Toot! Toot!

SharaD

Betty Boop Boop ee Doop says....





COLACE!

DULCOLAX!

Metamucil w/ Olive Oil

Shredded Wheat n bran

Prunes

Ripe Kiwi fruit

Fresh pineapple

Ripe Avocado w brown rice

Steel Cut oatmeal

Sweet potato

Warm Prune Juice w orange juice

Green Tea n Wheat thins

Calcium w/ magnesium

Ripe pears and more ripe pears

Warm applesauce w whole wheat toast

Green beans w almonds

Lentil soup

Split Pea Soup

Ginger tea w/ wheat grass




Please let me know what works for you!






AS GOD IS MY WITNESS, I WILL NEVER BE CONSTIPATED AGAIN!

idaho

I use cascara pills - it is an herb that I take in capsule form.. Works like a charm and doesn't make me have diarrhea.  Tami

jenn3

I take oral probiotics (it can also be found in yogurt) and a stool softner daily and it keeps things moving...................  In addition, if it's really bad a big bowl of broccoli a few days in a row really give added benefits.  I will say it's gotten better taking the probiotics and stool softer daily - not great, just better.

Good luck and I hear ya' - being constipated is the worst!!!!  I refer to it as Cactus Butt, I picked up on the name in another thread so I can't take credit.  Cactus Butt, because when you're really constipated and hemeroids have developed that's exactly what it feels like. 

Gotta love chemo!

GramE

I found creamed spinach - frozen Stouffers - worked wonders.   Maybe it was an accumulation of other things and it was the "catalyst"...   Good luck and keep hydrated - drink water, gatorade, lemonade, juices, ginger ale, every hour on the hour.   Coffee and tea are actually DE hydrating.   

Another thing - when you take medication can have an effect - before eating, after eating.   Depends on the meds also.    

SharaD

Coffee and tea have pretty much proven NOT to be dehydrating as long as you are drinking other beverages an hour before or after. Three cups is considered the max that you should have, however, (and we're talking old-fashioned cups not grandes and talls.) Caffeine might not be good with your current regime however, so check thoroughly, and remember that green tea has caffeine so choose decaffeinated.



As for the myth that bananas are binding....again, pay attention to what works and doesn't work for YOU, but extra-ripe bananas are considered beneficial, non-constipating.



If any foods have bothered your tummy in the past, or caused problems, remember to STAY AWAY from them during treatment because they could be even WORSE. Personally I have to avoid chocolate, wine, soy, processed deli meats, onions and more than 1/4 cup of beans. Over the holidays I have to remember that soybean oil is the base for a lot of pie crusts and pastries and crackers and cookies.

SharaD

Anyone care to share their routine when preparing for the dreaded onslaught of constipation? I got this one on another thread......

Avoid sugars/white flours for a week before treatment...eat breads that have 3g of fiber per slice, only

10 glasses of water/juice a day starting 3 days before treatment.....

2 stool softener (100mg each) afternoon and 2 stool softener evenings, starting day before treatment and continued until regularity returns

1 dose Miralax morning of treatment and next morning.

3/4 cup warm prune juice with 1/4 cup warm orange juice on mornings when nothing's moving.....

(Check with your onc team first to make sure that Diarrhea is not the more common side effect of your particular treatment)

SharaD

Idaho...what's the dosage of Cascara that you take? I'd never heard of Cascara so I started to research it.... Sloan Kettering website notes that the FDA calls it dangerous. On a naturopath website I found, it says that it should be taken in very small, few-times-per-day doses because a large dose would mean that it wouldn't work for you next time unless you continued to take larger and larger doses. It also said that it could cause miscarriage and should be taken with "calming agents".

Also note that it is considered helpful in keeping you regular, but is not advised if you are already constipated.

Anyway, be careful with this stuff....though there's nothing safe about anything else they're pumping into us, either, I guess! And all laxatives come with warnings about doses and about not taking them on a regular basis.

SharaD

Apparently APPLES are one of the top nausea-reducing foods! Applesauce works for some people too!