Help me poo....

[ruelachesty]

Ok I have a longstanding problem in that I struggle to poo, a bit like constipation but not.

I'm going to make an appointment next week but anything I can buy over counter just now?

I feel I need to go, feel sick as if I eat any more ill throw up, but also feel hungry as I've not ate despite being up for 2 hours! Also getting sore stomach.

I know it doesn't sound horrendous but it's a constant battle. Anyway going to chemist at 9, what should I get? What works best? Suppositories? Something like dulcolax?

It is horrendous, I can totally sympathise.

I used to try senna, dulcolax, that gross syrupy stuff they give you after childbirth (ah, lactulose, I remembered). None of them worked but prune juice did and lots of water. I found I needed to be on my own and relax too, I've read on here sitting up with your knees up helps and I know swimming also helps.

Failing all of that when I went to the drs I was given the adult version of movicol and within a couple of days it had worked. Don't get too stressed it will make you worse.

Rhubarb and prune juice.

Glycerin suppositories work very well in the short term, you'll feel the urge to go within 20 mins.

In the future you could try taking a dessert spoon of ground flaxseed daily to keep you regular, it has worked for me in times of need. Good luck!

I had terrible constipation in pregnancy and tried all sorts. The oly thing that really helped to keep me moving was pear juice diluted with lts of water. I searched and found good pear juice in lidl, pear nectar it was called I think. Full of pear pulp. It really helped.

Also sit on toilet with feet on upturned bucket or similar to get into a good position.

Good luck, it is awful, you have my sympathies.

I had terrible constipation in pregnancy and tried all sorts. The oly thing that really helped to keep me moving was pear juice diluted with lts of water. I searched and found good pear juice in lidl, pear nectar it was called I think. Full of pear pulp. It really helped.

Also sit on toilet with feet on upturned bucket or similar to get into a good position.

Good luck, it is awful, you have my sympathies.

I started weight watchers 8 weeks ago and have lost 8lb but last week I had put on 1.5lb but I'm convinced it was because I hadn't pooed!

Ok so get some suppositories for today, get some prune juice and ground flaxseed. Is that the stuff you can just sprinkle in cereal/yogurts etc?

This has been going on for do long! It's horrendous!

I agree I need peace and quiet, it's actually causing major fights in this house! I will announce I need to go to toilet and require total peace so no one to come upstairs and guaranteed within 1 minute the kids are upstairs banging door down then DP will appear and say oh I didn't realise they'd came up here OR he comes up to ask some stupid question like "what will I take out for dinner". You can imagine my response!

Also psyllium husks for added fibre and tons of water

Use a microlax mini enema. Its like a tine toothpaste tube size, get from over the counter in boots for around 70p, squirt it up there and it takes around 5 mins to work. Great for quick relief!

Tine=tiny!

Hello!
I suffer badly with chronic constipation due to nerve damage with a spinal injury, medication, and also so many years on laxatives etc.
My daily routinue, is 6 movicle, prucalopride and using a peristeen. When it's extremely bad absolutely nothing works. And I usually end up in hospital.
Things you could try;

Firstly diet, elimating and trying cwrtain foods, then medication:

Senna and magnesium
Lactolose
Movicle
Glycerol suppositories
Mini enema,
Phosphate enema,
Peanut type enema,
Picolax,

Bit of a random suggestion, but bought some diabetic chocolate from boots the other day and there are warning labels on the back saying not too eat too much as they have a laxative effect. So I ate the whole bar anyway, thinking they were probably exaggerating, but they weren't!

Just thought if you are going to try medecines, you might as well try chocolate first

I find probiotic yoghurt helps keep me regular (I've got IBS so I fluctuate) and drinking not from concentrate juice - the stuff from the chiller cabinet - helps me go if I'm really bunged up.

Thanks for all the replies everyone, I used suppositories which worked but will be using all other suggestions to keep me regular!

Will the GP just fob me off?

They wont fob you off because if it goes on long term, it may lead to complications. (As will long term laxative usage)

Maybe start a diary about your diet and see when the problem flares up. Mine was diet related and I cut out bread and Ive been fine.

I used milk of magnesia as relief

Thanks bluecarrot, I will do the diary thing, see how it goes.

Got an appt in 2.5 weeks so we'll see how it goes.

Might be gluten intolerance. Or just eat lots of fibre (i.e. plant based wholefoods) and keep hydrated.

There was a doc on R4 a while ago about how we don't poo properly in the west, motly because we no longer squat to do it.

considering one of these...

www.lillipad.co.nz/index.html

Hm, I was just reading through the constipation threads as my DD is a bit slow at the moment, but seeing that there are so many shocking threads about adult constipation, I thought I might share my own wonderful tip for relieveing adult (emphasis on adult, absolutely not for your DCs!) constipation, gently and effortlessly. It is, however, probably faaar TMI. I was grossly constipated after a traumatic forceps delivery and a nasty episiotomy and after a week of mounting panic, sweating and straining on the loo, having tried every remedy and medication around to no avail, knowing what was most likely happening in my rectum (gradual fecal impaction) I decided in a moment of crazed inspiration to try a bit of manual excavation. I made sure my hands were clean and that I would be undisturbed, and sat down on the loo. I lubricated my middle finger (with Lansinoh... ) and gently popped my finger in to my bottom. It was a very odd sensation, and took a moment to get used to, but although it felt like I had a canon ball lodged in there, it was surprisingly easy to slowly pick away at, and get rid of it bit by bit. Once the compacted blockage was cleared (it was a huuuge amount of poo) I began to pass the more normal stools which had been 'backing up' behind, and after a 20 minute session I was able to walk out of my bathroom a new woman. The relief was IMMENSE. As my rectum had become a bit floppy and relaxed having that big blockage sitting there, and as I had some temporary nerve damage following the forceps delivery (all better now) it took a while to establish a regular pattern of elimination, so I put in place a little maintenance regime of doing this every other day for a few weeks until my episiotomy had healed up and my bowels regained their former tone. It was so wonderful to know that I had some element of control over my poo again and that I could stop worrying and feeling wretched. Some time later I confided in a friend who is a GP and she said that it was the BEST and SAFEST thing I could have done, and that it was probably the reason I had avoided any longer term problems such as haemorrhoids, fissures or fecal incontinence. She even said that there are little latex 'fingerlets' (like tiny condoms for the fingers) which you can buy from any well stocked chemist that can be used for this very purpose. I was invited back to my antenatal group to share my birth story with the women who were still pregnant, and I decided to throw this piece of advice in for good measure, and I have since bumped in to two of them who have said how glad they were to have had this information in the weeks after their deliveries. Just thought I'd share...

I mentioned lower down what I take and use.
The peristeen is a bowel irrigation system. Put catheter up bottom, blow balloon up, pump water in, release balloon, then hope for movement.

I'm waiting to be taught manual evacuation. There nothing ever low down so dont know how it will work.

"Might be gluten intolerance"

Doesn't that usually have the opposite effect?

I have a (slight) gluten intolerance and having it makes me constipated. Having a severe intolerance will prob have the opposite effect, but she would prob have notoced by now if she had a severe intolerance.