Constipation
Delayed, infrequent, or uncomfortable bowel movements are a common side effect of pain itself as well as pain medication. You can also become constipated as a result of inactivity, depression, and stress.
The bloated, stopped-up, heavy feeling of constipation can aggravate any other symptom you have. If you become severely constipated, you may even develop nausea because the food you eat has nowhere to go but up.
As troubling as constipation can be for you, it is both preventable and treatable.
Constipation will happen almost 100% of the time if you're taking opioid (pronounced OH-pee-oyd) pain medications, so treat it before it occurs. At the moment you start the medication, you should also be taking a stool softener and something to help move your bowels. If your doctor has not suggested this, ask about it.
When taking medications that cause constipation, be sure to drink lots of water and eat high-fiber foods such as bran products, whole wheat breads, and fruit juices. Make fresh fruits and vegetables part of your daily diet.
If your bowels have slowed to a halt, you need to get that conveyor belt going again. Start out with a combined stool softener and gentle laxative, such as Peri-Colace or Senokot-S. If you still have no bowel movement within 1 to 2 days, add a medication such as Dulcolax, milk of magnesia, Haley's MO, or other over-the-counter brands that stimulate the bowel muscle to move faster.
If there is still no action after 1 to 2 more days, ask your doctor if it's okay to use a bowel stimulant such as Dulcolax suppository, magnesium citrate, senna extract, or lactulose. Or use mineral oil, which works as a stool lubricant. A Fleet enema will both stimulate bowel action and lubricate the stool.
If there is still no action, have a medical caregiver perform a rectal exam to see if the cause of your constipation is impacted stool (hardened feces plugging up your rectum).
If you have impacted stool, it will be unblocked by first being softened with a glycerin lubricant suppository. You'll be given a pain medication to ease discomfort. Then, a doctor, nurse, or nurse's aide will insert a gloved and lubricated forefinger into the rectum to break up the hard stool so that it can be passed more easily. This procedure is followed by an enema and repeated until the stool is gone.
Once constipation is relieved, stick to a high-fiber diet, a daily dose of a stool softener, and a gentle laxative to keep your bowels moving, and maybe even a mild nightly combination (such as Peri-Colace or Senokot-S). If you don't do this, you'll find yourself right back where you were before: stopped up and in pain. If you have not moved your bowels in the previous 24 to 48 hours, you may also need to add Dulcolax at bedtime.