Optifast constipation

I am totally not one to talk about bathroom stuff normally so this is a little uncomfortable for me butt...dealing with the optifast constipation and I'm wondering next steps or when I should be worried. I had no bowel action from Tuesday to Saturday, had a small/medium bowel movement Saturday with a high level of effort and nothing since then. I'm a little behind the ball on this so just night benefibre yesterday but don?t know how much I should take vs if I should try something else. Suggestions? The notes from my session say to call after five days of constipation but figured I'd try here first.

Hey there,

Welcome to the open forum of bowel talk! It seemed like all I talked about from the time I started Opti to about two months post surgery. Ugh.

My recommendation: one tsp of Benefibre in every Opti. You'll level out in no time... and it shouldn't give you the runs.

Drink lots of water too throughout the day. Very important to keep your bowels hydrated.

Good luck!!

Oh boy! Different world where everything gets laid out once you're doing bypass surgery. Better get over my embarrassment lol

Thanks for the help! I did one teaspoon once yesterday and two teaspoons once today. Good to know I can do it in each opti, will do!! I made myself get to the 2 litres of water today on top of my Optis and will keep that up, hopefully it helps.

Thanks for the pointers, stat opti on Friday and want to keep the bowels running smoothly!

For real...just start with it and it will be better, wish I had. Be conscious to get extra water than you normally would, I just read online that you need way more than normal so the benefibre can work and you can make it worse if you have the benefibre and not enough water. Good luck, opti is a hard road at first.

Just think how much weight you'll lose when your bowers finally move!

Hahaha!! I've lost 12 pounds in 8 days and that's without the movement. I'll be a superstar!

Try taking a stool softener every night before you go to bed.

Many post ops (myself included) take Restoralax every day, I use 2 capfuls in my morning coffee and even with that I will use a Senna laxative maybe twice a week.

I thought the restoralax instructions said not to use longer than 7 days - there's no real reason for this?

I will look in to the stool softener, thanks.

My doctor told me it was safe for daily use and I know several of the vets use it daily as well.

It doesn't make your bowel dependent on it like some of the other laxatives.