In 2018, I was constantly full. And had a feeling of dread in my stomach. This is the only symptom I had…but my therapist insisted I go to see a gastroenterologist. So I did…because I felt full all the time. And I wasn’t going to the bathroom as I usually did. I was embarrassed to tell my doctor I don’t go to bathroom much. And it started about a month before I went to the doctor.

She ordered a CT scan…and it revealed I had pancreatic cancer. I was referred to Oncology. And had surgery for the cancer. I lost half of my pancreas (initially it was half…now I don’t have one. I have a remnant and it’s dead. I lost half of my stomach…initially it was only half…now I don’t even have that much of it anymore. Just like my pancreas, it atrophied. I lost half of my small intestine, and my entire gallbladder. Cancer took so much of my digestive system. And one of the complications of my cancer surgery…I have gastroparesis (Paralysis of my digestive system).

I was able to go to yhr bathroom while in the hospital. But when I returned home…it stopped working. I backed up all the way into my throat. And the day I got home…I threw up poo. I was horrified. And so was my husband since I threw up on him. My oncologist told me it happens. When I asked him why he didn’t tell me…he said he waited until this happened…he hoped it wouldn’t get to this. I am on an insulin pump. And I take medication for my digestive system. To help my digestive system to move. So…I need help to go to bathroom. I tend to go a month without going to bathroom.

Even as I’m on medication for it. So…I back up all the way to my throat…and I am in hideous pain when this happens. I will get esophageal spasms. They are horrible. I start having crushing pain in my chest…and it moves up…then I can’t breath. So I have to take medication then…it stops my suffocation. And it calms down my esophagus. Then my digestive system dumps everything. I will throw up fecal matter and then once that is out…I stop throwing it up. Then I can use the bathroom they way we are meant to. It’s a nightmare. No it’s worse then a nightmare.

I’m afraid to go out…I have been in Kroger and I start to suffocate…and go out to the car while my husband finished our grocery shopping. The esophogeal spasms can kill me. I can’t breathe. I have medication I take if I can feel it soon enough…unfortunately it isn’t always soon enough. I have heart problems and I have to take nitro when this happens.

It’s horrendous. So…to answer your question…yes we poo it all out…if we don’t…its not compatible with life. So…if you don’t go as you should…go see your doctor. This is a symptom of a bigger problem. If you just want to wait until the right time to go to bathroom…rethink it…go to bathroom when you need to. Don’t hold it. And I know someone may be gagging (I am as I tell you about it)…and for some who may wonder…no it doesn’t taste like poo…it doesn’t taste good…but not like that…

So I have to say this…everytime I talk about it…I have to say this. If you feel anything is off with your stomach…go see a doctor. Even if it’s only anxiety in your stomach…still go see a doctor. I only had fullness and a sense of dread…if I had ignored it…I would not be here right now.

I am at no evidence of disease now. For 6 years have been at No Evidence of Disease.

A couple of years ago I was given assorted laxatives to prep for a colonoscopy — literally it felt as if my arse fell out. I’ll spare you any more details other than it was 20 hrs sitting on the loo.

A camera was inserted the next day and it reported an all clear- there was no cancer- no shit! Afterwards it was some days before I needed to go to the toilet.

I would guess that without heavy doses of laxatives, or even an enema, there’s ordinarily some stuff working it’s way down the pipe. Starting as food and finishing up as what’s deposited in the toilet bowl with intermediate stages along the way.

As an edit. I didn’t actually spend “20 hrs sitting on the loo”. I did spend about that amount of time with repeated trips to the toilet. So please no more comments telling me I’m ill, unusual or worse detailing how fast your bowels moved.

The whole length of the small and large intestine is like a constant conveyor belt, absorbing nutrients and water, re-circulating bile acids to recycle them, and preparing what isn’t needed to be passed as waste matter, apart from a number of other essential tasks.

So there is “stuff” at different levels of processing constantly on the move in a healthy digestive system.

When we poop, we never possibly can, poop out every single thing that’s in the digestive system. We only get rid of what has arrived in the rectum via the sigmoid colon. That, the body has decided, is waste.

That’s usually enough for one day.