My husband has had head to toe paralysis from Guillaine-Barre syndrome and what goes with it (being on a vent, being fed by a stomach tube) for three years. He lives in a rehab. hospital. The only thing he can move now are his eye lids, mouth (partially), and head (very slightly). He is able to get up in a motorized wheelchair which he controls with head movements, but often his time up in his chair is cut short because he has a bowel movement that is very loose. He doesn't want to just sit in it for hours because it causes sores. The hospital staff put him back to bed when this happens and they won't get him back up again because it takes so much effort and time. Often, they have put him back in bed, cleaned him up, lifted him back into his chair just to have the same problem again.
Recently, they pushed to use digital stimulus in the evening to try to train his bowel so that he would have movement once a day at a specific time. This sounded like a good thing to me, but he hates it. He doesn't have any loss of sensation like people do with other types of spinal cord injuries. He can feel everything and it must be miserable. They do use lubrication and some kind of local when they do it, but he still hates it. He thinks it is not effective anyway and is pushing to have them stop. They have urged him to give it a month before giving up. It has now been three weeks and the bowel doesn't seem to be trained. He wants to stop trying. Should I urge him to stay on the program. Is there much hope that this will work? He is 60 years old. He says that it sometimes seems to cause him to not be able to have a bowel movement at all?
John has had some miserable experiences with bowel treatment. Early on one male nurse stuck his whole fist up John's rectum to remove a blockage. He didn't use anything. John was screaming and cursing the whole time. When John complained to the ombudsman, the nurse claimed that he had always worked with quads who didn't have any sensation below the waist and didn't know there were quads who felt everything. You would think that the screaming and cursing would have given him a clue.
Full Version: How Long Does It Take To Train A Bowel?
Quadriplegic & Paraplegic Spinal Cord Injuries > Disabled Living & Spinal Cord Injuries > Spinal Cord Injury Health Issues > Bladder & Bowel
Im sorry I didnt read this all.. I just saw the title and had to respond;
You mean, How long does it take your bowel to train you?!
You mean, How long does it take your bowel to train you?!
QUOTE (Birdy @ Aug 8 2009, 05:10 PM) 
My husband has had head to toe paralysis from Guillaine-Barre syndrome and what goes with it (being on a vent, being fed by a stomach tube) for three years. He lives in a rehab. hospital. The only thing he can move now are his eye lids, mouth (partially), and head (very slightly). He is able to get up in a motorized wheelchair which he controls with head movements, but often his time up in his chair is cut short because he has a bowel movement that is very loose. He doesn't want to just sit in it for hours because it causes sores. The hospital staff put him back to bed when this happens and they won't get him back up again because it takes so much effort and time. Often, they have put him back in bed, cleaned him up, lifted him back into his chair just to have the same problem again.
Recently, they pushed to use digital stimulus in the evening to try to train his bowel so that he would have movement once a day at a specific time. This sounded like a good thing to me, but he hates it. He doesn't have any loss of sensation like people do with other types of spinal cord injuries. He can feel everything and it must be miserable. They do use lubrication and some kind of local when they do it, but he still hates it. He thinks it is not effective anyway and is pushing to have them stop. They have urged him to give it a month before giving up. It has now been three weeks and the bowel doesn't seem to be trained. He wants to stop trying. Should I urge him to stay on the program. Is there much hope that this will work? He is 60 years old. He says that it sometimes seems to cause him to not be able to have a bowel movement at all?
John has had some miserable experiences with bowel treatment. Early on one male nurse stuck his whole fist up John's rectum to remove a blockage. He didn't use anything. John was screaming and cursing the whole time. When John complained to the ombudsman, the nurse claimed that he had always worked with quads who didn't have any sensation below the waist and didn't know there were quads who felt everything. You would think that the screaming and cursing would have given him a clue.
Recently, they pushed to use digital stimulus in the evening to try to train his bowel so that he would have movement once a day at a specific time. This sounded like a good thing to me, but he hates it. He doesn't have any loss of sensation like people do with other types of spinal cord injuries. He can feel everything and it must be miserable. They do use lubrication and some kind of local when they do it, but he still hates it. He thinks it is not effective anyway and is pushing to have them stop. They have urged him to give it a month before giving up. It has now been three weeks and the bowel doesn't seem to be trained. He wants to stop trying. Should I urge him to stay on the program. Is there much hope that this will work? He is 60 years old. He says that it sometimes seems to cause him to not be able to have a bowel movement at all?
John has had some miserable experiences with bowel treatment. Early on one male nurse stuck his whole fist up John's rectum to remove a blockage. He didn't use anything. John was screaming and cursing the whole time. When John complained to the ombudsman, the nurse claimed that he had always worked with quads who didn't have any sensation below the waist and didn't know there were quads who felt everything. You would think that the screaming and cursing would have given him a clue.
A nurse stuck his whole fist up your husbands rectum?? That is downright torture- go above the ombudsman to the Director of the Hospital/Trust- that nurse needs struck off immediately. Two fingers at most for Digital Rectal Examination. Any more and you risk tearing the anus, which is a big problem for quads with poor circulation- the wound will not heal easily- moreso because regular DRE will just open the wound again and again.
In my experience in rehab bowels are, seemingly, a law unto themselves. You have a pattern and then, whoops, its away again and your back to square one. This can be very depressing both for patient and family. But a bowel can be trained- but the pattern needs to be worked very well and very punctually- DRE at the same time, 15 minutes either way at most, every day that it is required. The patients diet also needs to be amended to compliment the rythm of the bowel and you must remember that medication will, more often than not, affect the bowel. The less harsh meds, the better the bowel works.
Birdy- if they won't get your husband out of bed more than once in a day then you give em' hell until they do. I knew a quad back in rehab (he'd be in 18 months at that point) and he would take absoloutely no shit from any nurse or doctor- if he wanted or needed them to do something then they would bloody well do it, end of story. You must take the same attitude- if your husband wants out of bed then they need to get him out, and if he wants back in then they get him back in- that is their job and any discussion with them should end there.
Good luck with this and keep us updated,
Karl187.
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