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Please help: how do I make my stool soft?

Dear friends; please help. I feel like my pleas to doctors fall on deaf ears.

I have suffered from hemorrhoids for nearly 15 years. Every time I go to a doctor I get the same story: eat more fiber, drink more water, exercise. The thing is, I couldn't possibly eat more fiber, or drink more water, or exercise more than I do. If I were to eat more fiber or drink more water, I swear I would turn into a wheat husk. I have exercised hardcore 6 times a week for 20 years. I have never been constipated a day in my life. Every single morning since I was a boy, like clockwork, somewhere between 6-8AM, I have a large bowel movement.

3 weeks ago I just gave up and started taking Docusate Sodium daily. For 8 days it was the greatest thing that ever happened to me. My stool was finally soft and I was passing stool without irritating my hemorrhoids. Then, on day 9...it just...stopped working. I don't know what to say. My bowel movements are exactly as they were before I started taking it.

I'm at my wit's end with this condition. It's starting to affect my self esteem and erectile function (swelling in anus as I relax into sex; pain).

Does anyone out there have any advice about what to do? I have an appointment with a colorectal surgeon to talk about banding/surgery, but I feel like if I could just make my stool soft I could avoid it.

Morning I eat a giant bowl of whole wheat cereal, banana, apple, dried prunes, raisins, nuts, and figs.
Lunch I have a sandwich on whole wheat.
Afternoon snack I eat more apple with peanut butter.
Dinner I have a massive homemade salad and a little bit of some takeout food near me: Indian, Greek, Japanese; whatever.

Please help.
Thanks
36 y/o male




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Avatar universal
The real issue here was way back at the beginning of this odyssey, when you needed to learn why you got the problem in the first place.  Eating a lot of fiber can soften stools, but it can also make you go to the bathroom more frequently, which doesn't help this problem.  Hemorrhoids are a blood vessel problem, similar to varicose veins, usually caused by pressure.  A natural treatment for them are taking certain herbs and applying them topically to strengthen and soften them over time.  Eating a balanced diet with enough but not too much fiber and the proper amount of veggies that contain the antioxidants that protect our blood vessel integrity can keep us from getting them, but some activities lead to getting them -- for example, a lot of sitting like truck drivers do, or say you do a lot of squats at the gym, that can cause them.  Pregnancy often causes them.  Pushing too hard to have bowel movements can cause them as well as anal fissures, an even more painful experience.  Once you have them for as long as you've had them, however, and for as long as you've had them, you're going to need professional assistance and probably, I'm guessing, surgical intervention of some kind.  Taking laxatives or stool softeners for long periods of time will affect your ability to go at all -- eventually your muscles that regulate that will deteriorate and your digestive system will have a problem holding on to food long enough to extract the nutrients you need from the food you eat.  I had a problem with what were diagnosed as hemorrhoids by my doctor, but as I've so often said, general docs aren't that great at anything because they do everything.  When I finally got sent to the specialist it turned out to be an anal fissure, which is why I know about that, and I had to have surgery for it.  Since then, I've been more careful in how I go, and I use herbal products daily to keep the blood vessels down there in good condition, I take digestive enzymes and don't stress on the toilet.  But again, you've had this a very long time and it's gotten this bad.  I'm guessing you've used all the usual things the doctors recommend for it and you've still gotten to where you've gotten.  We can't go back in time to when this first arose and try to deal with it symptomatically while trying to discover what in your life was causing it.  Hope someone else has better ideas for you.  The supplements I use are made by Planetary Herbals and are made both for internal use and external use, but you'll see the same basic herbs in all the formulas, the two most common being witch hazel and horse chestnut.  
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Arlington, VA
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