My husband recently finished his first stage of chemo. He has had a few side effects,mostly joint pain particularly his hands and jaw. But by far the worst thing is the constipation he has had 5 days of taking senna, and he is in agony with cramping pains and bloating.The hospital say usual things more fluid, high fibre food etc etc. He is drinking plenty but now refusing to eat much as he says it makes him worse and he feels sick. I have tried everything I can think of to help hot water bottles on tummy, stomach massages.
Has anyone else suffered with this and has got any ideas or tips to help.
1 Like
@summer123 I really feel for your husband and I really understand his thoughts.
He must feel so rough.
Perhaps his GP or pharmacy can help?
I am on prescribed Lactulose daily, but he needs something to reach the source of the blockage and I don’t know if some sort of pessary or enema would be better before dealing with the constipation on a daily basis.
My mother used to boil up senna pods for me to drink this scrummy liquid, yuk, say no more.
For constipation I use one tenth of the. recommended dose of Laxido (supplied on prescription) on a daily basis. It is a very dilute solution compared with what most patients use occasionally. The GP is happy with this.
It is an osmotic medicine so it is best to drink plenty of water each day. Laxido may not be the right approach for everyone, and even I would not want to increase the daily dose.
Jumbo 4
1 Like
Thanks for all you advise. My poor husband after 7 days of chronic constipation his chemo nurse said this morning he had to go to A&E. They were very good, he had to have blood tests then an xray to see if it was a bowel blockage or something sinister. They found nothing sinister but an impacted bowel they were going to give him an enema but they said its too high in bowel so too risky. Well @jumbo4 we came home with 34 sachets of Laxido to take over 4 days!! He was disappointed as he thought an enema might give him quicker results. So we will see how it goes.
He is supposed be be starting his stage 2 of induction chemo tomorrow but they have decided to delay it for a week until his bowel has settled down.
1 Like
Hi @summer123 oh, it must be so frustrating for both of you and I cannot imagine how you husband is feeling and coping.
Please keep updating us how your husband is doing.
How are you doing?
It has been frustrating, I am sure in the scheme of things with blood cancer constipation is a small problem. But it has been hard on him. I feel OK, we both are exhausted after spending 8 hours at the hospital today and lately having very little sleep. We are now both off to bed.
1 Like
Be kind to yourselves @summer123 . Nobody expects you to be a superhero.
1 Like