I did end up seeing the doctor, and she prescribed lactulose. I took it in the morning, the morning after I passed a well formed stool (a "log" so to speak) that was tapered quite a bit on both ends. Later, I also managed to pass something sickly looking. It was very small, about 2x the size of a prune, dried up and shriveled, and felt like clay when prodded. Could this have been a piece of impaction? Over the rest of that day my intestines started gurgling quite a bit with weird gassy type pains, churning, and I swear it almost felt like something was very slowly moving from right to left. For fear of having a blockage I stopped eating down to maybe half a meal a day.

This morning i woke up early with a sudden urge for diarrhea. I passed healthy diarrhea with multiple pieces in it. At this point I felt totally evacuated for the first time i can remember. It was a refreshing feeling to have no downward pressure in my abdomen. I hadn't realized this feeling was very frequent until this time. I stopped the lactulose because I had read about it possibly lowering potassium and electrolyte levels from excess diarrhea. I started eating again, still lightly though. Over the next 5-6 hours the distention came right back, and I'm back to passing relatively copious amounts of gas, but no more stool as of yet. I can pass gas quite easily. It appears to move t through me way faster than the stool.

When I try to explain the above to anyone (loved ones, friends who will listen), they basically tell me "if you're pooping, there is no impaction" I don't think this is necessarily true. My stools have never come out as hard pellets, or lumpy looking "logs" as I've read is a red flag for impaction.

I also need to mention that before all of the above I was able to go one decent solid "log" nearly daily. I didn't feel fully evacuated, though. Over the past year or so I've had to really start straining to get them started.

So I'll go back to my original question, and add a few more. Is it an impaction? Do i just have a lazy colon and it's possible if I waited a bit longer things would pass more easily? Was the diarrhea this morning going around an impaction? Should I have stayed on the lactulose, or were the runs a sign it had done it's duty?

I'm also wondering if I might have a physical problem just inside the rectum. Sometimes I have to strain quite a bit even to pass gas that is obviously just inside. My mom is an ex-nurse. I had her listen to my intestines, and she said all 4 quadrants are active, no high pitched sounds. Lower quads more active. FWIW, I am also having intermittent mild groin pain in the lower left groin.

Thanks in advance for any and all advice, good or bad :P