constipation. Ouch! How do I get through this? What do I do? I know it's constipation and not just lack of food going through because I was... how do I say this delicately...impacted. I took stool softener, a very gentle laxitive 2 days in a row, tried irrigation with little result and eating anything with fat in it makes me dump.

Any one have any suggestions?

Angela

fiber. You should start to incorporate adequate amounts of fiber into your diet. Be it the powdered supplements stirred into your morning oatmeal or milkshakes, or getting fiber through fruits and vegetables throughout the day.

Angela I had a serious problem with that in the beginning. I take one fish oil capsule a day now, sometimes 2 if I need it. Solved my problem

I forgot to say I have been taking Benefiber for 3 days as well and have been for weeks before surgery.

Magi...Huh, fish oil? I hate the stuff...comes back on me like a dirty trash can and the ones I have are HUGE! What brand do you use? I know it makes a difference.

I bought the walmart brand of metamucil and its delicious. I drink it at night and I have had no problems at all.

Take care and hopefully you will be relieved soon sweety.

I have been sprinkling ground flax seed on my food recently, and I am going like 2-3 times a day, lol. It's safe to say it has been VERY effective in that department. It is loaded with fiber and healthy fats, so it might help?

I had the same darn problem and thought I was going to have to pry the....well never mind, but the fish oil has done the job for me. HSN carried a brand with mint in it and it keeps from rebounding back on you. So if they carry it someone else probably does also. I know Amazon has scads.

I take 1200 mg twice a day and it seems to do the trick plus helps with my poor old dry skin. Flax oil will probably do the same thing.

If all else fails, my dear, call Roto-Rooter! LOL! I shouldn't make light, because constipation can be a real pain in the butt!! Oh man!

OMG....I am SO having this problem right now. I just switched from 12 hour night shifts to 12 hour days and my colon is VERY confused.

i have also been having this problem, i thought it was just carry over from having my baby. i am not glad to hear that ya'll are going through it too, but i am glad so i can look at alternative ways to help it along.

Hey Ang
Fiber cereal with splenda cinamon and Vanilla extract with a coffee chaser!
Also I'm becoming a flaxhead
I started taking fish oil capsules to help me with inflammation I also have flax capsules and take milled flax on top of my cereal
Also if you like spinach try some with a little LF feta and egg (omelette)

WATER WATER WATER. you're dehydrated. fiber can indeed help, but ya gotta have WATER to get everything out of your system, KWIM???!!!!

Hi folks! rest assured that I checked with Jiffy before I came barging into your thread with an old nurse's bowel advice.

Firstly ... constipation is a fairly serious matter. I know we giggle and blush but seriously ... it has to go! It's certainly worth giving your doc a call over.
I know health care workers bury you in an avalanche of information. I've done it. Papers, pamphlets, verbal instructions ... and then we say "Do you have any questions?"
You've just had surgery! anaesthetic! you're away from home!
Ya got all that!? Lordy!
Call ... we're trained to answer questions just like that.

I just wanted to add that stool softeners are your friend post surgery. Take them regularly. It'll say right on the bottle that you'll need to drink water for them to work most effectively.
We use a lot of lactulose. It's a liquid. Our hospital bowel protocol (not joking) is one ounce three times a day. Uusually what happens is that, within a few days, stool becomes softer then quite soft ... At that point you can cut back some ... until your bowels are moving easily and regularly.
This is combined with extra fiber, fluids and moderate exercise like walking.
The minimum that works well and regularly is what we continue.
This protocol is working really well. It's very rare now that we have to -um- be more aggressive. Most patients innards have had enough, they don't need any more traumatic manipulation.

I'll step off my soapbox now. Thanks for listening.

Ok, the Stool softeners, fish oil pills, water and exercise must have worked and problem has resolved itself. TG! I'm grateful for all the advise. In the future all these things will be a priority! Ok, right behind Protein and Vitamins, that is.

Thanks so much!

Angela

Sorry I didn't back sooner to answer your question Angela...but looks like everything came out all right LOL

I buy whatever brand of fish oil they have in whatever store I'm in. I've been taking it so long it doesn't bother me anymore. I do take a bite or 2 of someing when I take it. That seems to help.

I glad to know that things are "moving" along just fine. Sip, sip, sip! And I meant Sip! LOL!!