4 replies to this topic

[wheels1974]

I have been a C4 Quad for almost 19 years now. For some reason my bowel routine has changed dramatically and it is really starting to control my life and get me down because I can't make plans to do anything. After my accident, I always opened my bowels every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 8am. Unfortunately the past year or so I am opening my bowels between 8pm & 11pm on different days, there is no pattern at ALL. I am also doing my bowel care every second day now. Can anyone please HELP give me advice on how I can get my bowel routine back to 8am in the morning. I am now trying to take my laxatives at 6pm which are 5 senakot, 2 coloxyl and a spoon of normacol and my stools are still firm some days. (HAS THIS HAPPENED TO ANYONE ELSE)

[Simon]

Hi
I've been c4 quad for 23 yrs now. Bowels always every other day in the morning using 1 bisocodyl, no probs and no laxatives either. Then had an issue, when my wife had to go back to nursing and shift work. Because we had to try to do bowels earlier than about 8.30am nearer 6am everything went screwy.
Nothing would happen, then once in chair dressed etc, bingo it all came away, lovely mess.
After looking at diet etc we narrowed it to the suppos. Apparently, bisocodyl's and similar set up bowel irritation when used long term, the time change was too much for the bowel and it reacted. It took over 2 years to isolate this down but after switching to glycerine suppo instead and patiently retraining the bowel to 8.30 ish its all back to normal. What you must remember is laxatives totally mess the bowel up, its a muscle and using laxatives stops the bowel muscle working and it looses its muscle tone and the ability to push it out itself after a little stimulation.
So if you want to get back to Mon, Wed, Fri, morning switch the suppos to glycerine, its no big deal if you have a poor result, it will probably come away next time, be patient.
Good luck
Simon

[gsp23]

Simon, on Oct 17 2006, 07:18 AM, said:

Hi
I've been c4 quad for 23 yrs now. Bowels always every other day in the morning using 1 bisocodyl, no probs and no laxatives either. Then had an issue, when my wife had to go back to nursing and shift work. Because we had to try to do bowels earlier than about 8.30am nearer 6am everything went screwy.
Nothing would happen, then once in chair dressed etc, bingo it all came away, lovely mess.
After looking at diet etc we narrowed it to the suppos. Apparently, bisocodyl's and similar set up bowel irritation when used long term, the time change was too much for the bowel and it reacted. It took over 2 years to isolate this down but after switching to glycerine suppo instead and patiently retraining the bowel to 8.30 ish its all back to normal. What you must remember is laxatives totally mess the bowel up, its a muscle and using laxatives stops the bowel muscle working and it looses its muscle tone and the ability to push it out itself after a little stimulation.
So if you want to get back to Mon, Wed, Fri, morning switch the suppos to glycerine, its no big deal if you have a poor result, it will probably come away next time, be patient.
Good luck
Simon

Great post, thank you very much for that information. I recently have had issues as well and am using bisocodyls so this is some great information. I will give glycerine a try and hopefully that will help my situation as well.

[wheels1974]

aantiix, on Oct 18 2006, 01:36 PM, said:

Simon, on Oct 17 2006, 07:18 AM, said:

Hi
I've been c4 quad for 23 yrs now. Bowels always every other day in the morning using 1 bisocodyl, no probs and no laxatives either. Then had an issue, when my wife had to go back to nursing and shift work. Because we had to try to do bowels earlier than about 8.30am nearer 6am everything went screwy.
Nothing would happen, then once in chair dressed etc, bingo it all came away, lovely mess.
After looking at diet etc we narrowed it to the suppos. Apparently, bisocodyl's and similar set up bowel irritation when used long term, the time change was too much for the bowel and it reacted. It took over 2 years to isolate this down but after switching to glycerine suppo instead and patiently retraining the bowel to 8.30 ish its all back to normal. What you must remember is laxatives totally mess the bowel up, its a muscle and using laxatives stops the bowel muscle working and it looses its muscle tone and the ability to push it out itself after a little stimulation.
So if you want to get back to Mon, Wed, Fri, morning switch the suppos to glycerine, its no big deal if you have a poor result, it will probably come away next time, be patient.
Good luck
Simon

Great post, thank you very much for that information. I recently have had issues as well and am using bisocodyls so this is some great information. I will give glycerine a try and hopefully that will help my situation as well.

Simon,
Thanks for that mate. I can understand your situation because its only a 2 and a half hour time difference. I always done my bowel care at 8am (morning) and I am still continuing to open my bowels at 8am (morning) but the past year im going 12+ hours later between 9pm (night) and 11pm (night) So these laxatives are taking 24 + hours to work. I forgot to mention I also use a microlax to start me off. I used to use glycerine supps years ago and changed because a nurse said microlax work faster. I will try going back to the glycerine now, ive tried everything else. I cannot understand why my bowels have gone from 8am (morning) to now going between 9pm/11pm (evening) this is what's puzzling me so much.

[Simon]

Yes Microlax do work faster - why? They have a stimulant in which is essentially a bowel irritant, bad news long term.
Be warned it will take patience to go back to glycerine, initially it'll be slower and may not work some days but give it a few months. In my case at least I wasn't emptying my bowels sat in my chair, clothed!
You could start with 2 glycerines, then go down to 1.