Ugh, can we talk constipation? :(

Thanks for your support B. I really hope this passes quickly. Honestly, I've never cried on the toilet before!!!

I wish I had answers for you.

I am now 3+ months post-op and this is still a battle for me. At my 3 month appt the nurse told me that I shouldn't still be on stool softeners (i was taking 3/day at this point) so she changed me over to restoralax. She said that its safe to take daily long term.

It is not uncommon for me now to go 3 days without a bm. I don't like it one bit. Not sure how I feel about the restoralax. I started it around the same time that I added kefir into my morning eating. Not sure if it was one, or the other, or a combo of the 2 but I had three days in a row of horrible pain/cramping/diarrhea. I haven't taken either since, and am now back to not having a bm each day (which I would like).

I have a feeling this may be a lifetime battle with our new systems.

P.S. The nurse told me that restoralax adds more water to your stool to make it moist and in turn make it easier to pass.

Oh no... I'm so sorry you're having an ongoing battle with this. Three months, yikes. I do hope you can find a solution soon.

Clearly I don't have an answer for you. I am going to take the laxatives I have from post op for a few days while I increase fibre through puréed foods and see what happens. Then, I'm going to see what happens when I go off the laxatives, and be ready to jump on restoralax.

I kind of want to explore benefibre vs restoralax... but I also never want to go through this week of painful movements again.

Hopefully we can help each other. ((Hugs))

i went threw extreme constipation after my surgery it was so bad i would go 11-14 days without a bowel movement and i literally gained almost 14 pounds from being full of poop. The only thing that worked for me was adding the restoralax and probiotics. The dr in the emergency room told me do not take benefiber unless you're getting enough fiber and fluids in your diet. It will actually cause things to be worse and turn your stools into cement and make things worse. Told me to switch to restoralax, it draws water from your colon into your stools to make your stools soft and its a gentle laxative and should not cause cramping and upset stomach like most laxatives do. At one point i was taking 8 senekot a day, i was going threw a bottle of milk of magensia every few days and still not going to the washroom up to almost 14 days at a time. I have tried everyhing nothing worked but the restoralax and probiotics, i am 27 months post op and still take restoralax daily and a probiotic. It is safe at the beginning to take two scoop fuls til you're able to get more water / fluids and fiber in your diet

Wow. Ok. Thanks!!

I'm glad you were able to work through all that and find what works for you.

Do you take a particular probiotic? Or anyone will do?

i order mine from amazon and i have had good results with it, i make sure to open the capsule though we just dont know how much of a capsule we absorb afterwards.

https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B00HANR4PE/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I will warn you that adding fiber is not a good idea if you have any degree of dehydration. it has been known to make it actually worse. I'd suggest restoralax before the fibre options until your water is stellar.

I eat lots of fibre but have had this issue my whole life the only thing that has ever worked is restoralax, so clearly my body is just naturally too efficient at removing water from the intestines and that is the cause for me. Post op hydration can be a challenge which is why restoralax works for many because its function is to draw water to the colon.

Thanks for the explanation. Restoralax it is!

It was like that for me for the first little while too! I would go every 2 to 3 days and it was fairly compacted. My body started getting used to the new digestion, and food intake - and now everything is moving much better with the occasional constipation.

Definitely make sure you get in your water - and try some hot drinks...that sometimes gets things moving better too.

Good Luck!

Hot drinks... interesting. I haven't had one since surgery. I'll start adding them in again.

Thanks!