Fecal Incontinence - Incontinence Message Board

GHornRRT · 01-31-2006, 07:06 PM

My 81 year old father suffers from ESRD. He has been on dialysis for 2 years. Since beginning dialysis he suffers from chronic fecal incontinence. It comes without warning. It is very embarrasing for him as he is afraid of having an accident. Stools are so loose that diapers can not contain it. He has had stool cultures all negative, colonoscopies, etc. We have been to renal doctors, gi docs, etc. no one can give us a reason or a solution. This man is becoming a recluse. My sister had ESRD and suffered with diarrhea, too. He follows his diet, takes his meds. and watches fluid intake. Immodium is useless. The dialysis center offers no ideas or solutions either. My Father is a very patient and tolerant man but diarrhea 24/7 is nasty. Any ideas?

deedee1313 · 02-01-2006, 06:31 AM

My husband is 52 and been on dialysis for a year and a half.He also suffers from this.He has to wear a diaper which doesn't always do the job.He doesn't have any legs so he can't get to a toilet in time.His medical doc nor his kidney doc seem to have any answers for him either.I hope you get some answers cause I could use some too.

feelbad · 02-02-2006, 07:03 AM

Have they considfered the possibility that this "could' be some sort of a spinal problem and not even be related to the kidney or dialysis issues at all?does he have any other actual "symptoms"?They would be pain,tingling,numbness,things like that?just a thought.when certain areas of the spine become damaged or just deteriorated over a long time,it can show itself in the way he is experincing.any sudden onset of loss of bladder and or bowel control could be possibly stemming from some sort of an issue within the spine.When someone actually has a major condition such as his,sometimes docs tend to get rather 'tunnel visioned'as well as alot of patients.this is where every little sign or symptom that happens to show up at some point just 'has" to be related to the major problem and they tend to not look at all other possibilities.It IS possible unfortunetly to have many actual seperate medical conditions all going on at the same time.I am currently living in that specific hellright now.i certainly hope they can find the real cause of his problem and be able to really do something to help him.Good luck,Marcia

darkwater · 02-03-2006, 10:14 AM

I have no personal experience with this, but know several elderly people who receive dialysis and this is a problem for all of them on occasion. I hear them speak of others they have met at their dialysis center and the problem is widespread. It is awful and depressing for them, to not have any control over this and it comes on so quickly, they don't have time to react.

If you think about this dialysis thing and what is actually happening in inside the bodies of those people with kidney failure, perhaps an answer can be found. By that I mean that dialysis not only deals with cleansing the blood of the wastes that the kidney can no longer do, but it also has to do with the balance of fluid in the body, which would include the intestinal tract. Take for instance laxatives, many of which work by putting a substance, be it a salt (epsom salts, sodium citrate, milk of magnesia, etc.) or insoluble fiber (Metamucil, etc.) into the digestive tract which attracts water into the intestine to make the fecal matter more liquid so it can move through and out of the body. Thinking along these same pathways, maybe incontinence happens because dialysis causes these large fluctuations in the amount of available body fluids that go into the digestive tract. One day, the body of a person taking dialysis is relatively "dry" and the fecal matter is dry and solid as well because fluid levels are relatively low. But then the fluid levels in the body rise and because the kidneys no longer work to keep them regulated, get dumped into the intestinal tract which makes the fecal matter get flooded with water and become diarhhea. Though, it would seem to me that with so many people with this problem, there would be some way, chemically or medically, that this could be taken care of.

I hope some answer to this problem is found. My own mother became a recluse because of urinary incontinence, so I can only imagine that a person who can't control their bowel movements must be tempted to just close the door and never come out in public again. Bless you as you try to find help for this.