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?

One product that has not been mentioned here for a while is Smooth Move Herbal Teas, which have a senna laxitive property to them. I just bought some again from Traditional Medicinals at Worldpantry.com.

My favorite is the chocolate, although they have three other flavors. Usually at bedtime I have a cup of sugar-free instant hot chocolate with a little sugar-free Herhey's Syrup and sugar-free whip cream. (chemicals, I know, but it's a trade-off)

If things have been moving slowly, I just add a Smooth Move chocolate tea bag and leave it there the whole time I am sipping my way cup. In the morning, all is right with the world again.

If you have a Kroger store near you, you can also buy Smooth Move Herbal Teas there. It isn't with the regular teas and coffee though. It is in the organic section of the store. I live in a really small town and our Kroger is pretty small and they have it so I'm thinking that this is something they probably have in all of their stores.

I'm on the smooth move camp. Warm. Tasty and usually desired results..,.really worth a try in my opinion. Safeway had it here in California Health food stores too

Good luck !

I used to take Miralax daily pre-op, (for years). Post op, I discovered if I take a daily probiotic I don't need anything else. Get a good multi-strain one. I use the Vitamin Shoppe brand Ultimate 10 Probiotic, (13 billion) capsules. It took about a month to get things "normalized". It was either too fast or too slow in the beginning, but today, no more issues!