# Liquid diet after 1 month of constipation



## wellred (Apr 23, 2017)

Greetings all!

I am so happy to find this site. I get so discouraged when I search "constipation" and find links where normal people sing the praises of a glass of water with lemon in it as a constipation cure. Really??? If only it was that easy!

One month ago I was down south visiting my mother. I always have difficulty going to the bathroom when I'm not home, but I have found, in the past, that eating a big bowl of bran cereal helped me. This time, however, I was only getting small rabbit pellets every time I'd go. Of course I would try to cure that by having more cereal the next day. Which resulted in more rabbit pellets. In short, the two weeks I was away I never had one normal bowel movement.

When I returned home I was sure my bowel movements would improve. In the past, I would get the urge to go the minute I walked back into my door. This time, however, it didn't get better upon my return. I continued to have little rabbit pellets, but they were decreasing in amount. I kept having cereal for the first week, and had one normal bowel movement, but then nothing at all. I tried taking Metamucil but it didn't help at all (not a big shock, as I never find Metamucil works for me).

After 3 days of complete constipation I tried taking 2 Extra-Strength X-Lax pills. What a disaster that was. I took the pills before bed, and was up most of the night feeling very sick. I would alternate between sweating bullets and shivering with cold, and I had terrible feverish nightmares I had trouble waking up from. When I finally got up in the morning I had a tiny bit of BM, but nothing else. The rest of the day I felt sick and nauseous, as if I were recovering from the flu. I'll never take that again!

After that I started taking Lax-a-Day every day, but that wasn't working either. In the past I've taken it, but all it ever did was make my rear end sludgy and stinky when I wiped after a pee. Nevertheless, I persevered in hope that it would stir up something. Every day after breakfast I would get a tiny walnut sized bowel movement, and that was it. Mostly, I felt like the urge to go...was gone. I'd get a vague feeling of it, barely a whisper of urge, after breakfast, and that's when I'd pass the small amount. It's like my body has forgotten how to go. Finally, after one month of this, I went to see the doctor three days ago.

He said as long as I'm passing gas (I was passing a bit, but much less than I used to) and a bit of stool - even if it's a very small amount - I'm not completely blocked. I wasn't feverish or excessively bloated, and my stomach wasn't hurting that much, but I was feeling queasy. The doctor said that the stool wasn't in my rectum yet - I have a very sloooow transit in both my stomach and my colon. He thought I didn't drink enough water with all that cereal, and I got clogged up.

He prescribed continuing with one serving of Lax-a-Day per day, 3 glasses of prune day per day, and 3 litres of water or liquid for the next 5 days. The only thing I can eat is soup (without pieces in it and little to no fiber) and jello. I started this liquid fast last night at dinner and this morning I passed a bit of stool. By today at noon I started getting diarrhea, and that's continued on and off during the day and night. I haven't been able to drink the 3 litres of water - it makes me too nauseous - I've probably only drank about 2 1/3 litres. All the liquids made me less hungry than I would have thought, but I'm feeling weak and bloated. I also have a headache, but I can't take the Tylenol with Codeine that I normally take for a headache.

My rear end is already hurting from the runs, and I'm wondering how I can keep this up for 4 more days!

1) I'm concerned because I can't drink as much as the doctor told me to.

2) How will I know when my colon is unclogged? The runs are tapering off right now, but maybe that's because I'm drinking less than I'm supposed to

3) How will I handle the hunger / weakness for days more?

Anyone else done a diet like this? Did it work? How did you transition back to regular food? Got any tips to help me get through it? Thanks for your input. Nice to know I'm not all alone on the IBS-C island!


----------



## annie7 (Aug 16, 2002)

hi wellred and welcome to the board.

on no--you are sure not alone--a lot of us here have chronic constipation problems. and oh yes --how wonderful it would be if simply drinking a glass of water with lemon in it would work. i wish!

whenever i was visiting people, i would never be able to go at their house. i always took stimulant laxatives to help me go and to avoid getting backed up. otherwise nothing at all would come out. wouldn't even get an urge.

it sounds like you had developed an impaction so i can see why your doc told you to stick to this diet while you're still constipated just so you don't put any more fiber in there (that's what i used to do whenever i got impacted) but it does sound like things are moving out well now, which is probably why the D is tapering off now. an x ray will show for sure how much stool is still in there.

