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This has been on my mind lately because of experiences both my DH and I have had in the last two years. Perhaps guido LaMoto can shine some light on it.
DH came in contact with cat feces which caused him severe diarrhea. He was hospitalized very seriously ill for about a week. After that it took nearly six months to get his lower digestive system working properly again.
I had the same issue when I went for a colonoscopy. It was as though my digestive system had gone to sleep and wasn't going to wake up again. It took three months with a medical specialist to get straightened out again.
I started reading online and found out this was something a lot of people were complaining about. I do understand the issues associated with the modern diet but these were people who were saying they had functioned properly until they'd had a medical procedure. Then their bowels stopped functioning. Not for a short period of time, like with opioid use, but for months and more.
No medical person I've talked to relates the problem to the medical procedure. If this is true, is it possible that the breakdown of the human microbiome is causing this problem and is it on the increase?
My wife first had a sphincterotomy and then a fistula surgery respectively... did the dr get it right if the surgery took place at los angeles county hospital better known as county general? Are the drs at county general second to none whfn it comes to quality?
... did the dr get it right if the surgery took place at los angeles county hospital better known as county general? Are the drs at county general second to none whfn it comes to quality?
How would any of us know this?
I'd suspect the number of C-D members who might know anything so specific about one hospital or its doctors is very, very low. You could try doing a web search for customer satisfaction reviews of the hospital or her doctor. Be aware that the people with the most extreme opinions tend to be the ones who post reviews...both positive and negative. The vast majority of consumers who happen to end up generally satisfied don't bother. There's a trend to "weaponize" reviews these days too. What is written isn't actually a review of services received, its either personal retaliation or promotion.
Last edited by Parnassia; 06-01-2023 at 01:40 PM..
A BM is 90% excess bacteria. Those little guys have evolved the survival strategy of surving by living off the undigested food & water that makes it into our colons, as well as living in a relatively safe environment..We allow them that advantage because they help us break down all the undigested cellulose & lignin that we can't digest, and to give us Vit K and maybe some other vitamins too...They don't know where they are and just keep on replicating themselves every 20 minutes or so. The pop grows too large and we eliminate the excesss, hopefully on a regular basis.
When we have diarrhea from an infection, food we don;t tolerate well or self-inflicted in a pre-scope bowel prep, it takes a period of time for the bacterial population swept away to rebuild itself...It's just like a forest that has been clear cut-- Left alone, it will eventually return to its original state....For a forest, that can take a century. For our bowels, usually only a couple days.
When that natural ecosystem is disrupted by the introduction of a foreign, invasive species (like some bacteria that we usually don't have from a cat) that's like introducing rats to Hawaii or rabbits to Australia-- the whole ecosytsem has to adapt and come to equlibrium with the new factor added to the equation.
OTOH- I have to wonder if the two examples just listed in posts have more to do with the coincidence of the new event with the time of life when out GI tracts start to change. Changes in bowl flora are more apt to cause loose bowels rather than to tighten them up.
As someone who has chronic constipation, and has had a fissure in the past, colonoscopies, etc., I have to agree with guido 100%. Unless there are huge quantities of bright red blood, it is more startling than serious.
Probiotics do help in restoring balance, but they are double edged. Buy a small bottle. If they are going to work, that is all that is needed.
Osmotics are the safe answer to constipation that gets weird. Effectively, they force the gut to retain sufficient water so that the stool is not compacted and hard. PEG-500 (Miralax) is mild compared to the magnesium based osmotics.
After much work on figuring things out, I came up with a "miracle mix" that my doc approved of, and even my specialists considered a good solution. In this order and in the morning: 12 ounces of apple juice with peg-500 mixed in (malic acid is naturally in the apple juice along with sugars some find stimulate the bowel), a pack of instant oatmeal (mild bulking agent), 2 - 6 oz cups of coffee (stimulant, but relatively mild if only 2 tablespoons of grounds are used. If no happiness within an hour, add glasses of water until joy.
I tried psyllium a few times and it only impacted me. Senna works but is rough and can create a dependancy.
With the PEG, taking a probiotic or herb with it makes it act as a carrier, bringing the supplement to parts of the gut that might not otherwise get it.
As with anything related to the gut, all this is very much a YMMV situation.
If the constipation was occurring at essentially the same time (or within a few days) of opioid use, I'd vote for the opioids. I had a lower leg injury + surgery many years ago ... when they were pretty liberal on giving people oxycodone + oxycontin etc. As soon as I got home from hospital, I had pretty major issues in constipation dept. Almost certainly from the opioids and being bedridden too.
If the constipation was occurring at essentially the same time (or within a few days) of opioid use, I'd vote for the opioids. I had a lower leg injury + surgery many years ago ... when they were pretty liberal on giving people oxycodone + oxycontin etc. As soon as I got home from hospital, I had pretty major issues in constipation dept. Almost certainly from the opioids and being bedridden too.
My surgeon had me do what amounted to a colonoscopy purge prior to an elective surgery. The residual bowel looseness helped. I dropped the pain killer by the second day after surgery because it kept dropping my O2 sat when I was trying to sleep. They have their place, hopefully far away from me.
My wife had constipation and blood about a month after fistula surgery. We went to the hospital and the dr examined her. He said that even though she had blood and constipation it wasnt because of the surgery but rather hemorrhoids because in the examination the surgical area had healed... what are the chances that the dr could have gotten it wrong somehow, someway?
See another doctor. Not a web forum
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