Hello everyone,
I am a long time lurker here but just registered last night as I dealt with my second-ever AF. I found this forum the first time I had an AF, almost exactly one year ago to this day. I am happy that there is a group of people that you can "talk" to who understand how awful these things truly are.
I am a 35 year old female, with a pretty balanced diet- good amount of fiber/veggies, only a few glasses of wine a week. I exercise about 5 days a week and teach yoga twice a week. I work from home so I'm luckily able to deal with this discomfort from my own bathroom! I know for a fact I don't drink enough water, but I've been changing my ways since I was diagnosed with "lots" of small kidney stones. I've never had a great consistency of BMs, even since I was a kid. I will go with bouts of constipation for days at a time, followed by days of 3 or 4 BMs per day. However, this has never impacted my day to day life so I've never pursued it with a doctor.
First off, I feel bad complaining about my situation, as I know there are tons of people on this forum who have suffered for years with AF. The first one I had last year was definitely due to straining- I can pinpoint when and where it happened, and it cleared up on it's own after about a week. At that point I wasn't "educated" about AF and was using flushable wipes and Prep H cooling gel, but everything turned out fine. I also wasn't having any trouble passing my stools- they seemed to fall out of me pretty easily.
This AF seems to be a different story, and I'm kicking myself because it's all of my fault and could have been prevented. We had friends in town all last week and my diet took a nose dive- hardly any fiber, not a ton of water, and LOTS of junk- pizza, beef, take out, more alcohol than usual. I had a normal, but larger than normal BM on Friday morning. Friday night, I felt like I had to go- I pushed harder than normal, it took longer than normal to go, and the stool was definitely hard. I remember telling my husband it felt like a rock. Saturday night and Sunday morning, same thing- strained harder than normal, hard stool, took awhile. There was no blood or anything on my wipes or in the toilet until Sunday night.
Sunday night is when my current problems really started. I went to bed feeling like I had to go, but ignored it and tried to sleep. I woke up a few hours later with a lot of gas, so I tried going at around 2am. Actually, I tried forcing myself to go. Always a huge mistake. It felt like I was pushing out giant rocks that had knives attached to them. They were not large pieces yet it was incredibly painful and I stopped going before I was emptied out. At first I thought I just had stool that was too hard to pass, but then I looked down. There was more blood on my wipes and in the toilet than I remember having with my first AF. And then within two minutes, the throbbing and pain started. I started crying, tried going back to sleep but failed and woke my husband up with my silent sobbing.
Yesterday, I started taking Dulco Ease stool softener (took it 3 times yesterday) and upped my water intake. I started back on my "normal" diet which includes fiber (love veggies). I was definitely still sore but I didn't have the throbbing during the day. I was hoping that by the middle of the night or this morning, I would have softer stool, but it's not the case. I woke up in the middle of the night feeling like I had to go, so I tried- I BARELY strained, hoping it would just fall out with the help of the stool softener, water and fiber- but I had to stop trying because it felt like I was getting ripped in half and there was once again blood (not as much as the night before since I didn't go). The throbbing started immediately so I decided to go downstairs and sleep on the couch rather than wake my husband up again. I took some Advil and finally fell back to sleep at around 6am (this is where working from home comes in handy!!). Started on the water and stool softener again at around 8:30 this morning.
Sorry this post was so long but I have a few questions (if you're still reading!):
-I know everyone is different, but how long does it take for a stool softener to start working? I've never taken one before now.
-Is Dulco Ease a good brand to use? I tried doing some research and it seemed to get decent reviews.
-I definitely stopped going before I was emptied out both on Sunday and last night- I felt like it was right at the tip but couldn't go any further (sorry, TMI!). Is there a chance that I am doing more harm than good by not emptying out fully?
-At what point should I consider going to a doctor? I am supposed to travel to Cleveland overnight Thursday into Friday for work, and we have a trip to London coming up on October 22- I am terrified to be feeling this way at that point (I know that by Thursday I will not be magically better!).
Thank you for any responses- I really appreciate the opportunity to get this out there to people who understand. My husband is super supportive but doesn't really understand how painful this can be (and for him, thankfully so!). I am just kicking myself because I know I did this to myself with my straining and that this could have been prevented.
Kristin