The Colon Club

A friend had a resection about 2 weeks ago and is constantly constipated. She has been to the doctor and tried different regimes, but they are not working. If you'd be willing to share your experiences and what your solutions were, it would be appreciated. My own experience, is that I was on stool softeners and laxatives for almost 1.5 years. Thanks in advance for your wisdom and experience on this.

If she's on pain medication, which I suspect she is, two weeks out from surgery, that's probably contributing to or causing the constipation. I'd try to find a non-narcotic painkiller that works and double- or triple- up on the Metamucil. I'm sure the doctors have already discussed this with her, but that's my only thought at the moment. She might try to alter her diet as well. I have to stay away from cheese if I want to avoid becoming excessively constipated.

Agree with Eric. Oxycodone (aka percocet/endocet) and Hydrocodon (aka lortab/vicodin) are bigtime constipators and if she's on those, that's gonna be a big trouble. "easy" things to try are metamucil, stool softeners, and adding INSOLUBLE fiber and/or fat to the diet. If that fails, low dose laxatives like reccomended doses of miralax would be the 2nd step. And if that doesn't do it, high dose laxatives or prune juice. Careful with the prune juice, start with a lower dose like 2oz first. It's easy to flip the other way with prune juice

On the advice of my surgeon, I stopped the narcotics a couple days after getting home from the hospital due to constipation (not a fun time). I was also on high doses of oral iron, which didn't help. Had to stop those as well. Started with adding warm prune juice (ick). Switched from a low residue/low fiber diet to a high fiber diet (very slowly) and upped my daily water intake. Added Metamucil, which didn't work. Then added Colace 300-400mg and dried apricots before bed nightly. My surgeon told me I could take 2 Dulcolax laxatives per day if I needed to, but not to take Miralax at first. He said Miralax was too harsh. I thought it was the opposite, but apparently not. Three and a half months after surgery, I'm on a high fiber diet, Colace nightly and still eating a lot of dried apricots every night. Couldn't do prunes or prune juice any more without gagging, but the apricots work for me. It's not perfect, but it's much better than it was...

Good luck to your friend. She's lucky to have you for support.

~Michelle

Ooh boy can I relate! I went thru constipation HELL postsurgery! I kept calling the GI doc and my surgeon and they just brushed me off..their only suggestion was prune juice. It was a full week before I passed a couple of bunny poops.

I think for me, and perhaps for many others, the colon just goes into a sort of 'sleep mode' post surgery. I guess when you think about all the stuff 'it' goes thru, it's no wonder it goes on strike. The problem was exacerbated by the fact I was told to eat a low residue diet (white rice, potatoes, white pasta...etc). I was afraid to use laxatives because I didn't want to damage my sulking colon...but I did try stool softeners (dulcolax?). It took some time but eventually the colon re-awoke so to speak...and then I just kept pooping and pooping and pooping..........