14 replies to this topic

[saradise]

I would like to know how other people do their bowels. For the past year, I have done my husband's bowels every other day at the same time each time we do it. I have him turn on his left side in bed and I basically pull it all out until there is no more. If I am not getting much, then I put in a suppository. Well, a catscan showed the other day that he is not fully emptying. The doctor wants him to sit on a toilet and use a suppository. However, the bedisde commode that we have is really hard and leaves marks on his skin. And we have now tried twice and nothing happens. Any thoughts or suggestions??? We are trying to find a way for my husband to do this on his own too. (he's a paraplegic)

[jpbear0]

saradise, on Feb 21 2010, 10:05 PM, said:

I would like to know how other people do their bowels. For the past year, I have done my husband's bowels every other day at the same time each time we do it. I have him turn on his left side in bed and I basically pull it all out until there is no more. If I am not getting much, then I put in a suppository. Well, a catscan showed the other day that he is not fully emptying. The doctor wants him to sit on a toilet and use a suppository. However, the bedisde commode that we have is really hard and leaves marks on his skin. And we have now tried twice and nothing happens. Any thoughts or suggestions??? We are trying to find a way for my husband to do this on his own too. (he's a paraplegic)

Hi, I am a big guy and eat plenty of food, keep my fiber up, stay away from junk food and fast food. i Find they bind me up, bread, potatoas also do the same. I am a t-12 para complete and 17 y/o. I dont use suppositories due to my bowels being flacid. You should find out if thats why the suppositories arent working. More physical activity will get the bowels moving, working out or spinnin around. Getting himself onto a commode chair first thing after waking up or at the end of the day, whenever you do it, will get his body working and gravity will work its magic aswell. Good luck!

[Karl187]

saradise, on Feb 21 2010, 10:05 PM, said:

I would like to know how other people do their bowels. For the past year, I have done my husband's bowels every other day at the same time each time we do it. I have him turn on his left side in bed and I basically pull it all out until there is no more. If I am not getting much, then I put in a suppository. Well, a catscan showed the other day that he is not fully emptying. The doctor wants him to sit on a toilet and use a suppository. However, the bedisde commode that we have is really hard and leaves marks on his skin. And we have now tried twice and nothing happens. Any thoughts or suggestions??? We are trying to find a way for my husband to do this on his own too. (he's a paraplegic)

If he can get into a standing frame, that might help the bowels to go. Plenty of water, and maybe natural fibre like kiwis would be worth a try. Perhaps another type of suppository aswell. Good luck.

[Tetracyclone]

Get a padded toilet seat. I also have to do a lot of belly massage and moving my torso in a circle, hoola hoop style, to get things working. he has gotten used to not doing anything about it and will havee to change his mind frame.

Edited by Tetracyclone, 22 February 2010 - 01:19 PM.

[vik]

Hi,

I'm a T11 para here. I've been paralyzed since July 06. It is imperative being a para that your husband becomes as independent as possible. He needs to do his own bowel care. It took me about 8 months before i started doing it on my own. You definitely need to get a shower commode wheelchair. This is the one i use: http://www.amazon.co...r/dp/B0003039WS. Check that out or anything similar to this. It is padded so you dont have to worry about the hard surfaces, and it folds. The seat can be used in any direction, i usually put it so that the opening is facing my left side, that way i can use that opening to easily reach under and do the deed. My bowel takes me an hour, you put a suppository in and then every 15 min you do a couple of minutes of digital stimulation. By him doing his own bowel program, he will be able to understand his body a little better and he will learn how to do his bowel more efficiently. When others were doing my bowel I had issues going complete also. I personally do my bowel everyday, i know its fine to do it every other day, I just dont feel clean when I dont go everyday. If you haven't already look into hand controls for driving also, the ability to drive and have that independence is amazing. Hope this helps.

[mcferguson]

My bowel routine is every other day at 6-7am on a commode chair. I stimulate as soon as I get on there to get out as much as I can at first, then I put in a suppository. I wait for that to work and then I stimulate after 20 minutes and then wait another 20 minutes before I stimulate the last time. Some days I get stuff out all three times, other days I only get stuff out the first time, some days only the first and second, and other days the first and third. I did my routine every day for the first 10 months I was home before switching to ever other day. It took my body about a week adjust and now its working well. I have also gotten much cleaner at it with time. I was on a lot of stool softeners (colace once a day, miralax full cup twice a day, and dulcolax twice a day) when I was discharged and I have learned that my body doesn't need that much. I am cutting back and now I use colace twice a day and a 1/2 cup of miralax the night before my routine.

hope this helps.

