[Maria]

Ok Blair,
This is going to be a bit graphic but here goes..

On Methadone the gut seems to want to stop working. In order to get it work, I take the laxatives as I mentioned, which would be 17gm. of Miralax a day in cup of coffee and 2 Senakot-S in the nighttime.

I'd like to have normal bowel function the a.m. and sometimes I do but sometimes I'm just really *tied up*. When getting badly so after a two days of no you know what.. OMG.. I mean, my stomach is really a mess~

So I can see how you'd spend 5 hours in the bathroom (easily, unfortunately) and almost end up in the ER for relief.

Enemas can be a helpful thing.. the ones you buy at the store. I recommend having a few on hand just because to empty the lower part of the colon is easy and really doesn't require much work at all. It's when you want to give a high enema you should either know how or head over to the hospital for help with this..

This is not a pretty topic but I must say in nursing I gave my fair share of enemas and one thing I can manage is giving the lower colon one to myself if necessary (and probably rigging higher colon one as well) .. it's nasty work but someone's got to do it!

There are serious issues such as an ileus which of course would not be addressed with a simple enema but what I try to do is not let myself go without 3 days of having a bowel movement (after this my stomach is in fits anyway), and make sure you have active bowel sounds (all the gurgling and so forth)

Continuing god luck with this issue and of course, recovery which is ever prominent!!! Hopefully you don't mind as women (middle aged for me) the attention span has shifted a bit for *good looking treating doctor recall*!!!!!!

take good care!!!!