safest laxative?

[Violet M]

Kathy, I've heard of the golfball in the rectum feeling with PN for sure but the football in the rectum feeling sounds even worse.

I get the magnesium citrate tablets at vitamin cottage. You can use other types of magnesium also if you want -- like chelated magnesium or magnesium malate.

Ground flax seeds and chia seeds are great too. I usually mix them into other things.

Violet

[Blossum]

Hi Kathy
I had the football in the rectum feeling when I had full blown PNE pre op. It was a terrible feeling. Did you ever have pudendal nerve surgery? I know you had surgery on other nerves but I don't think it was on the pudendal nerves......just thinking as to why you have the horrible foreign body feelings and nothing is in the rectum? I hope that some of these suggestions from the other people can help you!

[Carlie]

Hi, I had PNE surgery years ago but a hemorrhoid surgery recently (internal); finally, the bleeding really meant something was wrong, and I made a "donation" the next morning at the hospital and came home. Try a product called Miralax in orange juice with your breakfast. A big glass of juice with a lot of pulp in it. I have a good breakfast - ham, toast, juice, coffee. It takes under five minutes to prepare in the microwave/toaster and then I eat at lunch at the same time each day. Timing is the important thing and do not skip a meal. Small, steady meals are important. You can buy it at Walmart or at Dollar General (for less) and they have generic just as they do at Walmart. Same thing. In cold juice you cannot taste it and it is not bad. Then I nurse my coffee each morning, my wonderful coffee. You will go. Drink fluids. It is a softer and a fiber. Drink a lot of fluids, and once you become open, stay open. Please refrain from the laxatives. My mother is 94 now, and dependent on a laxative totally now; she would have gas, and would get up and take an enema, then get back into bed and sleep sound. I guess you live a long time that way, but she is totally dependent on laxative now - strong ones. He prescribes some kind of powder twice a week, and she will not change at her age. Do not form her habit. She does not drink fluids like she needs to. Never has. Take a large glass of ice tea and place on your desk and go for it all day long. Anything you need, water bottles, whatever, do it. I taught in a high school. Several of my fellow teachers did this all day long. Some people have problems and some do not. With Mira-lax, you need to regulate it carefully. I use a measuring spoon, and have steadily decreased it to the point it can do the job if I exercise some each day. Do you have a work-out plan each day? A time that you spend either walking or doing some form of relaxing exercise? This is just as important I think. You will relax the muscles by do it. Miralax will not hurt you; it is not a laxative, as are so many products. As you get better, you can slowly decrease the daily amount you need. As you decrease the meds, you will decrease the Mira-lax - you will not need it. It takes time and patience, but it will work. If you do find you have rectal bleeding like I did, do not fool around with an Internal Medicine doctor like I did for a year and suffer; instead, just ask to refer or see a plain general surgeon who does the surgery, and he can look and tell in about two minutes and schedule you for a "quickie" - go the hospital at 6 in the a.m. and out by noon. Home in bed by noon. Buy some "Butterfly pads" at Walmart - they are brand new to the marketplace - very small and cover the rectum for leakage, and you will be happy you have them; cost is minimal. You will need one bag of Depends to start out, sorry about that. And a sitz bath for the toliet as well as a hemorrhoid cushion to sit on for a week or so if you have to sit. Do not eat Chili for the next eight weeks, period. Sometimes, internal hemorrhoids do not bleed for a long time, but cause a blockage of sorts which makes gas, and having bowel movements difficult. Some meds do make problems also, and pain from constipation does not help PNE. It is a cycle. I do not know what is happening with your body, but there are products out there to help you. There are Colon doctors available who do not do surgery - they treat people like you who are having problems and they are experts. I went to one when I finally just called a surgeon and saw him the next morning and a day later lost the little devils. I went a year really bleeding, trying to regulate myself with the mira-lax, lost weight, etc. Saw a surgeon, bingo, and they came out and I felt better. It is a difficult one-two week period, and in four weeks, you really feel good. Do not discount the simple stuff; the devil is in the detail. I do hope you get some help. Carlie

[Carlie]

