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epstns

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A question for all of you who have traveled the road before me -- How long after surgery was it before your digestive system returned to anything like normal? I am now 3 weeks post surgery and I'm still a mess in that area. Taking stool softeners daily, prune juice and still I'm having cramps and constipation. I did just stop taking any prescription pain meds (which I've heard have a big impact in the digestive system) the day before yesterday, but for the last week I was only taking half a tablet a couple of times a day.

This is going to drive me crazy -- expecially when combined with sleep difficulties.
 
Honestly for Justin,his last couple heart surgeries, as long as he was on any pain meds, even 1 at night, they keep him on prescription fiber suppliments, (i looked it up its miralax) twice a day, since they can mess up your GI-trac, and he doesn't normally have any problems. tt tasted awful, but helped alot.
So if you have problems before It might take a little longer, altho now that you stopped your pain meds hopefully things will get back to normal.
 
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Doctor prescribed me stool softeners (Colace?) for 3 weeks, and I found that being vigilant about my diet had the
best effect. Low dairy and high fiber worked well. Hubby baked some honey bran muffins which were amazing. ;)
Oh, and drink water.
 
Hi Steve,
despite my healthy diet I had similar problem, I was pretty regular but my stool was so hard it was very painful to go to the bathroom. My nurse suggested Benefiber, got some citrus flavored tablets that you can chew like a candy, tasted quite nicely actually. Solved the problem. Also good Greek style yoghurt with fruit and honey is probably not a bad idea, good for digestive and immune system, I use the 2% one.
Good luck with everything
Petra
 
HI Steve,

I have that problem chronically now and have for the past 20 years. I use something called herblax....it is a combination of senna and some herbs. I take it daily and plan to take it in the hospital. I am really concerned about this being a problem for me as well. It doesn't take much to throw that routine totally off in a normal week. This is a big concern!!! Glad you brought it up. I forgot to address this with surgeon today. My date is April 20th...by the way. I hope your problem gets resolved soon. Eating fiber and drinking lots of water really does help. I do that also, I only eat multigrain or whole wheat bran crackers...Wasa is good. (my husband said it tastes like cardboard). I like it. I even eat whole wheat pasta when I make sauce. I have changed the way I eat completely....and I add alot of water. Good luck with it all.

Jeri
 
Hi Steve, congratulations on having the surgery behind you! You were in the waiting room for soooo long! Were you put on a magnesium supplement after surgery? The magnesium helps keep things moving right along. Narcotic pain meds really shut things down so it is a good thing you are now off of them. Also, as you become more and more active things should become more normal again. In fact, all these annoying post surgery things slowly fade away and one by one disappear.
 
it took me a good 3 months to get my digestive system back to normal. Pain medication made me poop cinder blocks, at least so it seemed. Stool softeners did their job eventually but it was probably 3 months before I stopped seeing traces of blood in my stool and feeling I could eat whatever I wanted without ramifications.

Best advice I can give on sleep is to just use a recliner. I never slept more than a few hours at a time until I was back in a bed at 7 weeks.
 
We were talking about pumphead earlier and I was saying how I had it the first time but not this time.

Well after the first surgery I was constipated for several weeks and this time not at all even while on the pain meds. I do believe I stayed on the pain meds longer the first time so maybe somewhere in the back of my brain it was telling me to get off of them ASAP.

After the first surgery I took Colace and seemed to not help much at all. Finally I continued the Colace, I started taking Milk of Magnesia (I know lol), and I drank A LOT of fluids...mostly water. Once I did that and started really getting into my walking routine things started to work themselves out. I honestly think the walking helped more than anything followed by lots of fluids. My Dad has this problem chronically and he takes fiber, flaxseed, lots of fluids, and does a lot of walking.
 
ctyguy said:
it took me a good 3 months to get my digestive system back to normal. Pain medication made me poop cinder blocks, at least so it seemed. Stool softeners did their job eventually but it was probably 3 months before I stopped seeing traces of blood in my stool and feeling I could eat whatever I wanted without ramifications.

Best advice I can give on sleep is to just use a recliner. I never slept more than a few hours at a time until I was back in a bed at 7 weeks.
Click to expand...

I could have written that .....but I didn't so yeah what Scott said
 
Well, I am hopeful that the longer I'm off the narcotic pain meds, the easier things will get. I've been taking Senokot (stool softener) at the direction of my docs, and am trying the juices, too (prune and apple), and re-started my fiber supplements with their OK. Things not so bad today, so I'm hopeful that maybe I've turned the corner on this one.

Thanks for all the input, it helps to know that I'm not alone.
 
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