Hi Kath
It sounds to me you have what I have and it is called "severe slow transit constipation"
This basically means that your bowel does not recieve impulces from the brain to make peristallises happen in the bowel to push food through so what happens is the longer food stays in your bowel the more water gets drawn from it, makes your poo hard and causes blockages some times, which in turn cause severe cramping, especially left of belly button where the small and large intestine meet, and can cause headaches and tiredness
The dirohreea is bypass waste that manages to get past the hard poos now and then because of its watery consistancy.
Having this illness can cause the muscles of the colon not to work at all as the hard poos sit there and expand it causing nerve damage, which then results in taking a fleet enima every day to go to the toilet, for the rest of your life, also combining that with movicol and plenty of water, and a tiny bit of oral fibre.
First of all you have to be firm with your doc and insist on getting get a referal to a colon and bowl specialist and demand a transit study of your bowel at the nuculer medicine department of your hospital. This will show how long it is taking food to pass through your intestine.
I suffered this all my life but people always passed it off as oh your just constipated, finally it got so bad when I hit 30 and no doc could tell me what was wrong with me, tests kept coming back fine except x rays kept showing severe impacted bowel full of stools, then they would clean it out and send me home and the following week same again! After 2 yrs of persistance I finally found out what I had after a 2nd transit study, 1st onw was done after I was cleaned out in hospital so showed up fine, i insisted on doing another one at a different hospital as I said they needed to do the test when i was going about my normal life not after i was cleaned out. Finally a diagnosis was given and this allowed me to treat it and explained all that had been happening to me, it was such a relief to finally put a name to it.
I live a pretty normal life, still suffer cramping and the odd blockage but gave birth and went full term with my one year old last year x
I hope this helps you or others in some way.
Let me know how you go
cathy