Okay, first of all I'm so sorry to have to ask this question, but.....Did anyone experience constipation after surgery? I am 3 days out of surgery and have just figured out that I havent been to the bathroom in 5 days. Now my body wants to and I can't. I think the pain of THAT is worse than the pain of surgery!! I have been trying to get enough fluids, adding fibre to my water and today have used 2 glycerine suppositories, and nothing. I am in real need of some tried and true solutions:help: .Can anyone help?

Take two ex-lax and drink, drink, drink. In addition, get up and walk around to move things along. Fiber without tons of water will only result in more constipation. Did I mention, DRINK LIKE A FISH? LOL. I hope you get releif soon... it's a painful problem.

Fleet helps in a bind, No pun intended. (its a store bought enema, they make glycerin suppositories too). Its not healthy to strain, so I have recommended this before. No need to add hemorrhoids to the mix.

Cloe, you also must realize that you are on a liquid diet, and there isn't likely to be much in the way of solid waste for your bowels to evacuate. Anaesthesia can have this effect, too, and when it's completely out of your system things will return to normal. (Actually, before that, you'll probably have diarrhea. It's all part of the fun of surgery.)

Good luck, but don't worry too much about it. This too shall pass.

Warm apple juice.

Personally wouldn't take a laxative....warm juices are good .... also Maalox Max has Magnesium (aka milk of magnesia) in it so boy did that start the flood gates for me!!!! And it helped the gas!!!!

God Bless,

Melody

Banded 3/20/06 -47lbs

I also had that problem. I use glycerin supp. also with limited relief. My doctor told me NOT to use Benefiber because it would block the stoma. My surgeon recommended Senokot. I took 3 pills and I was good to go.....if you get my drift :-) I hope this works for you. To me there is no worse feeling in the world than constipation. As Alexandra said, you really don't have much to poop about when your on liquids.... Okay am stopping before I get slapped.

Roberta

Me too. I have the same problem CLOE. Warm apple juice sounds really good. I wonder if the Aloe Vera juice will help also? It's not exactly a fruit though. I do have some dulcolax stool softener but I'm afraid to swallow any pills right now.

I have been decreasing my liquid pain meds, but this can also contribute to the problem. I learned this the hard way after giving birth to my son. I had a 3rd degree tear and I can't imagine anything worse than constipation and a large tear.

Do NOT use a "bulking" laxative. It can plug up the stoma requiring surgery to clear out the ball of bulk it creates.

Water. Maybe Colace...

Benefiber is NOT a bulking laxative, so Ceparano, I don't know what your doctor's objection might be. It's other things like Metamucil that bulk up internally. Benefiber and its cousins are recommended by my doc's nutritionists precisely for this reason.

I did not go for 2 weeks after my surgery. I read through some previous posts on here and went to the drug store and got some good ol' milk of magnesia. I took one dose before going to bed and the next morning things were moving again.

Not such an embarrassing question, huh? I think almost everyone goes through this post-op. Lots of good suggestions here.

You can't take THIS suggestion until you've reached the solid food stages, but I have discovered that 1/8 cup of raw almonds every day keeps the mail moving quit efficiently. You have to be sure they're raw almonds. For whatever reason, the good cholesterol in raw almonds becomes the bad cholesterol when they are roasted. I think this is true of all nuts. Of course if you're allergic to nuts this remedy is a really bad option! lol

I bought a large bag of raw almonds and separated 7 mini ziploc bags of 1/8 cup servings so I don't evereat them - they're so tasty! - and eat them mid-morning as a snack. Don't go crazy on the almonds - they're pretty high in calories but 1/8 cup is within reason at approximately 88 calories, 8 grams of fat, and 3 grams each of carbs and Protein.

Wherever possible I try to use natural remedies it just seems like a better way to go.

CLOE!

*slaps you on the hand*

Now get over to the Canadian 'area' and tell us how it went ! :hug:

Mandi

Benefiber is NOT a bulking laxative, so Ceparano, I don't know what your doctor's objection might be. It's other things like Metamucil that bulk up internally. Benefiber and its cousins are recommended by my doc's nutritionists precisely for this reason.

That was was my thought also; but since he is my surgeon and just in case I run into any problems down the line, I don't want any "non compliant" issues. Thanks for your reply.

Roberta

Thanks for all the valuable suggestions. Each one is great! Support here is awesome.

Donna....

I like your raw almonds suggestion. I think I am going to have to pick some up on my next trip to the grocery store.

Thanks.