When our bowels are working properly, they squeeze and relax in a rhythmic way to move food through the digestive system to the back passage (rectum) where it is pushed out of the body as poo (stools). When your bowels aren’t working properly, you can get constipated. This means you
- Aren’t going to the toilet as often as you normally do
- Have hard, dry stools when you go (normal poo is soft, bulky and moist)
- Feel you have to strain to do a poo
- Feel bloated, uncomfortable and sometimes you have tummy (stomach) pains
what causes it?
When the food is moving through your gut, some water is passed through the walls of the intestines and it keeps the stool soft. Sometimes there is not enough water, or the movement of the muscles of the intestines is very slow. This can cause constipation. Other causes of constipation are
- Not enough fibre in your diet
- Not enough exercise
- Not drinking enough fluids
- Surgery
- Ignoring the feeling that tells you to go to the toilet
- The side effects of some medicines like chemo, painkillers and anti-sickness medicines
- Disease in the bowel like cancer or Irritable Bowel Syndrome
Your doctors or nurses will tell you if your medicines are likely to make you constipated and whilst you’re in hospital, they will ask you about your toilet habits everyday. If you start to feel constipated let them know so that they can give you some medicines to treat it. If you’re at home when you feel constipated, tell your GP.
how is it treated?
If your constipation is not too bad, it can be treated fairly easily.
what can help?
- Eating more fibre like fresh fruit and vegetables, juices and smoothies and drinking plenty of fluids. Talk to your dietitian about what you can do or check out the eating problems section.
- Doing more exercise
- Going to the toilet when you feel the need to go
- Taking laxatives (medicines that make you go to the toilet)
- Eating liquorice can sometimes help
laxatives
Laxatives come as tablets, liquids, gum, powder or granules. They have different ways of working.
Some work by making the stool more bulky or softer, while others make the muscles of the intestines push it out.
If your constipation is really bad and your intestine and rectum are packed tightly with poo, this is called faecal impaction. When you are impacted, normal pushing will not be enough to make you go to the toilet. You may have an x ray to check how bad it is. You may then have to take some laxatives by mouth as well as having some put inside your bottom. The nurse can do this for you or you can do it yourself if you want. If you still can’t go to the toilet, then the nurse or doctor will have to put a finger or two up your bottom to break up the poo and take some of it out.
other problems from constipation
Constipation can cause other problems.
- Piles (haemorrhoids) – these are swollen and twisted blood vessels around your anus.
- The skin and muscles around your anus could tear when a hard stool stretches it. You might see bright red blood on your poo (or on the toilet paper) when this happens.
- If you strain too much, part of the bowel can be pushed out of your bottom. If it’s not too bad, you will just have to stop straining to fix the problem. If it’s serious, which is very rare, then you might need an operation to fix the muscles.
Your experiences
constipation.... i kno, but it happens, face it!
Kit_Kat (Leukaemia (ALL), 19, F, Scotland) , tip added: 06/07/2005
U'll probably be given lactulose, to "soften things", it works, but its basically sugar so is very bad for your teeth, my tip is to put it in one of those little tub thingys and take it through a straw to avoid contact with your teeth, also brush your teeth after it :)
