I've been on your diet for the past 2 1/2 weeks and it's definitely helping to make me much more comfortable thru the day. However, I've had steadily worsening constipation for at least 25 years and started using self-administered hot water enemas in 1985. At first I only used them occasionally (once a week or less) when I was desperately uncomfortable. However, over time they helped to make me so much more comfortable and relieved my "brain fog" and insomnia so well that I gradually started using them more and more. The doctors told that me that this was healthier than using laxatives and I believed them. 
My diet was primarily tons of salads, raw vegies, fruit, high fiber grains and cereals. However, whenever I was just too constipated and distended/bloated/uncomfortable/in pain to be able to be able to make myself eat more vegies, salad or fruit, high fiber grains or cereals, I ate peanut butter by the mouthful or chocolate b/c they both let me get calories and energy with no bulk. I drank tons of water and no alcohol but lots of diet sodas and chewing gum plus lots of decaf. No wonder my colon stayed messed up!!!!!
Anyway, until 5 years ago I was repeatedly told by numerous MDs that my ongoing constipation was due to the stress in my life since I had had, starting in 1985, a series of increasingly high stress positions in my career and I was very driven to succeed.
FINALLY, 5 years ago I was very scared about being completely enema dependent by this time, so I went to a big academic medical center in 1998 and had a thorough evaluation.
They NEVER mentioned IBS! Instead they told me that I most likely had colonic inertia (which simply means a colon that works minimally and irregularly- sure sounds exactly like C-IBS to me!!). They couldn't make the diagnosis of colonic inertian definitively b/c I wasn't able to complete the transit time study. It required doing no enemas and using no laxatives of any sort for 5 days. I couldn't make it thru the 5 days w/o an enema, I was in too much pain......I tried THREE times to do this study and just couldn't! I felt like such a failure on top of everything else I was feeling!!! 
The doctor at the university medical center was very empathetic but told me that there was little he could do. He said that I had a "dead colon" and would just have to accept living like this forever or having my colon removed surgically. Fortunately he told me there was no guarantee even doing something the surgery would work, so he didn't recommend it. He did prescribe sorbitiol but it made my discomfort and gas sooooooooo much worse that I stopped it after 2 months. He also strongly recommended that I needed to reduce the stress in my life.
I was scared and depressed enough to listen to him and take what he said seriously. I also admitted to myself that my body had been trying to tell me something was seriously wrong for a long time. I resigned from the last and highest stress of the positions I'd held and became self-employed.
For the past FIVE years I've remained self-employed and my stress is MUCH less, but I've continued to suffer alot. However, I have alot of faith and a strong support network of family and friends so I kept believing that I WOULD find a way to get my colon working again and I wouldn't believe that my colon was "dead"!
I learned thru trial and error to do everything your 2 books talk about EXCEPT for 2 things. The first of these is that I continued to eat as much insoluble fiber as possible and as often as possible b/c I believed that this was what my body needed. Not surprisingly, this did not help me to get off of enemas nor did it decrease my severe symptoms of bloating, gas, distention, pain and insomnia. However,I kept doing it b/c I didn't know what else to do and I kept hoping that this high fiber diet was gradually helping my colon to heal. I kept thinking that since I'd had constipation and tons of stress for so many years and had been enema dependent for so long, that it would take my body a long time to heal.
Six months ago I thought that I'd found the "answer to my prayers" when I started on Zelnorm. On 6mg 2x/day I started having strong peristalsis in the AM and spontaneous complete evacuations for 3-4 days in a row. However, it also made my migraines start occurring every 3-4 days too. Sadly, taking Imitrex, which is the only thing that relieves my migraines, counteracted the beneficial effect of Zelnorm, so that I was still needing to do an enema at least every 3-4 days after each use of Imitrex. I've continued to stay on the Zelnorm for the past 6 months b/c my doctor says that since it's the only thing that's helped me, I should continue to use it even though it's only approved to be used for up to 3 months. I know that I'm taking a risk using it on a ongoing basis before the pros and cons of longterm use have been determined in clinical trials, but it has felt worth it to take this risk
Well, as I mentioned at the start of this letter, I finally discovered your books 3 weeks ago and I'm already feeling significantly better on your high soluble fiber diet, in terms of all my daytime symptoms resolving alot.  I'm still using Zelnorm too, but your diet has decreased my symptoms alot more than Z alone did.
The ONLY problem now, and it's still a BIG one, is related to the second thing in your diet that I didn't figure out. The only thing that has ever helped my colon to have any spontaneous BMs over the past many years, even since starting Zelnorm, has been a small amount of caffeinated coffee upon arising, combined with lots of abdominal massage. Many years ago caffeinated coffee stopped giving me a strong complete evacuation, but at least it has helped me to go for 2-3 days between enemas for the past 2-3 years, which was an improvement from the daily enemas I was doing by the time I became self-employed 5 years.
Since starting your diet I've started having some spontaneous BMs that were an adequate enough evacuation to let me go for up to FIVE days (!!!) w/o needing to do an enema. However, I've still been using a small amount of caffeinated coffee ( I treat it like a drug and use as little of it as possible) each AM 30 minutes after I've taken 6 mg of Zelnorm, to elicit these spontaneous BMs.
I'm still needing to do an enema by day 4-5 but I now know, since being on Zelnorm and your diet, that my colon CAN WORK. NOW I really want to get off enemas!
Do you think that I should just go "cold turkey" on my AM "dose" of caffeinated coffee? I tried it today and had no BM at all using just hot lemon water. Fortunately so far today I'm not uncomfortable as of 2PM. I've made myself keep eating small amounts of soluble fiber even though I have no appetite, whereas before reading your books I wouldn't eat when I had no appetite.
I'd really like to stop using Zelnorm AND caffeinated coffee, b/c I dislike the side effects of both of them ie: headaches from Z and hyperness from C. However, I'm really scared to do this! What would you suggest I do to stabilize my colon and thus be able to stop using enemas, caffeinated coffee and hopefully Zelnorm too?????
THANKS SO MUCH for reading all of this long letter. It feels soooooo good to finally share all of this with someone whom I know will really listen and can really understand at a "gut level" how hard it's been for sooooooo long to live in my body with this problem. Any suggestions you can offer in terms of how to approach getting off the enemas, caffeinated coffee and ideally Zelnorm too would be GREATLY appreciated!!
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Heather: PLEASE help with a very bad problem: enema dependency