it would be a good idea to call your doc first thing tomorrow and either talk to a nurse or leave a message for the doc telling him what's going on, that you have been going, how bad you've been feeling while on the diet and ask if you really need to continue to diet for the full five days. and also discuss your water intake. i'm not a doc but i would think that you could add something more nutritious to your liquid diet such as a nutritional drink like boost or ensure or instant breakfast (the kinds without any fiber added) and perhaps transition over to soft, low fiber food like eggs, cottage cheese, yogurt etc.

you could be getting dehydrated from all the D. drinking something like gatorade or pedialyte can help with that by keeping your electrolytes up.

you mentioned having slow colonic transit, which is what i had as dx'd by a colonic transit study. my gastro docs told me that because of this i should take something daily to help me go so i wouldn't get so backed up a and develop an impaction. because nothing else helped, i took a combination of stimulant and osmotic laxatives.

there are also medications available for constipation. maybe one of these would help you.

you mentioned you also had slow transit in your stomach which makes me think of gastroparesis. there are meds for that as well.

good luck with everything. hope you can find some relief.


----------



## wellred (Apr 23, 2017)

Hi Annie,

Thanks so much for your helpful response! Yes, I think I'll call the doctor tomorrow. My stomach is finally flat today, so I think (hope) I've emptied out the blockage. Since it's the weekend I'll give it one more day of the liquid diet and - if the doctor agrees - I think I will add in some scrambled eggs tomorrow. If yogurt is ok, then I can get the lactose free kind. I'll be happy to have some more food in me!

The problem is, that the minute I start eating I'll be very nervous about going to the bathroom again. And I suspect the more stressed I am about going, the less likely I am to go. When I went to the doctor on Friday I had 190 blood pressure, and I'm a thin person who's active (have a big dog that needs lots of walking). I don't feel that I'm that stressed about not going, but my blood pressure proves I obviously am. This latest bout of constipation wore on my nerves, because there didn't seem to be any end in sight.

Once I start eating I don't know if I should continue with the prune juice, how often, or just stick with the Lax-a-Day. I will ask the doctor all this tomorrow. I don't want to become afraid of eating.


----------



## Soccerlifter (Mar 23, 2017)

wellred said:


> Hi Annie,
> 
> Thanks so much for your helpful response! Yes, I think I'll call the doctor tomorrow. My stomach is finally flat today, so I think (hope) I've emptied out the blockage. Since it's the weekend I'll give it one more day of the liquid diet and - if the doctor agrees - I think I will add in some scrambled eggs tomorrow. If yogurt is ok, then I can get the lactose free kind. I'll be happy to have some more food in me!
> 
> ...


Sorry to hear that you are dealing with the same situation a lot of us are, even though we are all different.  I'm finding that my "fix" is to back off eating certain things when I get the cues that I'm getting backed up. When I stop hearing abdominal sounds, minimal gas, bloating, difficulty breathing, cramps, etc., I know that I'll probably be dealing with pebble stool soon. I go everyday or every other day but my situation is hard stools when I do go.

When I know I'm going to be backed up, I start moving to different foods like soup, pineapple and melon, jello, etc. Just because of the way life is, I'll still have some typical foods during that time but try to back off things that will be hard to process.

I'm sure fiber helps all of us but I think with those of us that have occasional backups, we need to know when to turn off the fiber for awhile. I've always been active but as a male in my 40's, trying to be more active just to help where I can. My situation is different than a lot of you in some ways because I'm prediabetic and have had two hernia surgeries so at least I can pin down when my issues started. Some folks can't and is really random. Has to be frustrating.


----------



## annie7 (Aug 16, 2002)

wellred--oh good--glad to hear your stomach is flat today. sounds like that is a definite sign of improvement.

and yes, agree with soccerlifter about the fiber. some people on here do well with fiber but a lot of us here--especially those of us with slow colonic transit--have found that adding more fiber to a colon that is already moving slowly only backs it up all the more. since i had slow transit C, i i found that i did better with a diet lower in fiber.

and yes, you don't want to become afraid of eating altogether. not good for your health plus the less food that goes in , the less there is to come out so not eating much can also contribute to C. maybe just experiment with eating a little less fiber. and try taking the lax-a -day ( or something, depending on what your doc suggests) daily to help keep things moving.

and yes, stress can also be a cause of C. what can happen when we get stressed and tense up is that our muscles tighten up--including the pelvic floor muscles. so that makes it hard to relax while going to the bathroom. tight pelvic floor muscles can also make it hard to even feel an urge. i was also dx'd with pelvic floor dysfunction, so i've had first hand experience with all that.

have you tried elevating your feet by using something like a foot stool, over turned waste bin or squatty potty while sitting on the toilet? elevating the feet straightens out the anorectal angle and allows a more complete evacuation. i also found that doing this and taking deep breaths (belly breathing) helped relax me more and made it easier to feel the urge and to go.

good luck with everything. keep us posted..


