10,000+ hip and knee surgery patients are going again — gently, and without laxatives.

Eleanor had been putting off her hip replacement for almost three years. By the time she scheduled the surgery, she could barely walk to her mailbox. The procedure itself went perfectly. The recovery did not.

"Within a week of coming home, the oxycodone had completely shut down my digestive system. I went five days without being able to go to the bathroom. The Colace they sent me home with did nothing. The Miralax I added did nothing. I was sitting on the toilet at 4 AM crying because I was scared to push — I'd just had my hip rebuilt, and every time I strained, I felt like the joint was about to come apart."

Eleanor found Psyllia after spending hours reading patient forums in the middle of the night. She ordered it overnight, took her first dose the next morning, and had her first normal bowel movement two days later.

"I sat there on the toilet and cried again. But this time it was relief. I'm 64 years old and I cried because my body did something that used to be automatic. That's how broken it had gotten. Psyllia gave me my recovery back. I'm in my garden again. I'm walking without a cane. I keep two bottles in the house at all times now."

Robert spent most of his life as a high school football coach. He'd been managing knee pain for over a decade before finally agreeing to a replacement. The surgery went exactly as planned. What happened next, he wasn't prepared for.

"By day six post-op I hadn't gone to the bathroom in eight days. The pain in my abdomen was worse than the pain in my knee. I was bloated to the point I couldn't get my pants on. I called my surgeon's office and the nurse told me to take more Miralax. I told her I'd been taking it for five days and it wasn't doing anything. She said to give it more time. I almost drove myself to the ER that night."

The next morning, Robert called his pharmacist before going to the hospital. The pharmacist asked him what he was taking, listened, and told him the Miralax wasn't going to work for what was happening — and recommended Psyllia.

"He explained that the opioids were shutting down the muscle contractions in my colon. The Miralax just adds water but doesn't make anything move. I drove straight to my Walgreens, ordered Psyllia for overnight delivery from my phone, took it the next morning. By that afternoon I was finally regular. I should have been told about this at discharge. Every man going home from a joint replacement should have a bottle of this on his nightstand."

Susan had both knees replaced at the same time — a "double" — at the recommendation of her surgeon. She knew the recovery would be intense. She didn't know it would be derailed by something that had nothing to do with her knees.

"By day four I was constipated and miserable. I couldn't even focus on my physical therapy because the bloating and pressure were unbearable. The pain medication was helping my knees but it was wrecking the rest of me. I tried everything they sent me home with. None of it worked."

Her friend Margaret from church came by to drop off a casserole and noticed Susan was barely moving. When Susan finally admitted what was wrong, Margaret pulled a half-used bottle of Psyllia out of her purse.

"Margaret had her hip done last spring and said this was the only thing that worked for her. I took two capsules that night. The next morning I had the first real bowel movement I'd had since the surgery. I cried at the kitchen table. I'm 67 years old. Margaret saved my recovery, and Psyllia is the reason I made my PT appointments every week after that. I would not have completed my recovery without it."