Warning: Toilet Talk Ahead

This is a bit of an archive post - I’m not sure why I haven’t talked about this earlier but it occurred to me that for the sake of anyone going through a similar surgery that may be reading this it may be useful information. 

WARNING - if you don’t like toilet talk stop reading here. There’s nothing in here in regards to my recovery so you won’t miss anything. 

Morphine makes you constipated- really constipated. 

I had my first operation on Monday afternoon and I didn’t poo until Friday morning. (I am usually very regular 1-2 times a day for the record).

Apart from Monday when I had fasted, I ate 3 meals and snacks EVERY DAY. 

I couldn’t understand where all the food was going. 

I didn’t have any of the usual discomfort you’d expect with constipation but I’m guessing that’s because I was still on morphine! I did have an awful lot of wind that didn't seem to have an issues being released!

It wasn’t until Thursday that I started to get uncomfortable. 

My tummy was quite bloated and my insides felt blocked. Like a sausage skin fit to bursting which is possibly quite accurate! 

I was going into the hospital on Friday so I planned on asking the nurse for some lactulose (laxative) as I must have been pretty toxic inside. 

However on Thursday night I took a laxative tablet which did allow me to go before the hospital appointment came round. 

I didn’t feel like I’d released 3 days of food into the pan though as I still felt quite ‘full’

Over the weekend I had started to reduce my morphine intake and it directly correlated with how much movement I had / less morphine = more movement. 

I actually felt I’d reduced my morphine too quickly so went back on it for a few doses and immediately I couldn’t poo again. 

It wasn’t until I stopped the morphine completely that my bowel movements returned to normal. 

I should say not being able to ‘go’ was a bit of a blessing in those early days as the action of wiping was rather hindered by my inability to ‘reach around’ with my arm!