I was telling a friend recently about Anthony not having a bowel movement. She alerted me to the existence of magnesium citrate as the laxative used to clean out the colon for surgery. I mentioned it to my father the next day after I had given a ten-ounce bottle to Anthony in the morning. He confirmed that it was used for colonoscopies, saying, "Oh, that stuff will give him the squirts!"

Well, Anthony drank it at 8:30 am Saturday. I was hoping for a quick resolution, but the packaging did say it could act any time within 30 minutes to six hours from consumption and, knowing the severity of the problem, I wasn't surprised when I didn't see any progress right away. I became concerned, however, when evening approached with no change. I did not want to deal with him getting up to go to the bathroom at 1am or, worse, NOT getting up. We have dealt with that extremely unpleasant development previously. Fortunately, he started acting suspiciously around 8:30pm, so I had him sit on the toilet. By 9pm, he had finally gone. Nevertheless, it wasn't the mad free-for-all that I had feared. I expected to see more the next day, but didn't. So, I gave him the maximum dose of a stool softener, a Dulcolax generic. Nothing the day after that. Same thing again with the stool softener. Finally, three days after having the first bowel movement from the magnesium citrate, he had another last night. Again, though, he is not putting out anything approaching what I would expect. I did give him the stool softener yet again last night before his bowel movement, and I'm hoping for better results. The worry for me is that I can't be sure when enough is enough. We have had a horrible "accident" in the past when I tried with laxatives to regulate his constipation, so the last thing I want is to overdo it again.