[K-aradiamoon]

Hi. I am a t-1 paraplegic. I use a mini enema everynight for bowel use and it works very well, remember you eat 3 or more times a day so you need to poop at least 1 time every day. so ask your doctor for a prescription for "enemeez". if he doesnt go for more than a couple days you should have him drink a bottle of magnesium citrate (over the counter) and this will really get him going!! but it works great and i feel better after i finally go. ggod luck!

saradise, on Feb 21 2010, 11:05 PM, said:

I would like to know how other people do their bowels. For the past year, I have done my husband's bowels every other day at the same time each time we do it. I have him turn on his left side in bed and I basically pull it all out until there is no more. If I am not getting much, then I put in a suppository. Well, a catscan showed the other day that he is not fully emptying. The doctor wants him to sit on a toilet and use a suppository. However, the bedisde commode that we have is really hard and leaves marks on his skin. And we have now tried twice and nothing happens. Any thoughts or suggestions??? We are trying to find a way for my husband to do this on his own too. (he's a paraplegic)

[Tetracyclone]

You do not mention what other limitations your husband may have, so it is difficult to answer, but for him to need help with his bowel program there must be some. I have a bedside commode with a padded seat. Can you find a padded seat for yours?

Can he learn to put in the suppository himself?

It must be very hard on his self-respect to have you doing all this for him. Luck to you both.

Edited by Tetracyclone, 14 March 2010 - 02:00 AM.

[mellowgator]

saradise, on Feb 21 2010, 11:05 PM, said:

I would like to know how other people do their bowels. For the past year, I have done my husband's bowels every other day at the same time each time we do it. I have him turn on his left side in bed and I basically pull it all out until there is no more. If I am not getting much, then I put in a suppository. Well, a catscan showed the other day that he is not fully emptying. The doctor wants him to sit on a toilet and use a suppository. However, the bedisde commode that we have is really hard and leaves marks on his skin. And we have now tried twice and nothing happens. Any thoughts or suggestions??? We are trying to find a way for my husband to do this on his own too. (he's a paraplegic)

i am a quad. when i first was injured the nurses did my bowels the way you are discribing while i was in bed. i hated having to feel poop on my back and having to be so close to it. i don't know how your is set up is, but i use a shower w-c. it has a hole in the seat. what i do is get in my chair and roll over the toilet and dilly and get anything down i can and then i use enemeez.( there was a time that i used a suppository, but who has a hour to wait not me). i put in the ampule and then i get in my shower and wash and then i roll back over the toilet and finish. it takes me 10 minutes. i go every 2nd day and i think the gravity helps.

you need a padded seat on your bed side toilet and use enemeez so he doesn't have to sit there long. and use the ampule each time just getting the bottom stuff out isn't enough, there's alot that hasn't come down yet.

i like these other posters don't get why a para doesn't do his own bowels.

Edited by mellowgator, 14 March 2010 - 02:43 AM.

[E-DOG]

Can you spell C O L O S T O M Y ?

I sure as shit can. I have about 3 years seated and I'm so ding-dang-diddly-dag-gummed fed up with dealing with that which is excavated from my rectum by force or capriciously dances it's way out of it laughing all the way to my pants. Where it backs up, creates a mound the size of a '63 Cadillac, and then let's it's self be known to all within a 50 yard radius by creating this horrific stench not even Mother Theresa could keep from commenting about.

Oh, but I'm not BITTER! No, not me. Been havin' BIG FUN with the bowel care thing since the very beginning yes-sir-ree-bob. BIG FUN!

But I think I've had enough fun. Oh yeah. Fun's fun, but now I'm done. Two hours EVERY DAY. And if it decides to play peek a boo in the morning and act recalcitrant, then later that day day, tee hee, it'll make it's presents known to all mankind at the most INOPPORTUNE TIME. Because that's what incontinence is all about sports fans. Making YOU, the tragic recipient of a SCI look stupid. Apparently relegated to a frigging wheelchair for the rest of yer life ain't enough! NOOOOOO! For some odd reason I need to smell like FECES as I roll down the frozen french fry isle at the supermarket.

Nope. Had enough. Gettin' me a bag I can crap in. Tape it to my chest for all to see. Maybe I'll get a nice green one. Or powder blue. Who knows. Maybe one for every day of the week! One fer church. One fer goin' out to dinner with momma. A little one fer poker night. A great big one fer when I go visit stillfingers (he's so full o' shit sometimes) Oh, it'll be such fun!

And fingers probing my ass like I was abducted by aliens will be a thing of the past.

