able to leave the house (or the bathroom for that matter) until it wears off. Like I said, incontinence with loose, caustic stools can be terribly disabling, not to mention excruciatingly painful. I would be ecstatic to find some improvement . . . any improvement. I would think I had died and gone to heaven if it controlled the spasms, and the fissures could heal. I might actually be able to go hiking again . . . or even make it through a meal . . . .

Hi, Dejibo.

Just got home. Trip wasn't great. I was very tired.

I never look or feel, bloated.

Just feel the stool, pressing on the internal sphincter muscle. Never experienced a "dumping" syndrome. Stool is not hard. Soft stool will not pass, at all.

And that makes the nerves in my spine, burn, makes my back hurt. So, I have to dis-impact, with a gloved hand. And, it is not easy.

My G.I. Doc said my brain is not getting the message from the nerves in the internal **** sphincter muscle.

I have not been diagnosed with MS.

Not sure I'll ever get a DX of anything.

Praying my appt. with the Neurosurgeon tomorrow won't be a waste of time & money.

I need to P.M. you, privately later.

Chelle

Sorry for my late reply, my DH & I just got home from our trip today.

For me, I am only conscious that there is stool, pressing against the muscle, and it is uncomfortable. No urge to evacuate, so, I will gently strain, and sometimes some will pass. The straining causes the nerves in my spine to burn, and it makes my back hurt.

During these times, the stool is narrow.

Other times, if it is really full, and the stool is firm, it will force the muscle to open, but only some of the stool will pass. It is like the muscle clamps shut.