This is a follow on to my liquid poop thread. The good news is there is no more liquid poop. The bad news is that it's been replaced by a continuous solid poop. It's been going on for about 36 hours now. Where is it all coming from? She's still on a basically liquid diet. It's averaging about an inch of output an hour.
I think the problem is that her external anal sphincter is too lax. So it's classic fecal incontinence. Invasive things like surgery and implants are not an option. I live in the US and anal plugs are not approved for use here. I can't communicate to her how to exercise and strengthen the pelvic floor muscles. So that leaves medication as the only treatment option. Other than loperamide hcl and topical phenylephrine gel to improve sphincter tone, is there anything else that can be done? Or is cleaning up an endless poop the only option? How do people deal with fecal incontinence?
My mom had slow transit constipation (my diagnosis), things would back up for days and days and by day 7 I'd be ready to do anything to see some movement, I seriously thought one day she would die from a massive impaction. The thing is it never really bothered her, my efforts to get things moving probably caused her a lot more discomfort. And all the fussing I had been doing wasn't continued by the NH, and she seemed none the worse for it.
My comment about the liquid diet is in regards to the current output. She's been on a pretty much liquid diet for closing in on 2 weeks. Where's all this current mass coming from? Unlike something that's been backed up for 2 weeks, it's not rock hard but is pretty mushy. Like firm mash potatoes. So it can't have been in her intestines for very long or the water would have been drawn out. She's not eating much solid food. So where is all the poop coming from?