Health - All you need to know about preventing and dealing with constipation

[deltakappamuMD]

This is actually an excellent topic and extraordinarly important to address in anyone who is placed on opiates by their doc or perhaps self indulges.

First and foremost make sure you are taking 2-3 gelcaps of senna everyday while on opioids. No arguments...just do it. It will help prevent constipation.

Second, if you do get stopped up, give yourself a no-bullshit assessment on how bad you think it is (ie how long since your last movement and how much stuff have u been doing). If you think it is only a terminal partial impaction then take some rectal dulcolax (a more aggressive laxative that when the pellet is placed rectally it will cause rectal spasm and hopefully passage of the stool in under 30 minutes). When you take this suppository, plan to put it in and camp on the toilet for a half hour. Make sure you bring in at least two pairs of latex or rubber gloves, one for pellet insertion and the other for manually "assissting" or disempacting during the massive contractions of your rectum you are sure to feel. This is not for the squeemish but it usually work so long as you haven't ignored your constipation for a week.


Third, if you have ignored your constipation, you may have a pseudo medical emergency on your hands. A serious impaction is no joke. You may need to self administer an enema (purchase from drug store) or perhaps even go to the ED for soap suds enema or fleets enema administration. Both can technically be done at home.

A little tip, sometime all it takes is a what I call a "pseudo" soap suds enema. If you are constipated try this first as it is the least invasive and most relaxing. Fill your bath tub up with about 5-6 inches of water, no more and mix in a gentle soap...baby soap works well but u can use hand soap as well. The water needs to be sudsy. Then sit your naked bottom into the tub for a half hour. Concentrate on relaxing your sphincter tone. This will allow the soapy water to slowly seep into your rectum and it will actually soften the impacted stool. Not only that but I hear it has a relaxing effect and relieves any pain. This can be done after inserting dulcolax suppository to relax the contractions after expulsion of the impacted stool.


Hope this helps.

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[YellowViolet]

Originally Posted by deltakappamuMD

I posted this as an answer to someones question but figure it could help anyone in this forum.

This is actually an excellent topic and extraordinarly important to address in anyone who is placed on opiates by their doc or perhaps self indulges.

First and foremost make sure you are taking 2-3 gelcaps of senna everyday while on opioids. No arguments...just do it. It will help prevent constipation.

Second, if you do get stopped up, give yourself a no-bullshit assessment on how bad you think it is (ie how long since your last movement and how much stuff have u been doing). If you think it is only a terminal partial impaction then take some rectal dulcolax (a more aggressive laxative that when the pellet is placed rectally it will cause rectal spasm and hopefully passage of the stool in under 30 minutes). When you take this suppository, plan to put it in and camp on the toilet for a half hour. Make sure you bring in at least two pairs of latex or rubber gloves, one for pellet insertion and the other for manually "assissting" or disempacting during the massive contractions of your rectum you are sure to feel. This is not for the squeemish but it usually work so long as you haven't ignored your constipation for a week.


Third, if you have ignored your constipation, you may have a pseudo medical emergency on your hands. A serious impaction is no joke. You may need to self administer an enema (purchase from drug store) or perhaps even go to the ED for soap suds enema or fleets enema administration. Both can technically be done at home.

A little tip, sometime all it takes is a what I call a "pseudo" soap suds enema. If you are constipated try this first as it is the least invasive and most relaxing. Fill your bath tub up with about 5-6 inches of water, no more and mix in a gentle soap...baby soap works well but u can use hand soap as well. The water needs to be sudsy. Then sit your naked bottom into the tub for a half hour. Concentrate on relaxing your sphincter tone. This will allow the soapy water to slowly seep into your rectum and it will actually soften the impacted stool. Not only that but I hear it has a relaxing effect and relieves any pain. This can be done after inserting dulcolax suppository to relax the contractions after expulsion of the impacted stool.

Hope this helps.

Thank you - I do appreciate this advice - I've always been stopped up even before being on opiate medication so I get pretty bad. (when I was pregnant (years ago) I went the whole 9 months with hardly any movement and it wasn't pretty.) Ever since I started opiate treatment I have had a prescription for Glycolax which I use about 5 x a week which helps and is not too harsh. Once I stopped using it for awhile and went a long long time (over a week) with no action. I had to start taking it again. I'm not sure what senna is - but I'll search it.
So thanks again.

[deltakappamuMD]

Originally Posted by uwllv88

Thank you - I do appreciate this advice - I've always been stopped up even before being on opiate medication so I get pretty bad. (when I was pregnant (years ago) I went the whole 9 months with hardly any movement and it wasn't pretty.) Ever since I started opiate treatment I have had a prescription for Glycolax which I use about 5 x a week which helps and is not too harsh. Once I stopped using it for awhile and went a long long time (over a week) with no action. I had to start taking it again. I'm not sure what senna is - but I'll search it.
So thanks again.

No problem. Senna can be purchased OTC and it is the preferred laxative for prevention of constipation in hospitals. Senna is a gentle vegetable based laxative.

[soma]

SWIM has found Miralax (propylene glycol) to be extremely helpful and less... severe lol

He can use over 300mg/day of OxyContin (oxycodone) or up to 600mg/day of MS Contin (morphine) during his heavy usage days and finds that daily Miralax works wonderfully.

[deltakappamuMD]

Originally Posted by soma

SWIM has found Miralax (propylene glycol) to be extremely helpful and less... severe lol

He can use over 300mg/day of OxyContin (oxycodone) or up to 600mg/day of MS Contin (morphine) during his heavy usage days and finds that daily Miralax works wonderfully.

Miralax is absolutely fine to use. It works simply by NOT being absorbed through the gut wall and creates an osmotic gradient, thereby drawing water into the bowel lumen and....softening things up. Wouldn't use it on a daily basis though.