Bowels

[Yuiop]

Hi there, my hubby has a nightmare with his bowels, if he can't have a movement it does his head in. His bowels seam to control his day! Any advice please? I know he should go daily, but life doesn't work like that, even with the lactulose

[Brett11]

That’s par for the course I’m afraid. I drink lactulose a lot and sometimes don’t go to the toilet for 3 days. The build up is excruciating!! I stop eating as I can’t seem to fit anything else in. I was told to take lactulose with another stool softener but I get worried because they dehydrate you a lot and I’m already on liquid restriction.

Cheers,

Brett

[Hidden]

For many years I had a problem with severe constipation because I regularly took codeine. I also ate a lot of meat & my diet didn’t contain much fibre. As a result I often experienced terrible stomach upsets as my body tried to clear the blockage. I wound up with haemorrhoids from straining. One day I bled profusely from the back passage after straining so I had to get an endoscopy to check for bowel cancer. Thankfully it was just a blood vessel that burst.

There's an episode of Seinfeld in which Kramer had constipation that gave me the solution. Kramer got an enema contraption from a chemist. My problems were solved by buying a flexible hand held shower from a hardware store and removing the plastic head. The flexible hose is permanently attached to a tap in my laundry/toilet with a clamp.

When I'm constipated the end of the hose goes slightly in my backside and I turn the tap on gently. I then tip toe over to the toilet and I have no trouble completely emptying my bowel. No more straining or violent stomach upsets. No more not going for days and feeling bad until my body cleared itself.

When I started to feel very ill from having an inflamed liver I felt that my liver seemed to work better if emptied my bowel daily so I started using the enema device again regularly. No need for lactulose!

These days I no longer take codeine & I consume a lot of fibre so I no longer have the problem however I still use the enema device occasionally.

[Brett11 in reply to Hidden]

Euuuu! I don’t think I could stomach an enema lol. Please don’t give up the lactulose. It does a lot more than make you poo. It gets rid of the ammonia from your body and helps stop the dreaded HE.

[Yuiop]

He ends up not eating as well

[readie56]

Yep. It's horrible. I suffer that too. Oxcodon makes it worse. Try other things like oranges, lots of water, a curry, fibrogel and senna.

A walk usually helps too.

Best wishes

John

[Brett11]

I’ve also got an umbilical hernia so I can’t exercise my stomach area but I do find bending down a lot from my hips to try and pick something off the floor helps me get things going sometimes or gently massaging my stomach/hernia area.

Cheers,

Brett