Constipation-Yuk!

Ok, here is the latest in my never ending story. How are all of you people dealing w/ constipation? I'm told it is due to the pain medication, and I'd believe that since I never have sufferred from it in the past. A donut and a diet coke would always clear me out. Not now.

This is down right annoying and actually painful.

Tips??

Thanks,

Rick

Yo Rick, 

Mineral oil. If it gets real bad, as it did in my case, there's also the good ol' Fleet enema. Not a lot of fun but better than the last line of defense....the dreaded trip to the emergency room for a digital extraction. We won't even go into that one. Suffice it to say when you have one of those it's not the best day of your week. Also not the best day for the nurse who has to "perform" it.

Good Luck! Hope everything comes out alright!

Joe 

 Hi :

YOu need to increase your water intake, no less than 8 glasses a day, you might want to try metamucil and that you have to have 2 glasses post taking it,or  just add ducolax.  I see you are eating sugar and diet cokes you might want to google a healthy diet for cancer. I know that most doctors do not even go there. When I worked oncology I had a doctor who told patients cut the dairy down as much as possible and also the sugar. Try fresh juice of vegetables like carrot and apple, you can can some fruit juice but limit it.  Also frozen organge juice often can contain fungus. Fresh vegetables, some fruit, light protien are easier on the digestion. The reason the doughnut and coke worked is the caffiene and the sugar sometimes cause the bowels to work. Anyway the water is the best remedy and as someone else said Fleets enema but it maybe not enough. There are healthy places that do colonics and cleaning the bowel out helps the liver which in turns boosts your immune system to help fight the cancer. We have all been there and it is painful and uncomfortable. So the best of energy in not only getting well but solving your problem. MMS

Mineral oil contains ingredients that are not healthy. Remember everything we eat and drink is absorbed into our body. 

On 2/27/2008 rick51 wrote:

Ok, here is the latest in my never ending story. How are all of you people dealing w/ constipation? I'm told it is due to the pain medication, and I'd believe that since I never have sufferred from it in the past. A donut and a diet coke would always clear me out. Not now.

This is down right annoying and actually painful.

Tips??

Thanks,

Rick

Welcome to the club.  Every three days I'd do whatever was necessary. A double shot of Milk of Magnesia did the trick for a while.  I was told not to use laxative too often. I'm not sure why.

Thanks folks. I managed to make it through all the radiation treatments w/o that problem becuase I didn't take the pain meds. that much (2xs per day). But this week has been rough so I started taking the pain pills every 4 - 6 hours and I'm sure that has caused the problem. I took some Milk of Magnesia after my post, and in about a 1/2 hour, life was good again.

But up to that point I thought I was going to have to have a manual extraction!!!

I do need to drink more water and I'm feeling better today so maybe I can back off the pain pills and problem solved.

Thanks for all the tips.

R

My dad tried everything from Fleet to High fiber.  The only thing that finally worked was prescribed by his Oncologist, and it is called lactulose.  Because it does not taste very good, he is now trying a cup of coffee and a cup of prune juice.

I had the constipation too. I had good luck with a Senna (natural) based laxative/stool softener. Takes a couple of days to get you going (sorry), get it at a health food store. Senna-S and Sennakot are 2 brands.

You also need to drink more fluids, I found orange or mango Gatorade tasted better than tap water.

Thanks everyone for the tips.

I know the constipation is caused from the pain pills, so I'm trying to tough it out and cut back. Up to this past Monday I was only taking one Oxycodone and Acetaminophen 10mg/325mg in the a.m. and one before bed. But the pain worsened (after my last radiation), so I went to one every 5 hours and BAM. All plugged up.

I have never experienced that feeling in my life and I don't want to again.

Rick

I had this too! I did not take the pain meds, mine was caused by the anti-nausea med Zofran taken after chemo. This is what I took daily on a chemo week, believe it or not----6 colace, 2 senokot,  milk of magnesia,1 dose miralax, 1 dose lactulose, and prune juice.

Out of my whole treatment constipation was the worse side effect, if it happens again to you, I would recommend the Miralax, it is a fairly new product, and works well, but not TOO well! It should be available at your local drugstore.