CONSTIPATION--problem with so many of our drugs

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  • sas-schatzi
    sas-schatzi Member Posts: 19,603
    edited February 2018

    Well, that's joke stinks hahaha!

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  • lulubee
    lulubee Member Posts: 1,493
    edited April 2018

    Bump!

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  • zarovka
    zarovka Member Posts: 3,607
    edited April 2018

    HI. Looks like I'll be moving in here for a while. Mildly constipated, SEVERELY bloated after first Abraxane IV.

    Oof.

    >Z<

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  • Zillsnot4me
    Zillsnot4me Member Posts: 2,687
    edited April 2018

    I feel your oof. Xeloda did that until I adjusted. OTC gas relief did wonders. I used it several times a day. Taste nasty. Good luck.

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  • sas-schatzi
    sas-schatzi Member Posts: 19,603
    edited May 2018

    bump


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  • Sickofpink
    Sickofpink Member Posts: 190
    edited June 2018

    Smooth Moves tea helped a lot and it's licorice so tastes good. Also hot baths. And now 5 years out, celery juice really helps!

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  • MinusTwo
    MinusTwo Member Posts: 16,634
    edited June 2018

    Interesting - celery juice? Thanks for the reference.

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  • MinusTwo
    MinusTwo Member Posts: 16,634
    edited October 2018

    Bumping

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  • JoE777
    JoE777 Member Posts: 628
    edited October 2018

    My doctor prescribed miralax once a day and senocot-s.

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  • MinusTwo
    MinusTwo Member Posts: 16,634
    edited October 2018

    JoE - thanks for chiming in. This thread has so much valuable information it would be great to keep is going. Not to mention some very funny moments.

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  • Vermonster
    Vermonster Member Posts: 44
    edited October 2018

    I'm glad I found this topic on here. I am grateful every day for my prune juice but am glad to find the other suggestions for what works, just in case. I have to add, after my surgery in July (on a Monday), I was actually kind of glad I couldn't "go" until Saturday because I couldn't have reached to wipe myself. Yep, there's that silver lining!!

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  • MinusTwo
    MinusTwo Member Posts: 16,634
    edited October 2018

    Vermonster - I love your 'silver lining'.

    I'm now more than 3 years post final treatments. It's interesting to me that I now consistently have very soft movements as my new normal. Prior to chemo - for more than 50 years I had solid & firm movements and only went every couple of days. A little harder product is so much easier to wipe & clean.

    SAS - hope you're lurking. I think of you often.

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  • Loveroflife
    Loveroflife Member Posts: 5,563
    edited October 2018

    Minus2, I don't think she realizes how much she is missed.

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  • MinusTwo
    MinusTwo Member Posts: 16,634
    edited October 2018

    Bumping again since once again I read on these threads about constipation.

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  • lulubee
    lulubee Member Posts: 1,493
    edited October 2018

    I am always concerned when I hear BC patients say they are using Miralax. Please do some googling before you decide if Miralax is your best choice. My MO recommended it for me and I refused to use it. I have close friends whose children's bodies were damaged beyond belief by Miralax, and it has taken years of vigilantly following protocols of healing measures to restore these children to health.

    My surgeon and my PCP will not prescribe it, nor will my grandchildren's pedi.

    Surgeon recommended Colace for an OTC option. I find magnesium very helpful, and also a few prunes soaked in water to cover overnight... eat the prunes and drink the water. Works.

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  • MinusTwo
    MinusTwo Member Posts: 16,634
    edited October 2018

    My surgeons recommended Colace to start softening. If that wasn't enough (since pain meds often cause constipation) I was to take Senekot S - stool softener with a mild laxative.

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  • sas-schatzi
    sas-schatzi Member Posts: 19,603
    edited October 2018

    Can't believe I'm posting now( a friend is dieing), but I agree on Miralax. And anyone reading back will pick up on the fact,  I did try to stear folks away from it. EVEN though at one point it was the  recommended treatment of the parent body of Gastroentrologist's had it as their primary recommendation.

    Read the label. It says it shouldn't be used by anyone with kidney disease

    Why is that important?

     It's a supposedly an intra-gastrointestinal tract product. i.e. in the stomach, small intestine, colon. That's a closed system. BY saying that someone with kidney problems shouldn't use it ----it implies versus openly states that it can cross into the circulatory system and then is filtered by the kidney. Which by implication means, it is traveling throughout the body until filtered. 
    Traveling through the circulatory system,  where else do these plastic molecules lodge.


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  • sas-schatzi
    sas-schatzi Member Posts: 19,603
    edited October 2018

    Can't believe I'm posting now, but I agree on Miralax. And anyone reading back will pick up on the fact,  I did try to stear folks away from it. EVEN though at one point it was the  recommended treatment of the parent body of Gastroentrologist's had it as their primary recommendation.

    Read the label. It says it shouldn't be used by anyone with kidney disease

    Why is that important?

     It's a supposedly intra-gastrointestinal tract product. i.e. in the stomach, small intestine, colon. That's a closed system. BY saying that someone with kidney problems shouldn't use it ----it implies versus openly states that it can cross into the circulatory system

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  • MinusTwo
    MinusTwo Member Posts: 16,634
    edited October 2018

    SAS - sorry about your friend. Keeping you in my thoughts.

