Anyone else have chronic constipation? What have your doctors said? Has anyone ever had it go away?

[tpsbmam]

17. Oops, my apologies for taking so long to get back here! Had one of those days for a couple of days!

What I've started following is provided in the patient education handout found at the M.D. Anderson site:

http://www2.mdanderson.org/app/pe/index.cfm?pageName=opendoc&docid=28

What it mainly added was paying attention to getting two types of fiber, which I've added to my daily routine. So far, it's working along with other things I already had going (daily stool softeners). Paying attention to drinking a full 2 liters of fluid a day has helped a little -- I wasn't drinking enough. I still haven't gotten up to the full 2 liters, but I'm definitely drinking more than I had been and making sure that a good deal of it is just plain water.

Other aspects of bowel training programs are more problematic for me, mainly because I'm stubborn. It includes eating 3 meals a day at relatively regular times. Um, nope. I don't eat breakfast 'til I'm hungry, which may be 1 p.m. I rarely eat lunch -- it's usually just a late afternoon snack of some kind (fruit or cereal or a nutrigrain bar). I eat a good dinner by about 7. I have a really low calorie diet and, despite that, am overweight due to being in a wheelchair and getting very little exercise. (That also contributes -- exercise helps. I used to be 100% regular even with MS, in part because I had more routine, did eat 3 light meals a day and I worked in hospitals and walked a lot during the day. And the MS has also progressed & it's affecting things it didn't before.)

It also includes training your bowels to go at regular times. So, for example, it's recommended that you eat breakfast and have something hot (to eat or drink), which stimulates the bowels. And then you just bloody well just go sit on the can to go.

These two aspects are pretty consistent across all of the bowel programs I've read. And, as I said, I worked in hospitals. I was usually based in Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation and many of the principles here were used for spinal cord injury patients, who needed to have strategies to get their bowels working since they were always below the level of the spinal lesions.

Establish a Regular Time for Elimination

A bowel training program needs to occur at the same time each day. The goal is to establish a routine and predictable time for elimination. When choosing an appropriate time a person should consider his or her past pattern of bowel elimination and present lifestyle. The time should be convenient and not rushed. Planning the program after meals allows one to take advantage of the wave-like movements that propel the fecal material through the colon to the rectum, which occur 20-30 minutes after a meal.

Stimulate Emptying on a Regular Basis

A stimulus of some kind may be needed to help empty the rectum. The stimulus will vary from individual to individual. The stimulus creates peristalsis or wave-live movements of the colon. A meal or hot drink may stimulate some persons. Others may need to use suppositories, enemas or laxatives (only under the advice of a physician) or a combination of the above. One should use the least stimulus that is effective to promote evacuation.

One more link:

Bowel Training for Constipation Relief

Hope this helps! So far, it seems that it'll help with me but won't be THE answer. Of course, if I'd institute more of a routine as recommended, that might help. And that might come yet. I have to do something -- I can't keep letting my BP soar the way it does with constipation and all of the bowel problems I've been having!