I read a brief description of your problem last night and then I found the very detailed one, and you have tried a lot of products. I still think you might gain some help by seeing a Colon specialist and take the info on PNE, about the pelvic floor disorder in itself, along with the info you put on this website. You need professional help before you dehydrate. You could still have internal hemorrhoids and they cause gas (painful bloating) and going from one extreme to another. Only an examination could determine that factor and to me, it is done by a surgeon when there is any dark stool or bleeding. You are purging yourself and losing too much. The BRAT diet is what I have to go on when I got the loose stools; it is bananas, applesauce, rice (rice tapioca in the refrig. area of the store) plain toast and water. It calms everything down some; go easy the next day so things go through a very raw colon easier. It has to recover and heal, which, as I understand, is about a week. You need professional help. Please consider it. Many good Colon M.D.s take insurance and you need real help. The guided Botox injection can help the constipation and the "dance with the devil" earthquake of the pelvic floor PNE can offer. It tends to calm the ocean down a little for a few months if given correctly. Gajraj will be glad to discuss the procedure with any M.D. over the phone. It is printed in the article. He told me that any pain doctor who can give a Botox for pain relief into any muscle can do this - it has to be guided so it can go into the obtutrator internus muscle. He is extremely kind and was a professor at Southwestern Medical School (Parkland Hospital in Dallas) when I met him. I gave him the instructions that Professor Robert had given me and he smiled, looked at them, and told me that we would do it tomorrow. We did. It worked. I slept sound the next day. Southwestern is the toughest med school in Texas; my son graduated from there a few years ago and they almost ate his cookies. Professors are skilled. This was about ten years ago. I hope you feel better. Carlie

[kathyd]

Hi everyone, thx for all your thoughts,, just saw ur posts.
Violet , thx so much, I have started the Magnesium malate,,seems to be helping a bit, but am still on the Dulcolax so I have some deci sions to make. Carlie you are so right, I desperately want to be off the Dulcolax --I hate emptying out my system.. its like colonoscopy prep when it finally works and its de-hydrating.
Your Mom reminds me of my Grandma.When I was a kid I remember her taking enemas. My mom said that she did it regularly..maybe it was done in her generation, but that sounds like a nightmare,...

Not sure if I should have called it my feeling a "football feeling" but it certainly feels like something is there when I get this 'feeling'.
My PT feels that it's the normal amount of stool that anyone would have in their anal canal on any given day, but my spasmed anal sphincter makes me feel it much sooner and more painfully (cause of rectal pain issue) and my clenching issues.

Carlie, thx for all the info...Sorry if Im confused,
but I'm reading this late at night... soI will go back and re-read it in the AM.
Were you saying I have internal hemmerhoids and don't know it? ..altho I noticed you wrote again after u saw my other posts , so maybe not.
I have never had rectal bleeding and I usually don't have to push hard to'go'.
I take stool softeners so what's there is always soft. Also I did see a colon surgeon.She was very rude! ...in fact a nurse friend of mine said a doctor likeher should not be practicing! This doctor made a comment insinuating I was one of "those cases" when I told her of my rectal pain and used the word 'pudendal'. She acted like she had no time for 'people like me' and that my situation was hopeless.I gave her a piece of my mind! She did do an exam tho. I had to lay prone on her table, "humiliating" while she checked out the "area".
She found nothing. That was it.. She told me she couldn't help. A bad experience , with an awful doc, which left me in tears.
May be worth seeing another colon doc ( but It's hard asking my poor hubby to take off from work to drag me to yet another clueless doc.

First I will ask my PT who knows that area of my body well, about all of this. If necessary, her urologist partner,one of the few kind doctors Ive met with, and who has given me lots of time, could recommend another colon doc.

My gut fwwling says its the muscles tho, as I do clench and I push on my belly to get all the urine out when I pee, which puts the anal area into more pain and spasm---- a cycle.
From my post you prbl'y saw my issues started with urinary problems, so I believe the whole pain issue is severe 'pelvic floor dysfunction', from years of dysfunctional peeing, as does my PT-- tho we could be wrong. She it the brightest PT I've met in 8 years tho.

