"Each session gets easier as the bowel begins to clear itself"

After a long battle with my irritable bowel, I did all I could to put off having to resort to colonic irrigation. The preconception of having a stranger sticking a tube into my ‘intimate’ regions did not seem like a prospect I relished.

However, after trying every fibre supplement and IBS-friendly diet known to mankind and seeing an equally baffled gastroenterologist who knew less of my condition than I did, I decided to take the plunge.

Of course, there is no dressing up a colonic irrigation. It’s hardly something I boast about in the pub or tell prospective lovers. However, it really is an aspect of my life I now thank goodness I have embraced.

Nearly two years on since the first dreaded appointment, I now look forward to the feeling it gives me and the obvious good it’s doing my body.

It has kickstarted my bowel and cleared out what must have been about 20 years backlog of things which should have come out years ago.

I feel healthier, lighter and I in fact – loathed to admit it – no longer dread the experience.

Claire is the main reason for the drastic turnaround in my attitude to this treatment which is still seen as a little left field for the more conventional among us.

From the start, she has put me at ease, reassured me and made a fundamentally unpleasant experience very ‘enjoyable’. She has, to boot, listened to more of my life stories than a therapist could ever bear.

Each session gets easier as the bowel begins to clear itself and work on its own again and after the first session, nothing could ever be as bad. But you have to go through the tough to see the results. It would be like breaking a sweat on your first session at the gym and never going back.

Yes, the first time is uncomfortable and it’s certainly a rather unnatural sensation to have your body filled up with gallons of water, but there really is no gain without a little pain.

The pain has now gone away and other than a little discomfort here and there, my bowel is happier than it’s ever been. I still have the odd symptom of my IBS but nothing like I used to get. My skin is clearer, digestion more effective and I am more energetic.

As Claire promised, things have improved and colonics have now become a fundamental element of my life in terms of ongoing health and well-being.

However, it is thanks to Claire’s sensitivity and bedside manner that I have persisted.

I was the envy of the group when I attended a detox programme in Thailand earlier this year - a veritable old hand, reassuring the hesitant patients that it really isn’t as bad as it seems. And it really is worth it.

​EH