hello and bless your mums heart, I also had bad constipation problems with thalidimide, the one thing I found to do is to NOT use any type of fiber , this seemed to only increase the size of the stool.Senokot-s,taken as directed on the bottle helped, also the glycern cone shaped suppositorys helped in lubrication. In my case the problem lasted as long as I was taking the thlid.The major problem seemed to be getting the stool ,to start.this is where the lube helped. Now I still had to strain and push,until the natural function of the body took over, cramping and fluid stool would preceed the total passing of what ever was in the colon. Now I also drank large amounts fruit juice, and dont ask me why, but the ones with the highest amounts of acid seemed to helped the most. Dot get me wrong, this was a long process,{when the passing finally occured}.and somewhat painfull. It seemed to occure in three day stages, I generally knew what was going to happen on the fourth day and actually planned for that day to be used as such I hope this helps e-mail me at any time ,sincerely jack barry