TAH Constipated? Read This

I have my TAH back in October, and frankly, now that I'm five and a half months past surgery, I feel absolutely great -- better than I have felt for years.


But in the weeks immediately following my surgery, the worst thing (other than my huge incision, which took alot of time to heal) was constipation. It took about four or five weeks for my system to get back regular. Before that, I was taking lots of MiraLax, stool softener capsules, and even drinking prune juice (yuk!).


Well, I've been back regular for about four months now.


One thing I've been doing is taking alot of dietary supplements. I have endometrial cancer (the reason for my TAH), and dietary supplements help in that fight.


But one particular one that I thought I'd mention to those of you suffering through constipation is something that they call CHLORELLA. Specifically, a kind called Broken Cell Wall Chlorella.


Actually, all this is a form of easily digestable chlorophyll. This stuff is about as healthy as you can get -- I bought mine at The Vitamin Shoppe, but I think they sell this stuff at larger health food stores too.


Of course, prune juice is healthy too -- IF you can tolerate the taste.


But if you hate the taste of prune juice, you might want to try taking Chlorella.


I WISH I'd known about it after my surgery, but I didn't find out about it until recently, when it was suggested to me as a supplement to help with my cancer.


I started taking Chlorella, and within just two or three days, I started having a very gentle diarrhea. This is NOT the kind that gives me urgent "mandates" to move things immediately. Nor is there any pain associated with the diarrhea at all.


When I head to the bathroom to urinate, I just release the liquified stool at the same time. Sweet, simple, pain free, easily controllable diarrhea.


It is so easy to control and so painfree that I have absolutely no desire whatsoever to cut the chlorella, even though I have been able to confirm that it IS the source of the diarrhea.


Now, I was completely regular and a good four months post surgery before I took the Chlorella for the first time.


But I have a hunch that if I had tried it during those days right after surgery when I was so painfully constipated, that the Chlorella would have softened my stool and made it easier to get out of my body.


Anyway, I thought I'd come back here to the post op forum and suggest this option to those of you suffering from that horrible post op constipation.


(BTW, I am NOT a doctor, or a nurse, nor do I have any financial interest in chlorella. I'm just a lady who had a TAH back last October and who still remembers that horrible post op constipation.)

Thank you so much for the tip- I am going on 3 weeks post op and just still miserable with the constipation. I was heading to the vitamin store today and I'll have to look for that. I have cervical cancer and that's way I had my surgery and just found out it was a good thing since it was a rarer form and start moving up to my uterus. If you don't mind me asking - you said you have endometrial cancer- were they able to get it all with the hysterectomy?
Thanks again for the tip

I have had great success with occasionally taking magnesium capsules (one 400 mg) or tablets (two or three 250 mg) even before my surgery for constipation. Immediately after the surgery, I also had a prescription for ducusate sodium 100 mg which is also available over the counter. My surgeon approved my taking the magnesium and the combination helped so much! Also drank plenty of water and had my daily cup/bowl of Fiber One cereal, but post-surgery I needed the magnesium and stool softener. Now at 5 weeks post-op, I still take some of each on days I have a problem going easily. Straining causes all kinds of discomfort so I try to make sure everything stays regular and gentle.

	Quote:
Originally Posted by Travanne Thank you so much for the tip- I am going on 3 weeks post op and just still miserable with the constipation. I was heading to the vitamin store today and I'll have to look for that. I have cervical cancer and that's way I had my surgery and just found out it was a good thing since it was a rarer form and start moving up to my uterus. If you don't mind me asking - you said you have endometrial cancer- were they able to get it all with the hysterectomy? Thanks again for the tip

It's hard to answer your question.


They got all of the visible cancer out of there, and I am currently NED (no evidence of disease).

But I had grade 3 cells that forced the cervix open so that they would have more space to grow (having already swollen my uterus to the size of a 16 week pregnancy), and 90% of the myometrium (uterine wall) was invaded by the cancer.

So even though I am currently free of disease, I have a pretty high risk of it coming back -- made worse by the fact that (for a variety of reasons too complicated to list here) I cannot have chemo.


Hopefully, your prognosis will be better.