Hey all,
Long time no type for me...
Was wondering if anyone could give me some good advice before I go back to the doctors.
I have been taken stool softeners for about four months now (dulcosate sodium from dulcoease) at a reasonably high dosage - about 6 capsules a day. I took them because of two ops and a fissure.
Well the fissure almost healed, but I think that because my stool was too soft and wet it wasnt able to heal completely - I had read that if you have soft stools that it makes the skin soft and prevents it from finally healing. It made sense for me, because I healed really quickly at one point, but the last stage just didnt heal up - I always had a little blood on the tissue. When I bled I really didnt feel much pain at all - in fact all the pain has really gone.
So I decided to reduce my dose, I started at doing one less capsule a week 6 to 5 was easy, but I was still very runny, so too quickly I think I went from 5 to 4. I had then two morning of very painful BMs. I needed to go, it was in the lower part of my bowel, but I had to strain, and it felt so hard. No surprise then, I bled like mad on those two days. So as a result I have gone back up to 5 again (and have the pain that has come back again).
Generally each day, I think I have enough fiber. I have a bowel of bran with seeds in the morning (about 11grms), I have an apple, pear, apricots, oranges in the am. Then I have sandwich on brown bread, about 4grms, two different whole grain snack bars (total about 5grms) and then for dinner usually a veggi dish. I think all in all I must be getting at least 25 - 30 grms of fiber a day. On top of this I drink at least 2 litres of water.
In an effort to compensate for the softeners I have started taking psyllium husks (ground 1 tsp in the am one in the pm) which has added loads of bulk to my stool - almost too much. But I have read that this is a natural stool softener - I am hoping that if I take this, reducing the softeners will not be such a problem (?)
I am going to see the doctor and hope that they can dive me some advice, but not sure if there is anything that others can advise. I really want to be off the softeners as soon as possible (particularly as they are a stimulant laxative, and I have heard so many bad things about this). Also to be truthful, I dont have 100% confidence in the doctors, sometimes is just about seeing as many patients as they can in their allotted time. So when you try to have a conversation, you can almost see them watching the clock.
Help!

Hi there SteveR!
I have used this too. It should tell us something when the same thing is used as a pesticide . I use only the tiniest piece when I feel I am having 'troubles' (I have ones that you can cut). I even bought some for children, in liquid form but have not tried it yet...
I take MofMag, and have done for years. Don't think that is good either, but there it is, I am not going to stop. I only take about a tablespoon of the stuff. Who knows, maybe that is the root of my problem. I know that Miralax is supposedly better for you, and doctors say that you can use it all your life, but I found it so difficult to reach a happy medium with it.
I take metamucil biscuits - cinnamon flavour - and just got up to one a day with those. I am unbelievably careful with what I eat, and not much of it either, though trying now to eat a little more to bulk up the stools, among other things I am trying.
If you could get the ones that you can cut, you could more easily cut them down. That is my only suggestion, but I'm in the US, so don't know what you can get in the UK. You need to train your intestine slowly.
Hope that is some help!
All the best,
Sav

Hey Sav, thank you for the reply. You are right, I know that if I could have gone to half measures I would have been able to cope with it I think. The jump between 5 to 4 tablets was just to much ( and originally I had set out to reduce 1 a week, but basically went from 6 to 5 one day then two days later down one more. I totally underestimated how dependant I have become on them. And that in itself scares me!
I feel really impatient and already want to cut back again - but I must make myself stay on 5, wait til I have healed a bit better, then go to 4 again. Probably another week to wait.