One day until surgery and problems with bowl prep!

Hi OH friends,

Apologies in advance because this is a bit TMI... surgery is first thing on Monday morning, and my preop instructions say to start a double dose of miralax today and clear liquids only tomorrow....

I did the double dose at about 6am. Nothing. At about 3pm, I did one more dose just to try to provoke things. Still nothing. Did a few short walks and still nothing. I definitely feel like I'm not empty, but starting to worry about whether I should be taking additional measures to ensure a clean-out before tomorrow night??

Anyone else not have results with miralax? What now?

I didn't have to do bowel prep, but as a nurse I know miralax doesn't work for everyone and can take some time to work. I would call your surgeon tomorrow and ask if there is anything else you should do, but I wouldn't take anything without his permission. It may all hit you tonight yet.

I had to do bowel prep. My surgeon wanted me to be on clear liquids, no protein. I had to take Magnesium Citrate 10 oz. bottle that I bought at pharmacy. It took me a little bit to get it down because it was sour. They bottle said it to 30 minutes to 3 hours to work. For me it wasn't even 10 minutes that i was in bathroom. I started it around 9am and was scheduled for surgery the next morning at 8:30 and still was having BM 15 minutes before surgery. I take Mira Lax since surgery to help pass gas and to have a BM. It took around 12 hours after I first took a full dose of it to have a BM. I would call your surgeon and ask them if you should take something else. I agree that it does work different for other people. Good Luck on your surgery.

I'm surprised they had you use Miralax for a bowel prep. It's very gentle and doesn't work in any immediate fashion for most people. I think the bottle even says it works in 24-48 hours. I take it daily, but if I back off it and have problems that's the time frame it takes to really kick in and work for me again.

I don't think most people even need to do a bowel prep though. My guess is, with the increased dose you will likely have it hit you in time for the surgery.

I had to do an enema. That was effective within 5 minutes and I had been constipated from all the protein shakes. Hope it helps and good luck!