The bit nobody mentioned in the leaflet, week one and my insides have simply stopped

#1Helen W.(Joined Apr 2026 · 6 posts)May 1, 2026, 8:14 am

Right, I'm going to be the one who says it, because I have searched half the internet this morning and everything is about pain scores and pillow wedges and nobody is discussing the actual crisis in this house.

Six days post op, right hip, and I have not been to the loo once since the day before surgery. Not once. I am bloated, uncomfortable in a way that has nothing to do with the scar, and I would honestly rather have another night of the back-sleeping business than this.

They did send me home with something in a box but I've been so focused on taking the painkillers to the timetable that the other box has just sat there. Is this normal, is it the codeine, and what actually shifts it? I feel ridiculous asking a hip forum about my bowels but here we are.

#2gardeninggwen(Joined Jan 2025 · 29 posts)May 1, 2026, 9:02 am

You are not ridiculous, you are on day six and this is the single most predictable thing about the first week, and yes it is largely the strong painkillers. Take the other box. Take it now, and keep taking it, not just when things are already stuck.

That was my whole mistake. I treated the laxative as an emergency measure and the painkillers as a routine, when the truth is the other way round if you want a comfortable week.

#3trev_lefthip(Joined Jul 2025 · 13 posts)May 1, 2026, 11:37 am

Day seven for me before anything happened and I was starting to think about ringing someone. Prunes, warm drinks, and pottering up and down the hall more than I felt like. Sorted itself and never came back once I was off the strong stuff.

#4moira1963(Joined Oct 2025 · 16 posts)May 1, 2026, 4:20 pm

There are three things all happening at once and I don't think anyone explains it as one picture, so here's how it was for me.

The painkillers slow everything down, that's the big one. But you've also had an anaesthetic, which does its own bit, and you're barely moving compared to normal, and most people eat almost nothing in hospital and drink less than they think. Four things pulling the same direction. It would be more surprising if things kept running normally.

What worked for me, in the order I'd do it again: start the laxative from day one rather than day six, drink far more water than feels necessary because I was rationing it to avoid the awkward trip to the loo which is exactly backwards, get up and walk the hall every hour or two, and eat something roughly resembling fruit. Once I started stepping down off the codeine it fixed itself within about two days.

#5Haidee MarshAdmin(Joined Aug 2024 · 268 posts)May 2, 2026, 10:11 am

Helen, my diary for that week has one line in it about pain and about a page and a half about this. It is not a footnote of the first week, it is one of the main events, and I think leaflets skip it out of politeness.

What I would say from my own recovery, and it's what Moira has already spotted: the fix is prevention, not rescue. The laxative goes with the painkiller, from the first dose, because by the time you're where you are it's much harder work. I started mine late too and regretted it for three days. When I began stepping the codeine down around the end of week one, everything went back to normal within a couple of days, which is the pattern most people here describe. How the painkillers get stepped down, and why coming off them earlier helps more than the bowels, is in pain management after a hip replacement.

One boundary though. Six days is long, and there is a difference between uncomfortable and unwell. If you get real abdominal pain, vomiting, a hard swollen belly, or you're passing nothing at all including wind, that stops being a forum question and becomes a phone call to your team today. They will not think you're wasting their time. Which laxative and how much of it is also theirs to answer, not ours.

#6Helen W.(Joined Apr 2026 · 6 posts)May 3, 2026, 6:45 pm

Update, and I'll spare you the details. Took the box seriously, drank about twice as much water, and walked the hall like a sentry. Result yesterday evening and I genuinely felt like celebrating.

Also rang the ward as Haidee said, before it worked, and the nurse was completely unbothered and said they get asked about this more than about pain. So there you go. If you're reading this on day five, googling in a panic: it's the painkillers, it's normal, take the other box.