yeah, I've been sucking down water like crazy. Was going bathroom all night, just not getting the result I wanted.

Might just ask my dad to go to the pharmacy for me.

tried calling my doctor's office, can't get thru. It keeps telling me "your call cannot be completed at this time" if I try calling on my cellphone. If I call on our landline it says "all circuits are busy". Don't know why it's doing that. Just know that since the insurance weirdness started, it's a heck of a lot harder to get an appointment, and their phone system can't seem to handle things anymore.

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got thru to the office, but the person who answered said I'd have to wait several minutes while she checked in another patient that was in the office. She didn't seem to want to make the appointment for me for my shoulder. I asked to talk to the nurse about my other issue, and she said she could do that and the nurse could transfer me back to make an appointment, so she transferred the call to the nurses station, which immediately went to voice mail, and there was no way to get back to the scheduling department.


ARRGHH!!! <multitude of swear words being screamed> omg...seriously?!? All I want to do is talk to the doctor or the nurse, why is that so difficult?

Have you tried Miralax? I know I had to take it before surgery and it really cleaned me out! But, I had to take the whole bottle of it. That might not be a good idea for you. If you can get through to your doctor's office I'd ask them if it's okay to take it.

I think there might be too much "stuff" in there for anything to handle making it leave me. My next attempt will probably involve water, but not ingesting it.

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ok, my dad, who seems to be the MacGyver of poo, didn't have the thing that involves water, but he did have something else I could try, which also does not involve actually ingesting anything through the mouth... Something that goes directly to the source...and was actually easier to deal with that I thought it was going to be.

So, I guess now I sit here, and wait patiently for...things...to start happening. (omg, can't exactly believe I'm talking about this stuff on a public forum. Oh well, we're all MSers here)

FINALLY!!!!!

Altho, I thought there would be more...stuff. Maybe not all of it's worked it's way out yet? Is it a bad thing if there's a little bit of blood?

While I was, erm...waiting... for things to work their way out, the nurse from my doctor's office called. Said to try miralax. I still feel like I have to do more. Maybe I'll try that to make sure I get everything.

I guess I'll clear my schedule for the day.

Erin - It all depends. How much blood? Was there mucus as well? Were you straining to have a bowel movement? Straining can certainly cause a little blood in your stool. Keep an eye on it and if things get worse, call the dr or go to the ER. There maybe something else wrong other than constipation or in addition to the constipation. Also, keep in mind that some of the stool softeners/laxatives take a day or two to start working. An enema would be more immediate. A colonscopy prep, well...., it works and sometimes fast.

I was trying not to strain, but I probably did a little bit. It wasn't that much blood. Just enough to make me go "oh...there's blood".

Not sure if there was mucus, there was something in the bowl, but it could have been something from the suppository.

I was surprised there wasn't more...stuff...there. It'd been a few days, but the nurse said that if I hadn't been eating a lot of solid food for the past several days, that might explain why there wasn't a giant pile of stuff there.

When my arm was in severe pain the past several days, it's affected my appetite a lot. So, I really wasn't eating all that much. I guess I should be happy that I hadn't put too much stuff into my system the past few days. The pain from the shoulder/arm may have helped this other problem not be so horrible.


I called the orthopedic specialist about my arm a little while ago. Explained that I'd had pain that was bad enough I had to do two ER visits in one day for it, and asked if I could get an appointment sooner than the 11th. So now I have an appointment for wednesday for them to tell me if I actually have frozen shoulder or if it's something MS-ish.

I didn't get much sleep last night, so I think I'm going to go take a nap. I'm tired!

Erin,

Not only the amount of food that you've eaten in the last week, or lack there of, is important to consider, but how much fiber was in it as well. Things that are primarily animal sourced proteins like meat, fish, poultry and dairy products, as well as refined starches like bread, pasta, white rice - all have very little fiber in them and so, tend to leave little residue.

On the other hand, if you have eaten a fair amount of vegetables, complex carbohydrates like oats and whole grains, and fruit, you should expect some substance to remain after digestion.

Hope that this helps and that things back on track for you.
Good luck with the PT for your shoulder.

With love, Erika