5 days post-op constipation help

I am basically doing well after a vaginal hysterectomy last Wed. I wonder how others are doing with constipation.
I had a bit of a rough time and wondered if it is normal.
Thanks.

Yes, you're perfectly normal! Take stool softeners at least once a day and eat Activia yoghurt and drink prune juice every day. Some of us have to do this for more than four weeks after surgery. It's just how your body deals with the anesthesia and other surgery trauma. Just keep taking it all and drink lots of water!

Definitely very normal! I was very bound up too and despite the stool softners/high fibre diet etc it just was not moving. I ended up using a laxative (after I ok'ed it with my doc) and boy did that feel so much better!

Great advice in the post above me, but I don't like prune juice at all. I drank pear juice and that works almost as well IMHO

:

What you are feeling is very normal.

I add benefiber to my water every couple days. You can't taste it. And when things get bad I take milk of magnesia.

Hi Riverboat -

I am constipation Queen, as I was 10 days post op and still no BM!! I was told by my surgeon that as long as you're not being violently sick you're ok. In the meantime take everything you can to soften the stools and move things along.

I ended up having - every day for about a week - stool softeners, laxatives, suppositories and enemas and none of them produced anything! Finally on the eve of day 10 I had a BM. It was very normal and easy! LOL! The doctors said I would have diarrhoea after all the medication they had given me but I didn't. After that 1st one I just went on having a BM once or twice a day from then on with no problems.

Good luck!

High levels of estrogen or progesterone can cause constipation. I was fine until 11 weeks post op when the constipation returned.
Too much calcium can do the same.

I found the narcotic-type pain killers are the problem. Once I was off those and on Ibuprofen things got better. Also, I ate 5 prunes before going to bed each night and had a strong cup of coffee in the morning. Works like magic!

benefiber realy helps cause you can add it to your meals and get the extra fiber you need with ease. feel beter have a speedy recovery