I am still taking Miralax post LIS and I have found it to be the most predictable in terms of actually making my poops soft. However, I upped the amount post surgery when I was on meds and things and am now in the process of trying to reduce back down. At one point, I was only taking a teaspoon or so, but now I have worked back down to 2 teaspoons in the evening. This morning, my poop was more formed and I could feel the incision site a tiny bit when I haven't felt that for days. Still, things were soft- just a little bigger and firmer. However, reducing the amount has still not changed my pattern of eat=go and I have had 3-4 poops a day the last few days. I also drink around 90 ounces of water and try to get my 4-5 fruits and veggies. My skin tag site where that was removed has been acting up and there has been a tiny bit of blood. This is making me wonder if I should be adding in a fiber supp to help move toward fewer BMs?
I have tried Metamucial and did not have success with it. Citrucel was ok, but seemed to make me go more often (or at least it seemed like it- I was also taking Colace and Miralax at the time). Colace has seemed to become useless. I have never tried Benefiber. For those of you who have tried Citrucel and/or Benefiber, what has it helped with the most and which did you like better and why? I realize our systems are all different, but would appreciate the info. Also, did you find that these actually made you go back to 1-2 poops a day from several or not?
Thanks-
Bambi

Hi Bambi,
I feel you pain. I'm having the same problem with the whole too many BMs a day thing. For me, 3 or even 4 per day was fine before LIS, just as long as it was soft. But now, I suppose, with the insult and injury of surgery, I'm finding that I need to cut that number down a bit or I get pain. So far I've been completely unsuccessful. I found that when I cut down the Movicol I just ended up with a BM which was too firm. It did nothing to reduce the frequency and just like you, gave me pain at the incision site. I haven't had any success with Metamucil in the past either. It just gave me huge bulky BMs which for some reason always had a hard tip and were painful to pass. When I stopped the Metamucil things improved hugely, so I'm reluctant to add it back into the mix ... Been there, done that sort of thing! I don't know about you, but I'm pretty nervous about reducing the Movicol/Miralax too much without adding in something else to fill the softening void.
Sorry I don't have any advice. I hope we both find a good solution to this soon, and I hope you're feeling good today!
:D

Sorry to hear you are having the same issue. So far this morning (as of 8:30 AM!) I do think maybe things feel better. I hope it is a better day for you as well. I'm driving my daughter and son-in-law to the airport to fly to Los Angeles. I just hope I don't have the urgent need to go in the middle of the trip- that is beginning to make me nervous about going too far from the house. Hopefully this too shall pass!
Bambi

Just remember that Miralax works very differently than Citrucel. It actually encapsulates your poo so that it slides out. Benefiber or Citrucel can give you the 30 mg of fiber your body naturally needs, to provide bulk to soften the poo.