I just posted this in my review, but I decided it's such an important thing to share, I thought I'd start a discussion in hopes of more people seeing it! The constipation is unavoidable as far as I can tell because of the anesthesia. My discharge paperwork says that it actually dries out the stool. Some say the pain killers will also cause this to happen. I did not have any pain whatsoever with my tummy tuck so I never took any pain meds..I had to blame it all on anesthesia! I'm quite sure that this was the worst part of recovery! The drains sucked, but they didn't compare to the misery felt by not being able to get any relief! I was taking Colace 2x daily for a whole week pre OP, then every day post op 2 in the morning and 2 at night. I was not having any luck. I was eating prunes, apples, applesauce ... and drinking TONS (over a gallon a day) of water. Nothing was getting me moving and I was miserable. A good friend suggest I sit my butt on a heating pad!!!! OMG!!!! It was MAGICAL!!! It felt amazing for starters!!!!! It was like the best massage I could possibly imagine. I felt like I was in heaven for 20 minutes sitting on that heat. Things were stirring in there, I could feel things happening and after 20 minutes, I was able to FINALLY get some relief. I had all but tears of joy ... It was really quite traumatic to not be able to go for days...... the heating pad thing? WOW who knew? I certainly would never have thought about such a thing but WOW it does work! I know some people are lucky and don't have such a hard time after surgery and might not get to the point that I did, but I'm sure I was not alone in my misery! I've shared this amazing tip with all of my friends and especially anyone with little kids who suffer. It's quite spectacular a solution and I hope to share it with anyone who might be suffering!!!! Those first few days post op are ROUGH!!! Good luck!!!!!!!