----------



## wellred (Apr 23, 2017)

Thank you so much for the helpful hints and compassion! I guess it's a learning process for all of us. As I age, my symptoms definitely seem to worsen. I will back off the fiber once I start eating normally again. I fear it's no longer my friend. ☹


----------



## annie7 (Aug 16, 2002)

yes, it is a learning process and oh yes, my symptoms got worse, too, as i got older.


----------



## wellred (Apr 23, 2017)

You're so helpful, so I thought I'd bother you and ask one more question! How do I know when my bowel has been cleared? It's been at least 2 weeks since I had one normal bowel movement, and a month since the pebble stool started so I figure I must have been pretty backed up. On the other hand I've certainly gone a lot in the past day or so, though mostly diarrhea. The diarrhea I'm having isn't clear yet (like when I do a colonoscopy). Does that mean I have to continue on just soup and jello until Wednesday as the doctor suggested? I don't feel queasy anymore, just hungry and staying close to the bathroom. I'm also fed up with all the drinking.

PS: I broke down this afternoon and had a fudgesticle. I figured it's liquid-ish...right? I'm so sick of Jello at this point (even with Cool Whip added). Do you think I could have another fudgesicle tonight?


----------



## annie7 (Aug 16, 2002)

oh thanks and your questions are no bother at all







...

your first question is a good one to ask your doc but in my own experience from dealing with impactions-- to get rid of the impaction, i always took lots of miralax (it's like lax-a-day) and a stimulant like dulcolax--sort of like a half colonoscopy prep. this is what my gastro doc recommended. and this would give me lots of D but that was the goal--to move the blockage out. i knew the blockage was over when i felt better and like you mentioned earlier, my stomach was flatter , etc. i would never run clear as in a full colonoscopy prep but that wasn't really the goal--to get absolutely everything out--the goal was just to get rid of the impaction.

and of course, an x ray will show just what's going on in there but you can probably tell by how you feel--not as backed up, crampy, bloated and sick...

oh i think the fudgsicles are fine! no fiber in them







(i get real sick of jello too -yuk)


----------



## wellred (Apr 23, 2017)

Thanks so much Annie! I'm relieved to know it doesn't have to run clear. My instincts say that the clog is unblocked. Plus I have a bit of blood from wiping so much - I'm very irritated back there at this point. I think tomorrow I may cautiously try mixing in real food. Maybe scrambled eggs for breakfast and supper? And only 2 glasses of prune juice and not 3 like now?

I hate that eating and going has become such an issue at this point. I had to cancel dinner plans and brunch plans this weekend I was looking forward to, and now I'm already fretting about a dinner with a friend I have planned for next Friday. My favourite is normally a chicken caesar salad or an Asian chicken/salmon salad. My other go-to in a restaurant is fish with rice. Now I have no idea what to order anymore because salad has lots of fiber and rice is clogging. But, like you said, I have to eat something or I won't go. Argh!!! I want to trade my whole digestive tract for someone else's!

PS: Off to drown my sorrows in another glass of Crystal Light water. Yuck. At least I know I can be rewarded with another fudgesicle - or 3 - tonight.


----------



## wellred (Apr 23, 2017)

PS: one more quick question: the right lower side of my abdomen is dully aching. I assumed it's my bowels that are aggravated from all the activity?


----------



## annie7 (Aug 16, 2002)

yes, i would think that the dull ache is from all the activity and what's been going on....

the scrambled eggs for breakfast and supper sound like a good idea. you need nutrition and something more substantial to eat now that the back up is gone.

and yes, you can try dialing down on the prune juice and see how that goes. that stuff always gave me lots of gas--and didn't do much else, but that's me

that's a shame that you had to cancel brunch and dinner plans this weekend. as far as future dining plans are concerned, you might want to look up the fiber content of the foods you like. according to fitday, one cup of caesar salad has 1.4 grams of fiber. that's really not that much fiber--not near as much as that big bowl of bran cereal you mentioned eating earlier, when this all happened. plus lettuce has a high water content, so that helps, too. just my opinion but i'm thinking that now the blockage is cleared away, foods that didn't back you up before, like the caesar salad and the chicken/salmon salad, shouldn't back you up now. i always found rice clogging, too, so i never ate too much of it at one sitting. maybe you could order that fish dish and substitute something else for the rice..


