Eight Months of Hell

My colon stopped working in November. If you've been reading my blog, you already know this has not been a fun time for me. Experimenting with laxatives of all kinds has been challenging especially since some of them are chemical-based and create side effects I'd rather do without. However...

MY COLON IS NOW WORKING!!!!!!

Unbelievable. Oddly enough, I had asked some Hashimoto's people about non-working colons and quite a few said they have experienced the same thing with no doctors who knew what to do and no relief, BUT one said her issues also lasted about seven to eight months and then miraculously started working again. No one knows anything.

Here's what I know: My colon stopped abruptly after spending a weekend gorging on lectins. I repeat, gorging. I am an overeater and have been all my life. Even when I'm full, I want to eat. I'm sure the lectins compromised my colon's ability to work and with Hashimoto's slowed to a full stop.

Miralax was the only thing that worked for me and I was thankful when my eighth doctor informed me Miralax is not addictive. All it does is add water which helps keeping fecal matter moving in one's colon. Because everything has slowed to a crawl, it spends too much time in the colon and all water is sucked out created painfully dry and hard stools. I started doing four caps of Miralax a day, reduced down to 2 caps. One can tell if one is taking too much Miralax as stools appear like skinny, mushy snakes or worms. (Sorry so graphic. This is for people who need this information. Be thankful I didn't include photos. hehehe)

SO...I put this information together:

First, stop eating so much. Less food means there is less to move. This is difficult for me, but easier if I prepare "fixed" one portion meals. Anytime I make a pot of anything whether it be soup, casserole or stew, I want to eat the whole thing. So fixed meals and lots of willpower not to fix another fixed meal.

Second, water. Now I know we are supposed to drink copious amounts of water and every morning I lay out my eight glasses of water on the counter and attempt to drink all before bedtime. There are days I am so busy I forget to drink anything! I also know Hashimoto's people have an aversion to water. The chemically sensitive should drink a lot of water, too. It helps with detoxification and dehydration makes one susceptible to EMF sensitivities.

I also have bad water history after living on a farm with a well that got contaminated and sent relatives to the hospital. I've lived in cities with bad drinking water that smelled to high heaven or came out of the tap brown. Consequently, I've lived off of distilled (dead) bottled water most of my life. I have a life-long physical, emotional, and mental aversion to water. Still, I must drink water if I want this colon to work.

Eight months ago I started trying to drink lots of water. Somedays I succeeded. Most days I did not. Lately I've been very diligent and it helps to be getting my water supply from an artesian well so knowing it's fresh, clean, and filled with nutrients makes me feel better. And free! In the last month or so I've been religious about water.

Soon I noticed I was taking too much Miralax. I cut it down to one cap a day, then a half a cap a day. I was still taking too much. Whoa! I went without for a couple days but panicked. In past months I had tried to stop Miralax only to have my colon turn to cement within twelve hours. I resumed the Miralax only to find fecal snakes swimming in the toilet. Then I stopped completely. It's been two weeks without Miralax. As long as I don't overeat and drink copious amounts of water, everything seems to be working.  (Knock on wood!) Not perfectly, but at least I don't need Miralax.

How much to drink? The standard is eight glasses a day which is what we've been told for centuries, however, this complies only with the lab rat theory that we are all alike. I've used this argument to justify my lack of water proclaiming I'M NOT EXACTLY LIKE EVERYONE ELSE! Now I confess I probably am like everyone else, however, I am gravitationally gifted (fat) so I need more than the typical lab rat.

There is a math formula according to one's weight:

(Your weight) x .67 = ounces of daily water intake

Adjust for strenuous activity or hot weather. So a person who is 175 lbs would need 117 ounces of water per day for optimum health. That's a lot!

I should be drinking 107 ounces which is a challenge. So far I'm up to about 72 ounces and working on it. This is a huge accomplishment for someone who wouldn't drink any water! I get up, drink twelve ounces immediately, go for a walk, drink another twelve ounces. An hour after breakfast drink another twelve ounces, etc. At first it was really difficult and I felt like I was drowning.  Not only did drinking all this water make me choke, but I kept inhaling the water down my windpipe. If I drink it too soon after a meal I burp it up if I move wrong. Gross.  Who has time to constantly stop and drink water ALL DAY LONG? What about people who don't have as much access to clean water? Obviously I'm still trying to overcome my mental block.

Besides the awesome working colon, I also notice the veins on my arms are bulging and I'm sleeping better without the Miralax side effects. I do notice I don't have to pee every ten minutes which was a hassle for a while and I try to stop drinking water after 5:00pm. I'm still getting up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night, but actually not as often as my body at night was busy trying to flush out the Miralax poison and now it's just processing water. I'm sweating way more than I used to, but I know a symptom of Hashimoto's is very little if any sweating. We probably all need to drink more water!

HOORAY!