Bowel routine

As a result of life long very slow transit constipation, I use the following bowel routine.

3 senna tablets a day

3 dulcolax tablets a day

2 sachets of movicol a day

For an extra push in the morning I use a glycerine suppository and/or a dulcolax suppository and a fleets enema.

Do any of you use a bowel routine? If so, what do you use?

I also have chronic slow transit constipation and have been diagnosed with colonic inertia. I am unable to have a bowel movement without taking something to make it happen. For years, I just did a tap water or soapsuds enema every 3 to 5 days. The interval between enemas depended on how uncomfortable I was feeling and whether I was in a place where an enema would be convenient or even possible.

At the beginning of the year, my gastroenterologist convinced me that I needed to try a medication-based regimen. It needed to be based on using conventional laxatives since I had already tried and failed the prescription drugs used to treat chronic constipation. Most OTC laxatives (senna, milk of magnesia) no longer work for me so my routine uses a combination of Miralax and Dulcolax. Each morning, I take a capful of Miralax and two Dulcolax tablets on an empty stomach. Each evening, I take another capful of Miralax. The results are never predictable or consistent, but I do manage to go two to three times every week. The downside is that the laxative effects tend to be quite urgent and I never know exactly where I will be and what I will be doing when they occur. Occasionally, I will find myself needing to go but unable to. That is when I pop in a Fleet liquid glycerin suppository or use a Microlax microenema to get things kicked off. I miss the regular bag enemas but I am trying to listen to the advice of my gastroenterologist. He wants me to save those for the times when absolutely nothing else is working.

Sounds like we have similar problems. Like you my hospital doctor encouraged me to use dulcolax rather than enemas. She told me to ignore the written instructions and just take what is needed to keep things moving.