----------



## wellred (Apr 23, 2017)

Annie, you really are my life saver! You're right, a salad doesn't compare to the bowls of cereal I was eating. Honestly, the more constipated I was getting, the more All Bran and bran cereals I was eating. I was going through about 1/4 of a box of bran cereal every morning! I will be much more careful moving forward.

The good news is that I ate a big bowl of chicken noodle soup for supper...felt it travelling through my stomach because it's so empty now...heard it gurgling loudly in my bowel...and within 15 minutes I was running upstairs to the bathroom! Obviously, getting the runs like that aren't ideal, but to me it's proof of how clear the passage is now. Before I did this cleanse every time I ate I felt so uncomfortably full. It had gotten to the point where I felt like the food was backed up into my throat (or that's what it felt like anyway).

What a relief to have the reset button work! And the good news is that if I hadn't had this constipation crisis I wouldn't have found this group. It is so comforting to feel I'm not alone with this. Thanks so much for all your kind words and advice.


----------



## Soccerlifter (Mar 23, 2017)

wellred said:


> PS: I broke down this afternoon and had a fudgesticle. I figured it's liquid-ish...right? I'm so sick of Jello at this point (even with Cool Whip added). Do you think I could have another fudgesicle tonight?


This literally made me laugh out loud.  I think it is because I have such a sweet tooth and sounded like something I'd say. If the doctor said "your sugar is a bit high", I'd probably answer with "well can I still have the Hershey Kisses?". 

wellred, glad everyone is able to help. I know this forum has helped me in the short time I've been here, if nothing else to give me sanity in realizing others are dealing with this kind of stuff. I wouldn't get too caught up in "can I have this, can I have that?" as far as food goes because it could end up becoming a stressful thing just trying to not eat certain things, etc. Like I mentioned, I adjust my food as problems occur. Like this weekend, I had pizza and a few days later donuts. Prior to that I was having cooked spinach, etc. Seems like I can trick my system sometimes. 

I personally am limiting types of laxatives to just around trips, events, etc. I don't want to become dependent on them or deal with other problems when I'm 85 years old and in a nursing home.  I'm trying to find balance between meds and using natural things like exercise, prunes, etc. These type of issues have to be tied to the way our foods are prepared and how busy is compared to years ago. There is no other explanation as to why so many people deal with constipation issues.

One last thing. I wholeheartedly agree with what Annie said about elevating your feet with a shoe box, the squatty potty, etc. Months ago I was using a shoe box nearly every time and things started "normalizing" a bit. It was amazing and couldn't believe something as simple as that makes a difference. People laugh about the squatty potty but 1000s of years and toilets were nowhere in site. When you go to Asian countries, they have toilets that are low to the ground or just a hole. They squat over it and go. Obviously that is "normal" but now we have a whole new normal.


----------



## annie7 (Aug 16, 2002)

thanks, wellred, for your kind words.







so glad i've been able to help a bit.

you're right--eating all that bran cereal when you were already constipated wasn't helping. my first doc told me to eat 40 (!) grams of fiber a day. so i began eating lots of all bran cereal and kept getting more and more plugged up. after doing some reading here on the board, i finally realized that perhaps this was not such a great idea for someone like me with a slow moving colon so i gradually reduced my fiber til i found the right amount for me.

so glad that eating the chicken soup worked out for you! yes it definitely sounds like you're unplugged now---what a relief! hope you can continue to eat more today with no problems.

and yes, wellred and soccerlifter--this board is truly wonderful. it is a terrific source of information plus it is SO good to know we're not alone with all this. when i first found this board many years ago, i actually cried. i thought i was the only one with these problems ....


----------



## wellred (Apr 23, 2017)

Hi all! I'm so grateful for everyone's helpful feedback. So I tried eating scrambled eggs this morning. Afterwards, I had a bit of an urge to go (not like I used to, but I'm responding to any twinge now) and I had a small ropey, stringy stool. I know it's very swollen back there from all the diarrhea over the weekend. Is that why it was so thin and stringy, or should I worry that I have an obstruction? I had a colonoscopy (and endoscopy at the same time) four years ago, and then both done again two years ago (I have stomach cancer in the family) and they were always clear.


----------



## annie7 (Aug 16, 2002)

lax-a-day--like miralax, movicol etc-- can cause thin stools.

that's good you had an urge


----------



## wellred (Apr 23, 2017)

Thanks Annie! ❤


----------



## annie7 (Aug 16, 2002)

you're more than welcome


----------

