This has been bothering me now for several weeks, asked at the doc's and got multiple recs from them so I thought I would ask here and see if we can narrow it down.

I went from fairly regular pre surgery to going 4+ days between bowel movements (everybody's favorite topic, eh?) and when things finally move its... in a word, unpleasant.

Is anyone else in a similar position and if so, what do you use to combat the issue?

I tried beneful but it needs 3 times a day and I found that difficult to keep up so never really saw results. I just tried ex lax the last few days and that helps but its not meant to be used more than 1 week at a time, not intended as a habitual usage sort of thing.

What have people tried and what were your results?

I call those "butt rockets". I eat so much fruit, it makes me wonder what it would be like without it

I use one cap of miralax in my coffee every morning.. I also have a squatty potty and the two combined have solved all my issues!! Even my IBS

Thumbs up for the squatty potty

I just bought some Sunsweet Prune Juice Light. Nice lighter flavor and 50 calories for 4 ounces. We'll see.

I combine 2 oz prune juice and 8 oz of sugar free cran-grape juice to which I add Miralax. Also when I am up around midnight to pee (I am an old lady - it comes with the territory, I crush my bariatric horse-pill stink vitamin and put it in 4 oz of applesauce, or regular applesauce with a packet of sugar-free cider mix in it. I get my vitamin, plus the applesauce helps move things along.

I meant to say BLUEBERRY applesauce.....I need that extra flavor to camoflage the vitamin odor until I can get it down.

I put a teaspoonful of Benefiber each morning in my coffee. I also take one 250 mg tablet of Magnesium. Last, I take 2 stool softeners each day...Dulcolax. My doctor said the amount of Protein I'm eating will keep me constipated. She said there was no problem in taking stool softeners each day. If I took a laxative each day, then my bowels would get lazy. I DEFINITELY don't want that. But, she said there is no harm in staking tool softeners each day. This works good for me. Keeps me regular and "not so hard to go". Hope this helps!!!

coffee. But even without coffee I am super regular. For the first month or so, not so much. But now, All is right with my bowels. LOL.

You know you've had WLS when..... You freely discuss your BMs with strangers on the internet. ????

I think I'm allergic to collace. My palms get hot and itchy. Weird. I used it when I had my 2nd hernia op.

All I can say is....

THANK GOODNESS I'M NOT THE ONLY ONE WITH THIS PROBLEM!!!

I've been struggling with this for a couple of months now and I still haven't figured out what's the best thing to do. I've used Benefiber, 2 different brands of Fiber gummies, Colace, and Dulcolax. The fiber gummies just don't seem to make much difference to me. The Benefiber helped a little bit but the three times a day dosing is a pain.. It's inconvenient AND I frequently forget it. I bought some Miralax the other day but haven't tried it yet. I really don't want to do depend on taking stool softeners and laxatives from now on. I think I will try the prune juice or prunes. I don't know why I didn't think of that. When my daughter was a baby, I used to feed her prunes or give her prune juice to help her with the frequent constipation that she had from taking Iron fortified formula. The sad thing is this....Pre-surgery, I was that person who couldn't eat unless there was a bathroom nearby because I would have to go as soon as I finished eating and went multiple times a day. A dear friend warned me that would change after lap-band and I laughed at her and told her "Good. Maybe I'll be normal then cuz there's no way I will ever get constipated." Boy was I ever wrong.

I went a whole wk! I even took all things I was having to take for a while..I got miserable. .but I kept up my same routine an I reread my protocol again an it did say it's normal for some..seeing we have drastically reduced food consumption. It takes a while to get the system going again. Now I'm finally going between 2 to 3 days. I took wat everyone else tried. In fact I even took 2 suppositories an they finally moved within 48 hrs! Glad u got some relief: )

I had surgery August 14th and I'm having the same issue. I do benefiber but like you, it's too much of a hassle. So when it doesn't move within 3 or 4 days I get magnesium citrate. I do half of the bottle with water behind it then the other half about 4 hrs later. I start going within an hour of taking.

So here is a link that explains the difference between soluble and insoluble fiber....

http://www.healthcastle.com/fiber-solubleinsoluble.shtml

Benefiber, Metamucil, and so many of the fiber chews are soluble fiber, which actually SLOWS your GI transit time, possibly making constipation or delayed BM's worse. It's INSOLUBLE fiber that helps with constipation. supplements with insoluble are a little harder to find, but they are out there. Just read the labels. Two decent ones I've found are Garden of Life Raw Fiber (5g insoluble/4g soluble) and Renew Life Triple Fiber (3G insoluble/1g soluble).

As in the post link provided by @@Kindle, I suggest flax seeds.