www.incontinentsupport.org

Since being on the antibiotics (which I'm now off) I've had trouble making it to the bathroom in the morning. Luckily I haven't had any accidents during the day but I'm kinda concerned. Urinary incontinence was bad enough....

It sounds like it was the antibiotics causing the problem. Just stay away from the med from now on.

Went they were pouring the antibiotic in me through my I.V. it took a couple of weeks before my bowels straightened out. If yours don't I would give your doctor a call you, you may need some probiotics to put friendly bacteria back in your colon. I am not a doctor but that's what worked for me.

Justej,

I'm so sorry to hear of your bowel incontinence. That must be particularly embarassing, frustrating and emotionally difficult to deal with. As you say, urinary incontiennce is bad enough to deal with.. but fecal incontinence on top of that.. yikes... unfortuantely for me, i seem to also be having some issues sporadically. The other day, it seeme that my bowels seemed insistent on pushing their contents out even when i was trying to hold it back.. so i did the only thing I could do.. and sit down o nthe otilet....

By the way, if you continue to have bowel control problems, one thing that might help is something called Nullo. These are chlorophyll tablets that after a week or so eliminate or reduce bowel odor, so that you don't smell as bad if you have a bowel accident out and about. I second mjhlr;s recommendation of seeing a doctor if it doesn't improve.. Hang in there.. and take things one day at a time. Try and do things that you enjoy. Try not to let incontinence get you down..I know it's hard..but if we let this incontinence defeat us.. we miss out on life. I for one refuse to let a leaky bladder and a sometimes misbehaving bowel get in the way of living the fullest life possible.


Peace out!

Rob

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"We cannot do great things. We can only do small things with great love" Mother Teresa

"THERE ARE FOUR LIGHTS!" - Captain Picard from Chain of Command, Part II

Justej, most likely, the antibiotic has killed all of the good bacteria in your digestive system. That's what it does. I always take a pro-biotic when I take an antibiotic to get the good bacteria back into my digestive system to help. Otherwise, I will have the runs like crazy. Just the nature of the beast. So, most likely, if you are not taking a probiotic, everything will clear up once the antibiotic runs its course and it out of your system. I can say that if you are home sick with an antibiotic, it is a good thing to be wearing disposable diapers for those times that you just can't get there in time.

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"Why is the rum always gone?" - Captain Jack Sparrow

"There is no human problem which could not be solved if people would simply do as I advise." -
Gore Vidal

justej,

I have taken a maximum dose of erythromycin every day for years. I take it because it stimulates my stomach, not for its antibiotic properties. Without erythromycin I could not eat and soon would starve. However, it still causes bowel problems. The advice to use probiotics is good; however, get your doctor's permission first, just to be sure. My experience with maximum dose antibiotics is that, over time, although your body does eventually get used to them, bowel accidents will always be a problem. There is no substitute for competence in managing double incontinence. Going out of the house when you cannot know whether you will soil yourself or when becomes a gamble otherwise. And I have lost that gamble too often.

To be brutally honest with you, if you're anything like me, there's only so much effort you're going to be able to put into this until you give up and just deal with it. Keeping myself clean requires constant focus, and being very careful to not position myself in certain positions for too long. It would also require getting off my painkillers in order to be able to feel my bowels reacting quicker. In other words, using the toilet all the time would have to be my full time hobby, AND ruin my day with aches. Alternatively, I could visit the bathroom every 30 minutes, which I'd probably do if I were fully mobile.

Another option I've considered is literally just getting enemas every day. That way I'd be in control of that, but THEN I'd become dependent on doing it that way every time. I'd probably go for it, except there's a pretty good chance I'll get a lot better in the next few years. So for now, I'm sticking with just dealing with it afterwards. It's MESSED UP how used to it you can get. I mean, it's been with me intermittently all my life, but it was always at least something that I fretted over. But now, I do it without a second thought.

So I don't know if I've given you optimism, or given you worry, but I hope I've at least given you a little more perspective.

Zotch Plank,

I am double incontinent and do take daily enemas to control my fecal incontinence, with the approval of all of my doctors. You will not become dependent if you take a traditional old-fashioned "red bag" enema. I have taken more than 2,500 enemas and still will have a daily bowel movement if I delay the enema. Obviously I am not enema dependent.

A traditional saline (salt water) or soapsuds enema stimulates peristalsis in the entire colon which exercises it and prevents enema dependency. However, constant use of micro-enemas, particularly the small chemical enemas are thought to lead to enema dependency.

I have written a paper on the use of preventive enemas to control fecal incontinence that is in the Articles section of this site. You may find it at the following URL:

http://www.incontinentsupport.org/Preve ... inence.pdf

Feel free to ask any questions or to PM me for a private discussion.

--John

Justj,

We all can sympathize with your symptoms!

I'm with Msshendo about taking probiotics to help reduce the diarrhea. My doctor prescribed them for me and they helped, but did not completely eliminate the problem.

Good luck.

--John