IBS-C, Chronic Constipation caused by medication

Opiate pain meds--I'm not sure if any of yours qualify--are NOTORIOUS for causing constipation. Among other people who have learned this the hard way were Hitler and Elvis Presley; both took a lot of painkillers and a lot of other junk and both were reported to spend hours on end in the bathroom just sick with constipation (some people have even theorized the drugging is what made Hitler even crazier than he was to start with--and of course Elvis ended up ODing).

Make sure you talk to your doctor and tell him that you are suffering from severe constipation and you think your pain meds are to blame. Maybe he can switch you or give you something to counteract the effects. I want to say that someone here on the board was told by her doctor that Dulcelax was safe enough to take once or twice a week to keep her moving and it was working very well for her. Make sure you ask your doctor or pharmacist if you can use that long term.

I noticed that you have fibromyalgia. My mother has that. And you know what else is an interesting coincidence? Her sister and her father's brother both have/had Crohn's. I think Pb4 was the one on here last week with some info that said, best I can understand it, that autoimmune diseases, which includes Crohn's and probably includes fibro as well, are related to some sort of irrrgularity in a certain gene. Which might explain why you have fibro and your daughter has Crohn's; it's the same gene problem that has just manifested itself in different ways.

Oh, and I have read that bowel problems are a symptom of fibromyalgia. My mother has just recently started having problems, but hers has been diarrhea. So, if it makes you feel any better, you probably don't have IBS, just another manifestation of your fibro. Of course that's 6 the same as a half dozen, I think. But it may also mean that even if you quit your pain meds all together, your bowels might not straighten out because your meds are only some of the problem, not all of it.

My mother has had some relief from her fibro by going organic. She read that chemicals on and in food can aggrevate fibro and she has switched (and even lost a little weight) and seems to be having fewer flares. Have you tried the fibro board here on Healingwell?

Don't feel alone; fiber (at least a certain supplement that I tried) doesn't do anything for me either. Well, actually, it does do something for me: it makes my constipation worse and makes my diarrhea worse. So I get what I get from my food and leave it at that.

Have you tried aloe vera pills? My mother took some for hair loss and found they, ahem, made her a bit overly regular; she didn't know they were a natural laxative. And of course there's always the old stand-by: prunes and prune juice. Perhaps adding these things in can allow you to be a bit more regular. Prune juice shouldn't be a problem long term since old people live on the stuff, but ask about taking the aloe vera long term. I don't think there's any problem with it either, but ask just to be safe. Oh, and someone on here recommends magnesium supplements for constipation as well. They add magensium to calcium, among other things, to try and keep it from being constipating, so it only makes sense that magnesium supplements would help constipation caused by other things. Just make sure you don't take more than is recommended and check with your pharmacist that it doesn't interact with anything you are already on. Certain vitamins and minerals can't be taken with things like blood pressure or blood thinner pills.