Day 26 here! Generic but true - it gets better! I turned a sharp corner on day 11 after days 6-9 sucked bad and 10 kinda sucked. This may not be fun advice but for me I was 4 days in when I realized it was going to get critical đ Fleet enemas will kick start things, itâs a ridiculous process if youâve never done one but the relief is so worth it! Squeeze out excess air from the bottle, slowly pump as much as you can in one go, hold it in for as long as you can (15-30 seconds is ideal), push it out. Refill bottle with lukewarm water, repeat 2-4 more times or until you get some results. Give it some time for your body to respond, 10-15 minutes, just sit and wait a bit. If itâs REALLY not moving see if you can keep the water in longer, like 60 sec+, and move your torso around a bit to stir things up. Keep some Vaseline or lube and a towel or rag handy. It may be a little wet/messy feeling if youâre not used to it - WORTH IT. I hate traditional laxatives but I overnighted something called Senokot-S that is made with plants and worked well. The enema provided temp relief and then I started maxing out doses with this and by the end of the day and into the next day things were moving on their own. I took 2-4 pills every 4 hours the first day (above recommended, use your judgment). After the first day, I did 4 tabs 3x a day, following day cut down to 4x morning 4x evening, then cut dose in half until I felt I didnât need it anymore. I did go through almost 2 bottles. You also could try a bit of coffee - just a few lukewarm sips to trigger the impulse in your body, as caffeine can increase bleed risk I think? Senokot-S Dual Action Natural... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B003D3OF6Q?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share As for food, I found small soft pasta noodles and very small diced chicken was totally fine. Pasta salad, egg salad, chicken salad without anything crunchy worked well. I was able to tolerate seasoning like garlic and onion powder pretty well, just stayed away from black pepper, chunky herbs, and anything spicy. Oddly enough generic curry seasoning was great so I did that to make up for the lack of other ingredients - like a curried chicken salad type deal. I was able to eat soft salami slices around day 7, soft nuggets and fries/hash browns around day 8 or 9. Eggs over easy and scrambled were also amazing around this time - hash browns and a runny egg was such a TREAT after a week of protein shakes. Soft veggies would have been fine. Also, baked sweet potatoes with dairy free cream cheese/yogurt were heavenly, cinnamon too - regular baked potatoes with some fixings would be fine I would think. I was able to eat the slightly crispy shell by chewing really thoroughly. I wouldnât eat plain as it wouldâve been really dry to swallow. If your scabs feel like theyâre on the way out you can start testing and see what happens. I think a lot of people fear monger about totally soft purĂ©ed bland food only and itâs really just listening to your body, chewing thoroughly, and using common sense. Also for what itâs worth I canât eat many junk foods as Iâm allergic to gluten and dairy so my versions are âhealthierâ which I think helps recovery too. The more good food, micronutrients, and protein you can get in the better. I was basically eating normal food from day 12 on. Youâre most likely almost past the worst of it! Now I have a mildly sore throat which swells a bit on and off and the muscles feel tight/skin is fresh. Iâm still trying to make myself rest but Iâve been back to the gym, running errands, and eating mostly normal foods for over a week - have not tested my usual super spicy food yet but normal spicy is now fine. Sneezing still kinda hurts but yawning and coughing are fine. Tongue is almost back to normal, just a little soreness when I stretch it - rolling ice chips around my mouth helped a LOT. Gentle gargling also - I used a Betadine mouth wash and occasionally a light saltwater gargle. The red color of the Betadine wash may seem alarming, ignore it, use your judgment (the whole avoid red colors thing is also fear mongering imo - you should be able to tell the difference between actual concerning blood and a bit of reddish liquid) I think maybe this tongue pain is from the clamps they use to keep your mouth open. Hope some of this helps! Iâm putting together a post about my experience because thereâs a lot of things I think people miss or donât talk about enough, and also not enough people talk about experiences that werenât horrendous and mine was pretty manageable đ€Ł hang in there, youâre almost out of the woods!
