Constipation after surgery.

kddub
on 10/15/14 7:53 am
DS on 10/10/14

I hate to be so tacky but I am trying to figure out what amount of time after surgery is normal for the first bowel movement?  I actually started drinking some miralax today.

HW 310  CW 222   SW 295  GW 175

DS 10/10/14 by Dr. Ranjan Sudan - Duke Medicine

Brandy G.
on 10/15/14 3:06 pm
DS on 08/20/14

IMHO you should be joined at the hip with your surgeon's office for questions like this right now. 

 

With that said, I think I may have been constipated once or twice the first two weeks.  The cause was one or all of: not enough water, not enough walking or lack of fiber.  My surgeon wanted me on a specific fiber supplement.  I found that if I attempted to double my water while I took at least an hour long walk (slow though it might have been) things cleared up for me. 

 

Not that I'm upping my calcium supplement I am running into issues in this area again, but at five days I hope you are not trying vitamins yet.  Unless. of course, your surgeon has you on a different path than I was.  Many DS people fight constipation for years.  They use magnesium oxide, aloe, stool softeners and fat.  But at five days out you probably can't handle too much extra fat. 

 

Just hang in there.  Really push the water and walking.  Looking back it is amazing how quickly my body healed, but it certainly didn't feel like it at the time. 

 

    

August 2014 - DS @ Mexicali Bariatric Center / Ungson.
It took me one and a half years to lose 165 pounds.
Weight: High=314, Goal=155, Current=131

kddub
on 10/16/14 1:26 am
DS on 10/10/14

Thank you so much for all of your insight.  Your being 2 months ahead of me is such a help.  I do have one question, you said walking an hour.  When were you able to do this?  I am 6 days out and I can barely make it around the cul-de-sac (at surgery time I was walking 3 miles a day).

thanks, Karen

HW 310  CW 222   SW 295  GW 175

DS 10/10/14 by Dr. Ranjan Sudan - Duke Medicine

Brandy G.
on 10/16/14 12:02 pm
DS on 08/20/14

My "hour" long walk probably included 3 long rest periods.  And then I probably went back to bed for a 3 hour nap.  And it wouldn't surprise me too much that although it seemed like an hour, it may have been shorter in actual time!  :-)

 

Everybody is different.  Surgery drugs tend to make me super hyper.  So much so that I was doing leg lifts in bed the night after my surgery.   The good news is that I walk sooner and farther than the other patients.  The bad news is that I didn't sleep but a few hours a night. 

 

There are, of course, people on the other end of the spectrum.  Those surgery drugs or pain pills may be keeping you lethargic and your gut slow. 

 

All you need to worry about is water intake and walking and napping the first week or so.  Imagine you have been in a sword fight and pierced a few times.  Luckily they just got your digestive system!  Somehow that makes it easier for me to take things more slowly. 

 

Still, I would ask your surgeon about fiber supplements and give him the heads up that you are having this issue.   

 

Good Luck!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

August 2014 - DS @ Mexicali Bariatric Center / Ungson.
It took me one and a half years to lose 165 pounds.
Weight: High=314, Goal=155, Current=131

PeteA
on 10/16/14 11:25 am - Parma, OH
DS on 04/15/13

This is not tacky - it's a pretty important subject all the way along but never more than when you
are starting out.  

I'm kind of surprised at 5 days you haven't had any kind of BM. It's easy to get constipated early on
and I think a particularly bad  case of constipation has to be my worst memory of the early days. It might be lack of liquids
so I would try and push some more if I were you. Take the Miralax if you need to but I would give the surgeons office a call
just to see what they say. My early BM's were mostly liquid so take what you can get.


Shawnern
on 10/16/14 11:31 am - Rochester, MN

Pain meds can really back you as well. I would call your surgeon so you don't end up with an Ileus.

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