Let's tak shit

Pooping.  Some people are regular and some aren't.   Due to the fact that my chronic pancreatitis causes me intense pain at times I take a pretty strong narcotic.  Side effect= constipation. 

Over the past year or so, I have struggled with constipation on and off, at first not knowing what to do tried all the usuals.   I tried enemas,  Milk of magnesia, laxatives, stool softeners, suppositories... pretty much everything.   The worst part is to have such a large piece of stool that it just won't pass.  No matter how hard you push, or what you do, it just won't go. 

I am going to be pretty frank here people, because in my journey with this issue, I never really got much from the internet on what to do once you are at this point.  All the sites tell you is to increase your fiber, increase water intake etc.... all well and good but it doesn't do you much good when you are at this point.   I attempted to research anything that might loosen and break up the hard ball of stool, but did not get much luck... so I have experimented and have found what works for me and I would like to share that with all of you. 

First I tried glycerin suppositories,  they didn't work at this point... useless.
Next I tried mineral oil and water enemas (warm water),  does work to a point.  If the chunk  is not too hard, sometimes small pieces will break off and you can pass those.  This is very time consuming as the colon does absorb the water.   So, you need to let the water work on the stool, and keep water in your colon.   If the stool is too dry and hard, you will just pass the water right back out.

At this point you can start thinking about manual removal... I have not had much success with this either. If the ball is dry and hard, you will make little if any progress attempting to manually remove excuse my frankness "what you can scrape off". 

All this has typically led to bleeding, nausea, vomiting, pain... extreme pain while trying to push it out.  I have been to the point of passing out more than once... believe me you don't want this.

OK, so what works.... BUT you have to be patient... is miralax.   I usually will take 4 doses on day one, 3 or 4 doses on day 2 and then wait for it to work.  It needs time to soften up the hard stool, but it will if you give it time.  It works by drawing water into the colon.  As the hard stool sits bathed in the water it will slowly start to soften and break up.   You will have some loose stools following this procedure but... for no bleeding or pain... I'll take it.