    I remember several discussions on this thread about poop stools to place in front of the toilet to keep your knees up & body in more of a squatting position. I was just looking through a catalog and there was the EZ GO. "allows muscles to relax...helps with constipation, hemorrhoids, IBS & bladder problems".

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  • santabarbarian
    santabarbarian Member Posts: 3,085
    edited October 2018

    I just had my 4th chemo and this was the best one, in terms of constipation SEs. I did a "fasting mimicking" diet for 3 days prior to chemo, day of, and day after. This is a low cal diet of certain foods... low enough in cals and protein to give your body the same effect as a fast. You can look it up online, Dr Valter Longo at USC is the expert.

    Essentially, when your GI track shuts down, there is not very much in there... so, while I was constipated for a few days, there was no discomfort or pain. Plus I did not take Zofran for the first time and was fine without it. A further benefit is that fasting primes healthy cells to be stronger and weakens cancer cells, as you head into the chemo.

    On top of fasting mimicking, I take Magnesium citrate at bed time. For my first three chemos it was my worst SE and this time it was no biggie.

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  • JunieB
    JunieB Member Posts: 1,023
    edited November 2018

    Bump

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  • dsgirl
    dsgirl Member Posts: 276
    edited February 2019

    I am reporting back on constipation problem and "cure" that I started using years ago. It was the prune, apricot, cranberry and golden raisin "stew". I really got to the point where I dreaded having to eat it every day, but skipped rarely. I had a BM every morning so it does/did work. About 2 weeks ago I did not eat the "stew", but had a normal BM in the morning anyway. Same thing the next day and the next, so far for 2 weeks no "prune stew" but every morning a normal BM. I have no idea what happened, but am very happy about this new development. I did place the current container of prune stew in the freezer, just in case it is needed someday.

    Is it just a habit thing about when one "goes?

    dsgirl



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  • MinusTwo
    MinusTwo Member Posts: 16,634
    edited February 2019

    Oh - I love your story. Congrats. How nice to get rid of the stew. It would be a treat to be "regular". I've never been able to pin down times. And I never used to be able to go in 'strange' places, like school or restaurants or motels. Since cancer, as long as I eat green salads several times a week I'm much more regular than I think is needed. But I know my process slows down if I eat bread or rolls.

    I have a friend who has a cup of coffee every morning so she can "go" before she goes out. My Mother was insistent that you could train yourself to "go" every morning. A male neighbor heads to the bathroom after every meal before we start home from a restaurant. So maybe you can make it a habit.

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  • santabarbarian
    santabarbarian Member Posts: 3,085
    edited February 2019

    magnesium citrate at night is a great way to have a morning bm

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  • dsgirl
    dsgirl Member Posts: 276
    edited February 2019

    Minus Two,

    Maybe your mother was right. It's my new habit.

    I do also have a cup of coffee in the morning with breakfast, and that's my call for the bathroom.

    dsgirl

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  • sas-schatzi
    sas-schatzi Member Posts: 19,603
    edited March 2019

    Helllo old friends Bless you. Stews work, consistency works and Bowel training works. 
    First of all I must say, I had to be away. I lost 6 BCO sisters in a short period of time, I was grieving. It is hard coming back, b/c .

    santabarbar…HMmmmm we need to look into this further. What you are describing is a low residue diet pre and post. I don't have a problem with that at all ---solid erhhh not solid. It's the same thing you would do before a colonoscopy.Whoooo I should go off and find his site, but I will let you do that, please, please, bring his link here. then I'll take a look and comment-----sounds great, but wee need a look.

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  • sas-schatzi
    sas-schatzi Member Posts: 19,603
    edited March 2019

    dsgirl You did two things,  you used a combo of natural elements. Ah a better word food. Really nice elements in all the foods. You used it at essentially the same time every day per your post. Am I right? Then you stropped? But you continued with the same movement every day. 

    The bowel is trainable. Isn't that just a funny statement. But it is trainable.  UNLESS there is something that interferes with how you have trained it. Basically drugs,  can mess up the works, and foods, alcohol, caffeine, cigarettes. 


    What I hope is folks go back and read is how you did bowel training. It can be searched. and maybe info added to what they want to do.  But I think your description should give others great hope that they can control the scenario

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  • JoE777
    JoE777 Member Posts: 628
    edited March 2019

    The first thing my nurse navigator recommended was miralax once a day. It uses the water you drink to keep the gut hydrated. Great if you have opioid constipation. Senecot S softens stool. Both recommended by my onc. I was so ill for 5 months that I couldn't even eat enough to have a bowel movement with the meds that compounded the the problem

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  • dsgirl
    dsgirl Member Posts: 276
    edited March 2019

    Sassy, yes and yes. Same time every day for a long time.

    My bowels got used to the every morning routine and the prunes I had left over went into the freezer, just in case.

    BTW: Welcome back

    Dsgirl

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  • MinusTwo
    MinusTwo Member Posts: 16,634
    edited March 2019

    SAS - So glad to see you back. And that you're basically OK. We all understand & hate grieving the losses of our friends. What you contribute is so valuable that you were sorely missed.

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