Double incontinence?

carpe diem

Registered User
Nov 16, 2011
433
0
Bristol
Hi. My mum had a UTI and 2 courses of antibiotics. She then got a big painful pile and stayed in bed in pain for a week.
My sister and I live 200 miles away but as my mum lived alone we stayed at her house to help. The 1st Dr said she had diarrhoea and the 2nd Dr said she was constipated and gave her laxatives, the 3rd Dr said just carry on.
Mum was up in the night every night between 3 and 10 times. Constantly cleaning her. As we wiped her more poo comes out. Poo on the floor, her hands, her feet.
We we're already looking at care homes as mum didn't recognise her home and has been packing and leaving to go home.
Me and sister both work and can't carry on cleaning poo from 200 miles away like the GP suggested. So we moved mum into the care home nearer us.
This constant toileting problem is still going on with poo coming out again as soon as she's been cleaned. Does anyone have any advice as to whether mum might be constipated with leakage, have diarrhoea or has become double incontinent. She has worn pads for a year due to urine accidents and now wears pull up disposable pants.
She had stage one colon cancer 33 years ago but there's no sign of blood.
Sorry about the gruesome details. I've discussed it with the home and her doctor and it seems to be a case of no answers just soldier on. At least now she's in a CH its not me cleaning up, but it's terrible and I can see mum is in pain, though she doesn't complain and can't really explain the pain.
Thank you for any help or sharing of similar experiences. Carpe Diem
It was a week since she took the laxatives but it feels like a year. Might it get better soon, will the laxatives still be causing this a week later.
 
Last edited:

spbeagle

Registered User
Oct 20, 2016
26
0
Hi. My mum had a UTI and 2 courses of antibiotics. She then got a big painful pile and stayed in bed in pain for a week.
My sister and I live 200 miles away but as my mum lived alone we stayed at her house to help. The 1st Dr said she had diarrhoea and the 2nd Dr said she was constipated and gave her laxatives, the 3rd Dr said just carry on.
Mum was up in the night every night between 3 and 10 times. Constantly cleaning her. As we wiped her more poo comes out. Poo on the floor, her hands, her feet.
We we're already looking at care homes as mum didn't recognise her home and has been packing and leaving to go home.
Me and sister both work and can't carry on cleaning poo from 200 miles away like the GP suggested. So we moved mum into the care home nearer us.
This constant toileting problem is still going on with poo coming out again as soon as she's been cleaned. Does anyone have any advice as to whether mum might be constipated with leakage, have diarrhoea or has become double incontinent. She has worn pads for a year due to urine accidents and now wears pull up disposable pants.
She had stage one colon cancer 33 years ago but there's no sign of blood.
Sorry about the gruesome details. I've discussed it with the home and her doctor and it seems to be a case of no answers just soldier on. At least now she's in a CH its not me cleaning up, but it's terrible and I can see mum is in pain, though she doesn't complain and can't really explain the pain.
Thank you for any help or sharing of similar experiences. Carpe Diem
It was a week since she took the laxatives but it feels like a year. Might it get better soon, will the laxatives still be causing this a week later.


My mother has problems with her bowels and from time to time suffers from overflow leakage in which the poo does come out as you describe. Mum's GP was useless, just said that is what happens to people with dementia and would not refer her for tests. I tried a variety of laxatives, under prescription, but although some appeared to work initially, the problem kept reoccurring. After struggling with this for about 8 months she had massive rectal bleeding, 999 trip to hospital late one evening and had further bleeding the following morning which proved almost impossible to control. Eventually it stopped following numerous transfusions of blood reinforced with additional platelets to help her blood to clot - she was later transferred to a nursing care home for reablement care where she has remained pending a full CHC assessment. Hospital suspected bowel cancer but would not carry out any scans or tests on the basis that it would not be appropriate to treat cancer because of her advanced dementia. The care home have had better success with laxatives than I had but she still suffers from constipation with leakage at times and when she does she finds it very painful.
 

Rosnpton

Registered User
Mar 19, 2017
394
0
Northants
Hi
Mum is double incontinendt and now in ch.
Doesn't eat properly and gets constipated but also refuses laxatives some times.
Before ch,we could get her to 'eat' liquorice sweets when bad. We found 2-3 a day until 'went' seemed to help,and we were able to keep on top of it most of the time. Now in ch at least they deal with the consequences and accidents,and I do believe mum finds it more acceptable to be cleaned and changed by the carers rather than me.
Ros
Hi. My mum had a UTI and 2 courses of antibiotics. She then got a big painful pile and stayed in bed in pain for a week.
My sister and I live 200 miles away but as my mum lived alone we stayed at her house to help. The 1st Dr said she had diarrhoea and the 2nd Dr said she was constipated and gave her laxatives, the 3rd Dr said just carry on.
Mum was up in the night every night between 3 and 10 times. Constantly cleaning her. As we wiped her more poo comes out. Poo on the floor, her hands, her feet.
We we're already looking at care homes as mum didn't recognise her home and has been packing and leaving to go home.
Me and sister both work and can't carry on cleaning poo from 200 miles away like the GP suggested. So we moved mum into the care home nearer us.
This constant toileting problem is still going on with poo coming out again as soon as she's been cleaned. Does anyone have any advice as to whether mum might be constipated with leakage, have diarrhoea or has become double incontinent. She has worn pads for a year due to urine accidents and now wears pull up disposable pants.
She had stage one colon cancer 33 years ago but there's no sign of blood.
Sorry about the gruesome details. I've discussed it with the home and her doctor and it seems to be a case of no answers just soldier on. At least now she's in a CH its not me cleaning up, but it's terrible and I can see mum is in pain, though she doesn't complain and can't really explain the pain.
Thank you for any help or sharing of similar experiences. Carpe Diem
It was a week since she took the laxatives but it feels like a year. Might it get better soon, will the laxatives still be causing this a week later.
 

Shedrech

Registered User
Dec 15, 2012
12,649
0
UK
hi carpe diem
this does remind me of when dad was completely blocked up and only leakage got through - he had an appointment at the hospital to clear him out properly, nothing else helped so maybe ask your mum's GP about an enema
then I gave dad lots of foods high in fibre eg porridge, pineapple juice, prunes and prune juice, banana, grapes, berries (not all at once) ... with some senna tablets if he hadn't been for a couple of days ... and his care home suggested chocolate too (such a hardship!) ...
I had forgotten about licorice; adds to the variety and is a sweetie so doesn't seem like medicine
best wishes
 

carpe diem

Registered User
Nov 16, 2011
433
0
Bristol
Hi. Thank you very much for your replies. Mum will love the chocolate idea and the licorice. Mum has just gone into residential care do you think they will want to move her to nursing because of the leaky poo issue.
 

Rosnpton

Registered User
Mar 19, 2017
394
0
Northants
Will probably depend on number of occurrences.
We give the bag of liquorice to staff,telling them if she has had any that visit. That way it can be taken into consideration around laxatives etc and also, they will know if it helps or not
Ros
Hi. Thank you very much for your replies. Mum will love the chocolate idea and the licorice. Mum has just gone into residential care do you think they will want to move her to nursing because of the leaky poo issue.