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Pain medication & Constipation
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Posted by minirose1 (My Page) on Sat, Feb 18, 06 at 16:03
| Hi, I'm trying to find out how to combat constipation from taking pain medication. My husband has to control pain in his back and hip, due to injuries from a bad fall years ago and he is having a lot of trouble with constipation. If anyone is in similiar shape and has discovered a way to deal with the constipation, would love to hear what works for you. Thanks |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: Pain medication & Constipation
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| Maintain a diet adequate in fiber (fresh fruit and vegetables), drink plenty of water and exercise. If this is not enough, speak with your husband's dr. He might recommend a stool softener. Good luck. |
RE: Pain medication & Constipation
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| I have always had a terrible time with constipation. My doctor prescibed Miralax. It is not a laxitive, but helps by adding water to the stool, keeping it soft and easy to pass. If a presription is not possible, try over the counter Benefiber. It is tasteless and can be added to any soft food or any liquid without being detected. Along with the Benefiber, I take 2 stool softeners a day. These items are expensive if you get the brand name, but are available as generics or store brand. (try Walmart) After surgery and much pain meds these things worked well for me. And as stated above, talk to you Doctor before trying anything new. |
RE: Pain medication & Constipation
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| Thanks Socks12345 and gazania for your input. I had failed to say that he was taking fiber and stool softener already, but still was having a terrible time. I read somewhere that people on pain medication maybe shouldn't increase the fiber a whole lot due to the amount of extra water needed. Does anybody know if you can get too much fiber and maybe it backfire on you? |
RE: Pain medication & Constipation
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| I don't know if too much fiber could be a problem other than it can make you feel gassy and bloated. Do ask your doctor about the Miralax that I mentioned in the previous post.It is a powder that can also be mixed with any liquid. It worked well for me before and after surgery. I am handicapped and get practically no exercise. Add that to abdominal surgery and pain meds. Even though I eat a high fiber diet and drink plenty of water, I really needed more help and the miralax did it. |
RE: Pain medication & Constipation
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| Will check out the Miralax,gazania, the next visit to the doctor. Sounds like it might be something to try. We've got to find something that works better than what he's doing now. I try to keep the meals pretty high fiber, but something is still not quite right. Thanks for your help! |
RE: Pain medication & Constipation
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| If he eats cold cereal Uncle Sam (US) cereal is wonderful. It contains flax seed and the cereal is often recommended for patients with this problem. It takes a few days to start working, but then kicks in. |
RE: Pain medication & Constipation
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Is he eating a high fiber cereal for breakfast?...Something like All Bran or Bran buds? if not he soulde be....and all bread shoudl be something like Sara Lee whole grain....2 slices provide 30% of daily fiber requirements. Is he eating a good sized bowl of lettuce every day? and at least 4 more servings of 1/2 a cup or more of vegetables? If not....he's not getting the fiber he needs ....and he should be drinking at least a quart of water a day.
Learn to make oat bran muffins with chopped prunes and almonds....they are really delicious with some added cinnamon and vanilla extract....served hot with a bit of strawberry jam!
Linda C |
RE: Pain medication & Constipation
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| Thanks to everyone for your help. Since my first post, we have made a few changes. Mainly, stopping the fiber capsules and using Metamucil (which I had tried to get him to use before, but he didn't like it much) while still taking the stool softener. It seems to be working much better for him. I really think he was not consuming enough liquid for the capsules and that they were working against him. It got pretty scary there for a few days as nothing seemed to be helping him and when he finally did have a movement, it was so hard for him he would be shaking and just not in good shape. Last week I made bran muffins and fixed cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower soup and beans and nothing helped. This was with the stool softener, laxatives, supposotories, walking, you name it. Anyway, things are looking up and I would advise anyone to be careful with the fiber capsules. Think I will make more muffins with the chopped prunes as suggested. Thanks again! |
RE: Pain medication & Constipation
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| How kind you are to help your husband so much. All that fiber will be good for you too!! Best wishes. |
RE: Pain medication & Constipation
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I went through exactly what your husband was and this is what helped me. I quit all the others mentioned above and bought Equate cherry flavored milk of Magnesia from Wal-Mart. Good luck to you both.
Deb |
RE: Pain medication & Constipation
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| Thanks Deb for your good wishes. We are still working on this, but it is going a bit better. Thanks to everyone for your suggestions. |
RE: Pain medication & Constipation
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| I take the Walmart equivalent of Fibre Com - two tablets each morning and though it says one cup of liquid, I have two full cups of coffee (one pint). Works for me. What also helps is a couple spoonfuls of peanut butter! Found that out accidently. I too hate metamucil and refuse to drink that stuff. |
RE: Pain medication & Constipation
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| This has always worked to people I used to take care of...I am a retired RN....in the morning drink a cup of hot prune juice and eat a bowl of Uncle Sam Cereal. I get the cereal for $1.99/box at Trader Joe's. And drink plenty of water! |
RE: Pain medication & Constipation
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Dried prune is supposed to help too, also a apple before going to bed, my mother in law claims that she can't eat honey, it will make her to goo...???
