Recently, I've been battling constipation. Yesterday my weekend caregiver gave me some Metamucil to drink, but he didn't stir it enough. I started to drink it, and I got halfway through the glass, and I noticed that it was getting harder and harder in my throat. Eventually, it stopped moving altogether, and was stuck as a hard mass in my throat. I totally panicked, as I was afraid that it was going to be permanently stuck, and I would choke. Quickly, I had three more glasses of regular water, and that was at least enough to keep me from choking, but a hard plug of the stuff was stuck in my throat for the rest of the day! I can even still feel it a little bit today. Metamucil works great, but if you have difficulty swallowing, or you can drink quickly enough, drinking Metamucil can be an absolutely terrifying experience! This isn't the first time when I felt like I might die just trying to get the stuff down my throat! I have decided that Metamucil is not for me. If you drink it, you have to have it with at least an 8 ounce glass of water, and only put in 1 teaspoon. One time, one of my caregivers put in an entire tablespoon of the stuff, and it was much too thick. The other problem with Metamucil is that you have to stir it a great deal, and drink it very quickly after that because the moment you stop stirring it, it starts to solidify into a hard mass that's extremely fibrous.
Do you know of any other kind of fiber, or laxative that functions like Metamucil, but you don't need to be able to drink it within several seconds in order to keep from choking on it? What kinds of things do you like to drink or eat when you are constipated? What works for you?