I was originally told I had IC, so i gave up orange juice (very acidic and t ea years ago.) If one has IC, acidic foods/beverages burn the urethra and /or bladder.. Tho i have had some of that burning (urethra) in the past, lately Ive been (Thankfully ) able to tolerate 'some' small amounts of the 'no no' foods and drinks.. so Im going to hope it is Pelvic floor issues instead and continue to gradually add some of these foods back in.
I will write more later as Im off to bed now,
but wanted to ask,if you take enough Miralax does it work fast? Ive never taken enough of it at at a time ,so its worked SLOWLY (as in a couple days. So I gave up on it.
My urologist recently said you can safely double, triple up on it etc if you need to tho. (as much as you need)
I assume it would work faster then! I need a fast result. How many doses could I begin with?
Can I just stop the dang Dulcolax and switch over to Miralax?
i want to be off Dulcolax asap.
Also I probably would be taking Miralax it with water rather than orange juice at least for now! Would that work as well and as fast? I could probably tolerate watered down apple juice if that works and mix it in there. also i would still need my softener.
thx so much for all the advice ...just wanted to ask you these questio and tell you about the above.
I appreciate it , everyone.and will write more later.
Kathy

[nyt]

Kathyd, I recently posted two journal articles are anorectal disorders. You might find them helpful

http://www.pudendalhope.info/forum/view ... f=9&t=6421

You might want to consider seeing a doctor who can do the series of testing that is recommended in the article to make sure there isn't some other type of therapy that might help you like biofeedback. You could even contact one of the doctors in the article's office and see if they could tell you if they know anyone in you area that they could recommend that could evaluate you correctly.

I've tried a little bit of biofeedback but nothing consistently. I'm back to pelvic floor PT and brought it up. Correctly, their machine is out being fixed. However, they are really interested in learning how to use it especially for anorectal disorders. She said recently one of the other PT's in the group had gone out of town to meet with a PT who specializes in the use of biofeedback in children with defection disorders. Sometimes children develop the habit of tightening the sphincter instead of relaxing it when they are potty trained. Once their biofeedback machine is back I'm going to give it a try as I know in the past my readings were extremely high and it really is quite the art to learn how to relax the muscles.

[bikelover]

Hi Kathy, I guess you tried Natural Calm with no results?

[kathyd]

Hi Bikelover,
No I haven't ordered the Nature Calm yet.I looked online and it seemed to come in citrus flavors (like orange etc.) I need to see if there's a a 'plain' version.
Tho I don't think I have true IC (and have been told by my PT whom I trust, and a good doc as well) that I have Pelvic floor dysfunction, not IC, I've still avoided the 'non safe' IC foods and drinks for years ,and it's a bit scary to re-start the foods on the "no no" list.
But I recently have started adding in several 'no no' foods without any real change in my bladder function, so that further proves their point.
Tomatoes, and citrus however,are two of the biggest offenders, so I must add admit I'm apprehensive about trying anything citrusy. Very acidic.)
I will re-check however, for a plain version of Nature Calm.
I would much rather stay away from the strong laxatives. Tho it seems to take something strong to make me "go", I would prefer the Nature Calm if it will work.

I think I have a back up "feeling"rather than true constipation, as I 'go' often enough, and everything is soft. (sorry for TMI!)
I just can't tolerate the feeling of anything in the anal rectal canal, until we get these many bad trigger points under control.
They continue to flare up as soon as I leave the PT's office and am back on my feet.

I still use about one 12mg Dilaudid suppository daily (I cut back from 2 daily) for pain. I want to eliminate it, as its a big factor in constipation, but I need it for now .
There's a low level of Dilaudid in my pain pump and about 6mgs of Bupivicaine .. We had gone up to a high level of various meds in my pump over the past 18 months without real relief or numbness, like one would expect.
Thx for the suggestion! I Hope to find a version of Nature Calm without the citrus flavor.

[Blossum]

Hi Kathy
Natural Calm also comes in "plain"! It is magnesium. You add it to hot water and drink it like a tea. It fizzes up and makes a nice bedtime drink. I've tried the "raspberry-lemon" flavor and the "plain". The raspberry-lemon is wonderful. I buy mine at the local health food store.

Take care

Blossum (((hugs)))

[kathyd]

Hi Blossum,
Thx for that info.. Sounds good. The raspberry lemon sounds delicious.. As mentioned Im trying hard to overcome my probably unfounded IC 'food fears" and am adding in stuff that Ive missed eating and drinking for awhile. Lemon is another one!

BTW does the Nature calm work well for you? I hope so And if I may ask, do you have to take opiates for your pain also? The opiate in my meds is of course what's causing my problem, as my 'system' was ok prior to these meds.
I assume that many of us do have to take opiates until we are lucky enough to find other meds ,or even better, other ways to fight and
overcome the pain.
Thx so much, and I wish you good health for the new year!

Hugs!
Kathy