Konrad |
RE: Pain medication & Constipation
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| Well, another update on the problem. He is doing so much better now, but sure can not let up on the treatment. He did add prunes and is still taking the stool softener and using the generic form of Metimucil. I can only imagine the degree of relief for him, I am certainly a lot relieved and it wasn't physically affecting me, just mentally. Thanks again for all your help! |
RE: Pain medication & Constipation
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| The prunes will help a great deal. They stimulate the bowel action. That seems to be the problem with the pain meds, they slow down the peristaltic action of the bowel and the waste simply does not move on. Adding additional fiber to the diet will sometimes make things worse as the stool becomes bulkier, but does not move any better. However, some fiber is needed. Stick with the prunes, add a few more daily, until you find a satisfactory amount that does the trick but does not cause cramping. |
RE: Pain medication & Constipation
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| Put a couple of dried chopped apricots in his cereal. |
RE: Pain medication & Constipation
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| I suffer with constipation my whole life. After taking a relaxation therapist course I learned by drinking water with about 3 lemon wedges in it is great for constipation and I never had another problem with lemon water no sugar. LEMONS DETOX, WORKS AS A LAXATIVE, LOWER BLOOD PRESSURE, NORMALIZE BLOOD SUGAR. I fell on the ice and injured my spine. By taking a hot bath with essential Oils of Peppermint, grapefruit, ginger essentials oils with epsom salt lay back and relax 30 min. to 1 hour this will help his back. I take no medications. Drinking losts of lemon water will lubricate is spine. Also epsom salt, vegetable oil and a few drops of tea tree essential oil helps. It will kill any bacteria that may be in his system make a tea trea salt bath for him. You should enjoy an epsom bath soak too. It's easy to make. I turned relaxation into a healing art. If he has numbness down his back and legs he may need to have surgery. The baths will help reduce pain. Use the Essential oils. |
Here is a link that might be useful: Natures Sunshine
RE: Pain medication & Constipation
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| After my surgery for my back in January....my bowels never did wake back up......it would be days and then it was hard balls.....(sorry).....so I went to the health food store and bought this herb stuff called Dr. Schulze's intestinal Formula #1. (I am sure there are other brands, but this is the one I did)And let me tell you, I have never had such a nice way of finally going poo...LOL...You start off with one capsule with dinner.....the next morning you went....but it was still hard....went again....no cramps or anything.....the next night you take 2 capsules.....next day you go again, and a couple times.....boy, I felt much better....I can't remember exactly if I went 2-3 times that day, but then the 3rd night I took 2 again, and then today, I had loose bowels....not like diarrhea, but you can tell it was time to not take anything tonight....It has been since the end of January for my back surgery...(I had 2 herniated disks) and to be so constipated for that long...I did the stool softeners that they gave me, too.....but they never really got me going....I did the prunes....this is all natural herbal formula, and it didn't make me hurt going....I do believe in the doc's, but always did believe in good eating habits and some supplements.....So I went to my health food store and asked......I feel a lot better in that department of my health....LOL Good Luck to your DH!! |
RE: Pain medication & Constipation
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| It seems that this post has been around for a very long time. But it is full of very good information. I hope by now, your husband is great. Thank you so much everyone for all this information. I'm suffering from the same problem and I'm sick of dealing with it. I'm sure that I wont have to much longer with all these different solutions. THANKS!!!! |
RE: Pain medication & Constipation
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| when i feel any pain at whatever part of my body. i just try to get a massage and probably get some soaking in the tub with some bath salts and just doze afterwards. |
Here is a link that might be useful: bath salts
RE: Pain medication & Constipation
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| The body is like a highly functional machine. A machine as we well know must go through a period of complete readjustment, cleaning, realigning, refurbishing et.c so also should our body. In our daily activities, we forget to check our bodies. We forget to take care of our bowels and as result, we sometimes become less effective than we are supposed to be. Let me explain.Let’s say you’ve got this very important meting that you need to be at and just about the time you sat down, you had this terrible urge to go. |
Here is a link that might be useful: best Colon cleanse
RE: Pain medication & Constipation
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| My father also suffered from a very bad back injury from a car accident. He was in heavy pain and couldn't even sit on a chair with backrest. The doctor prescribed generic Carisoprodol to ease the pain but it didn't really help the first days. Now he feels better and I hope he won't get any problems with constipation. |
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