Terrible time with post op surgery and constipation

[Angel22]

Hello again. So a little bit about my surgery...I had surgery on Monday the 23rd and have had nothing but hell after. I went to the e.r the day after and they sent me home for pain and then I ended up there again two days ago due to the fact I have this  pain in my left side (laproscopic surgery on right falopian tube and cyst) and I had not had a bowel movement. So I got there and they xrayed me and are saying there is no blockage....they just really needed to get my bowel moving so that they could find out if that is where my pain is coming from. So they wheeled the toilet thing in there and gave me a fleet enema....well not only did it not work at all....the liquid never came out either. Absolutely nothing came out. So then they decided they needed to do a suds and bubbles enema and the nurse told me to hold it in for as long as I could. Well no problem because once again the liquid evaporated in me. So then the doctor decided on a rectal exam ( like they had not done enough up there already) and he proceeded to do that and there was no stool lodged anywhere where he could feel and if there had been he was going to scoop it out. So then they just looked at me like I was crazy and decided to do this to me for the past two days: This is how my medication goes right now on a daily basis: at 9 a.m I take Delotted for pain, colace for stool softner and promethazine for nausea, 11a.m I take four ib profin, 1 I take Delotted and then a fleet enema, 3 Milk of Magnesia, 5 Delotted Promethazine, Miralax (laxative), and Colace, 9a.m. Delotted and 4 ib profin. Two days of that and I

[lilblueberry2528]

I recently had surgery and have been experiencing some pretty serious constipation problems as well. I have been taking stool softeners as well as my regular medications and it has still been a whole week without passing a bowel. I am in a small amount of pain. I am more scared than anything. I am only 18, this is my first surgery and I had no idea what to expect.. searching on here.. seeing that my constipation problem is at least semi-normal makes me feel a little better... hope it makes you all feel a little better too. any other tips would be great.

[katgrrl]

Angel - so sorry.  just had surgery on the 31st & i am (literally!) feeling at least a little bit of your pain.  i had an open incision rather than a laproscopy so i know that will make some things different, but here are some of the things i'm finding that help are: walking, drinking warm beverages, staying on a liquid diet, gas X.  For me,and this is different for everyone, the gas pains were much worse than the incision pain so i got off the narcotics completely (they weren't helping)& switched to a drug called toradol (also called keterolac) which is a high-grade Motrin product which does NOT cause constipation.  Pretty serious potential side effects so they won't leave you on it for long, but even short-term helped immensely.  

hope things are better for you by now.

[Angel22]

Yeah I don't know many people who could answer what is worse constipation, a bottle of milk of magnesia, or eating prunes and drinking prune juice :)

[chickpea_and_me]

I've had such constipation since my surgery and chemo. Milk of magnesia helps me but I dont want to stay on it so I went to prunes or prune juice.  You can get the prunes flavored so they dont taste to bad. Also eat your bran in the morning and dont forget to drink. It will start going eventually....anesthesia is crappy on the bowels!! good luck

[Best59]

Hi Angel,
I posted already:
PLEASE try APRICAT JAM! But, try only without corn syrup and with sugar. Every supermarket has. PLEASE Eat at least 3-4 soup spoons, and after walk min. 15 min.
This is the only one, helpped me couple of times after surgery.
Let me know.

One more thing, even if you haven't anything yet, I think is normal. Just eat liquid only, like chicken soup, and lot of fruits (The best are grapes, pearl, do not eat banana, apple, orange)
Do not drink tea, coffee with cream is fine, will help!

[merytre]

Just to let you know Dilaudid causes pretty bad constipation in most people. I don't know how much of it you are taking, but it might have something to do with the problem. Mery

[sk2006a]

hi angel -
you can keep posting if you need to.  just hit post comment whenever you run out of room to continue