A whole lotta...constipation

Thank you Julia, I appreciate that and hope so too! I don't have an iron supplement needed at this point (oh man will that be bad if I do given where I am without it lol). I think the magnesium could work just want to clear it with the kidney doc. Hoping the stool softeners also do the trick for me!

If you end up needing iron, both carbonyl iron and heme iron are much better choices than any form starting with the word "ferrous". Neither carbonyl nor heme contain iron salts, which is why ferrous sulfate ( most commonly found form of iron in grocery/drug stores ) and their ilk are so constipating.

Huh...the more you know! Will make sure I don't get any " ferrous" ones, I don't want this to be worse.

You should add colace to your bowel regimen.

I had terrible problems after surgery and ended up in ER several times because of it. I got put on a bowel routine which was restoralax in the morning along with 2 colace capsules, 2 colace capsules at bedtime and in the beginning 30 mls of lactulose twice a day. Once that all got moving we then readdressed the issue and changed the routine.

This got everything moving. At this point, I only take 1 capful of restoralax in the morning in my coffee and everything is good.

Having 1 bowel movement in 3 weeks is not good. If you become impacted you will have a bigger problem. You need to deal with this quickly and may need medical intervention.

The reality is that eating a low carb diet does cause constipation. You are either going to have to up your carbs as advised or you need to start getting used to a bowel regimen like I, and others, have suggested.

Lactulose, colace and restoralax are all OTC medications.

I did buy the colace (generic but same thing) but two tabs daily didn't work, I'm going to increase it. Sounds like you had quite the trek with this issue too! Thanks for the advice, hopefully with the suggested regimens things will move better.

Just to clarify I didn't mean one bowel movement in three weeks just that only one has not been prompted by taking MOM. I've had one bm each week, which is still not enough, but those have been forced by the MOM. I don't want to end up needing to go to the hospital for it so hoping some of these other tips will help get things going.

If you have kidney issues, check with your kidney doc before starting magnesium. It can be a real problem for people with reduced kidney function.

Stool softeners are a good idea. If you need something more, senokot is a natural stimulant laxative that usually works without cramping and can be helpful. Most docs recommend avoiding regular use of a stimulant laxative but sometimes that's just what you have to do.

Yeah, I did some reading on it tonight and efinitely won't start until the nephrologist clears the magnesium. Hopefully he can tell me the best route of all the things suggested here in context of a kidney issue.

I might just buy some senokot to have on hand to switch things up as I try these different options. Thanks for your reply!

Been there and beyond: TMI, hernia, bowel obstruction surgery, and resignation constipation will probably be a lifetime issue hard to manage perfectly. Main culprits for me seem to be: stress and cheese Effective remedies most of time seem to be: Miralax and a strict routine to keep stress low.

Oh man...that's all exactly what I'm terrified of! Cheese...now that's a shame lol. It's a nice quick but good protein snack...I should keep an eye on how it affects my bowels too, didn't think about it. Hoping the miralax/restoralax thing can work for me. Stress is a super hard thing for me to control as my work can be extremely stressful, again I just didn't think about that as a contributor. Curious to see if it's worse over periods of extra stress. Funny all the different things people find impact them!