question: Hello doctor, I am having a problem with bowel movements with soft, pasty stools. Lots of small stools after the first bowel movement in the morning. All bowel movements take hours to develop once I feel I am in need of a bowel movement. Often times I have to manipulate bowel movement with a shallow enema. Most bowel movements are difficult and are a single push that leaves me feeling as it is incomplete. The build up to a movement either assisted or not is extremely uncomfortable. No sharp pains but gassy, bloated and a feeling of inflammation in lower bowel where sigmoid colon meets rectum. I have no problem with fiber in my diet and I eat fermented foods and take probiotics.