Hi Joe, although we agree on everything this is one thing I’m gonna take a side route on - the Celebrex, indeed can cause stomach and gastrointestinal problems. However it is for a different reason. Those of us who are lactose intolerant are going to get stomach aches, cramps, and the rest because there’s lactose and Celebrex and all of its varieties because medicine is made so cheaply. The best bet is to take a Lactaid tablet at the same time you take a Celebrex if you’re going to do that. I rarely take Celebrex anymore after taking it for 20 years because it’s not a great medicine. I only take it before and after surgeries as the surgeon recommends once I found that I had gout and could take allopurinol to keep my uric acid levels in line. I abandoned the Celebrex entirely because the pain that I was experiencing came from excess product production of uric acid.
Regarding constipation, found that I completely stop going after general anesthesia. It isn’t a pleasant experience, but that’s what every surgery brings me 14 days of worrying about “ the go.”
I found that low-dose opioids which I’ve taken for 25 years your body adjust to, and there’s no constipation issue if you drink plenty of water or fluids. That is core to this whole thing drinking plenty of fluids and eating a good diet of the right kind of fibers There are wrong fibers which can also give you stomach aches if you have IBS. For example, I can’t digest insulin which a lot of people can’t when they get to be 60 but they don’t know the word and they don’t know what products it’s in. It is non-soluble fiber found in celery, strings and kale. There’s a whole list of things that come up the works of your gastrointestinal track and are not really recognized by gastroenterologist. Gastroenterologist deal with physical problems of the gastrointestinal system not with dietary issues that come in to play. So eating the right kind of fiber which are complex carbohydrates And avoiding inulin and drinking plenty of water keep us regular. And of course, staying active to keep your body moving things along I suggest seeing a dietitian or a nutritionist and understanding our body type and many possible issues that come in to play as well as managing our medicines. I do not advocate taking any NSA IDs, besides Tylenol. There are so many bad side effects to your body that you can have more withdrawals off of NSAIDs like Motrin, ibuprofen, and internally taken Celebrex Voltaren diclofenac, and the rest it’s just not worth it. Your body adjust to a little low-dose opioid after a while. Most people old people don’t drink enough fluids over the course of the day. Some older people end up getting fecal matter building up in their lower intestines and it hardens and also reduces the pathway for fecal matter to exit and if things are really bad, they should go to their doctor and have that checked out. I know several older people that this has happened to and people shouldn’t delay if it gets so bad that they are totally backed up for long periods of time after they’ve tried to change their habits.