E-dog

[StillFingers]

Mr. E-DOG is correct, I am full of it, however a one-colour-for-each-day-of-the-week bag of hanging off any part of my body, if not absolutely necessary, is simply INSANE...and 3 uncomfortable years of incontinence I mean really dawg, you told me you luv giving and getting the FINGER

Ya know, try 3 decades like myself, 4 decades like Nomis or say 5 decades like Sir Scribbler and or the other longtime cripples on this site. Hell add together our collective years of digi-stim, suppositories, enemas, machines that blow stuff up your behind to get your out, and you have a few centuries of coping. So buck up cowboyz and cowgirlsz, do all you can do before you ever think of going under the knife.

As for my routine, I vary it between 2 or three days per week depending on my schedule and if I've consumed to much FOOD. My routine is done at night, laying on my left side, using digi-stim and suppositories; magic bullets in my case. I study, surf the web and relax on these nights, it's part of my life routine now. You need to experiment a bit, everyone is different, find a routine, pattern, that works for you and stick to it. Include your diet in this routine, eat a banana to plug yourself up...so you don't take a dump unexpectedly. And, note I had a colonoscopy back in late 08, after thirty plus years of using magic bullets my colon is still pretty n pink...so my doctor says.

Is my routine FOOL proof, nope. Do I on occasion perfume a room with a lovely fecal aroma, yep. Is it inconvenient, damn right it is...for everyone. But it's not that often that I my pants and most folks remember it's part of this SCI dance, CAUSE WE'RE PARALYZED.

I know it's not fun having to deal with all the SCI BS that permeates our lives, but we are alive folks and the alternative, for me at least, is unknown, so I'm just enjoying the ride.

Hope you all evacuate well, if anyone wants/needs to chat further about my routine, just message me or chat me up in the chat room...

Jerry

Edited by StillFingers, 14 March 2010 - 04:45 PM.

[Tetracyclone]

Reminder that our bodies are quite varied. year one i had frequent accidents. Year two there have been no more than 5. Digistim does not work for me anymore- rotating my torso and abdominal massage do.

I rotate every laxative known to man through my diet carefully, and use the magic bullet. I am usually done in 30 or 40 minutes, get some reading done, and get washed up because my sink is within reach of the commode.

For now, my BP is not a huge deal, and is dependable. What is wretched for me is on days when little comes out my body gets very tense and spastic and it can be difficult to move around.

[KeepTheFaith]

They do make a RoHo cushions for commodes: http://www.therohost...n__SEATCMD.aspx

[Ratticis]

Don't think ostomy prevents the "shit everywhere, smell like an idiot" thing. Hell, I'm scared to move most of the time and am never sure what the morning brings

[mellowgator]

E-DOG, on Mar 14 2010, 07:21 AM, said:

Can you spell C O L O S T O M Y ?

I sure as shit can. I have about 3 years seated and I'm so ding-dang-diddly-dag-gummed fed up with dealing with that which is excavated from my rectum by force or capriciously dances it's way out of it laughing all the way to my pants. Where it backs up, creates a mound the size of a '63 Cadillac, and then let's it's self be known to all within a 50 yard radius by creating this horrific stench not even Mother Theresa could keep from commenting about.

Oh, but I'm not BITTER! No, not me. Been havin' BIG FUN with the bowel care thing since the very beginning yes-sir-ree-bob. BIG FUN!

But I think I've had enough fun. Oh yeah. Fun's fun, but now I'm done. Two hours EVERY DAY. And if it decides to play peek a boo in the morning and act recalcitrant, then later that day day, tee hee, it'll make it's presents known to all mankind at the most INOPPORTUNE TIME. Because that's what incontinence is all about sports fans. Making YOU, the tragic recipient of a SCI look stupid. Apparently relegated to a frigging wheelchair for the rest of yer life ain't enough! NOOOOOO! For some odd reason I need to smell like FECES as I roll down the frozen french fry isle at the supermarket.

Nope. Had enough. Gettin' me a bag I can crap in. Tape it to my chest for all to see. Maybe I'll get a nice green one. Or powder blue. Who knows. Maybe one for every day of the week! One fer church. One fer goin' out to dinner with momma. A little one fer poker night. A great big one fer when I go visit stillfingers (he's so full o' shit sometimes) Oh, it'll be such fun!

And fingers probing my ass like I was abducted by aliens will be a thing of the past.

E-dog

e-dog,
before you go to such lenths as to get a colostomy bag please try enemeez. it really works fast and no accidents/ i know pooping yourself in the frozen fish stick isle bites, but try one last thing before you go there. the enemeez people are giving away free samples. it's quick and i don't have an accident unless i take an anti-biotic then i just take an imodian.