Will the constipation ever end????

What worked for me after the hyst was a half a peeled red grapefruit in the a.m. and p.m. The acid in the grapefruit helps break things down, and the roughage from the fruit itself. Sunsweet orange or cherry essence dries plums are delish and work well also. walking helps gethings moving along. if you are on any antibiotics, check with your dr as grapefruit juice can interfer with absorption of some meds...Good luck!

Dear Friends,
I would agree with Pferde that natural is best, if possible. Post-surgery I found prune juice about five days after surgery did the trick. I was fine for a while and then noticed I was starting to get constipated. One day I saw a piece in "Prevention" magazine about checking your supplements and realized that although I had discontinued slow-fe since I was no longer anemic, I was still taking a multi-vitamin with iron. I switched to one without the iron and voila.... problem solved.

So, make sure you aren't getting too much iron in your diet or vitamins!

Good luck to everyone!

Linda

Dear Friends,
It is 2 weeks after my TAH BSO and I have had only 1 movement. The doc recommended colace which got me through the first painful experience and I cramped so badly I almost cried. I've been reading other posts and see that maybe I should have kept on drinking what moves me naturally, coffee.

I think it's different for everyone, but my cocktail includes a stool softener every evening around 5:30 or so, coffee in the a.m., water throughout the day, mini wheats and 3 prunes in the a.m. I also have cut back on the percocet...only take it in the early morning and late afternoon. In between I'm using Advil. So far, so good. I had one bout of constipation last weekend, but it finally gave up after I cut back on the percocet and used Milk of Magnesia! Good luck!

I have been blessed not to need the percocet very often. Most days I am pain killer free. My gas pains have also subsided except when I need to go. I only use percocet prn at night and Tylenol prn during the day. All and all, I feel that i'm getting through this marvelously and feel a little guilty for complaining.

Hugs and Kisses to you all!!!

I suggest oatmeal and apple juice, for natural relief. I also have the coffee effect. When I first got home from the hospital I couldn't go for several days...it was not fun. Then I started back on my oatmeal and apple juice everyday...I actually had to up the apple juice to 2 x's per day, but it worked wonderfully and now I'm back to being very regular...I'm only 4 weeks post-op. Hope this helps.

The Activia (by Dannon) helps me as does a small box of raisins added to my diet daily. A girlfriend just told me about a tea called "Smooth Move" that does the job (there's that caffeine again!).

Thanks everyone for the advice. Actually, the pain in the rectum became extremely bad. I went to the ER and was admitted with a high fever and fluid infection around the vaginal cuff.The fluid was pressing on the rectal wall and it was so unbearable even morphine just took the edge off. I spent 2 days in the hospital on IV antibiotics to get the infection under control. It seems to have worked and now I am home on massive doses of antibiotics for 2 weeks. If anyone experiences severe pain of any kind the lesson I learned is go the the ER right away or call your doctor. If I had waited longer it could have been quite serious.