Constipation - An Unpleasant But all Too Common Problem

You could say I inherited it from my mother. Or, you could say it’s caused from having abdominal surgery. Or, you could say having estrogen eliminated from my daily medication regimen and taking blood pressure pills for forty years caused it. Or maybe taking calcium pills is the culprit. Whatever the reason, having constipation is dreadful. No, it’s not a life threatening disease, but it gets to the point where you have to plan your life around it - and it’s very uncomfortable. The medicine drawer is packed with so much prescription junk no wonder your system gets messed up. And it doesn’t matter how much I walk every day, or exercise, or eat fruit, or drink water. So my arsenal includes softeners, stimulants, pills, and suppositories. An every sixth day diuretic helps sometimes but can’t be depended upon - and every hour trips to the bathroom make it hard to plan anything on those days. So the latest addition to the mix is Miralax. It’s a recently made non prescription powder that can be added to any drink. I’ve tried it here and there and it seems to be effective, but I’m never sure when and how often to take it. When I was younger we had to plan our trips around my monthly curse because it was so debilitating. Now in my senior years it’s just another nuisance. I used to be astounded by the size of my mother’s medication bag whenever she came to visit. Now I know why. But I am so very thankful because I know that things could be so much worse. No wonder there are so many ads on TV about it!