Cronic severe constipation on 87 y/o woman

My mother is 87 years old and other than her cronic (chronic) constipation she is doing great. She is never sick and does not have any health issues. She has been constipated most of her adult life or around 40 years. She took different approaches including using laxatives. She has been to the doctor and have test performed. Nothing there. Last time I took her to a Dr. his opinion was that the muscle on my mother's intestines? was lazy due to the years of laxatives etc. He sugested that she did not use more laxatives (correctol etc) so she has been using something else. She has been managing with Cascara sagrada, prunelax, and something called Moderan (she buys it in Venezuela) but right now nothing seems to work so after 5 days of almost no bowel movement she is taking milk of magnesia last night and today. Unfortunately she is visiting me in Fl coming from South America and she does not have insurance here. I am on my way to buy an enema but I was wandering what else to do. She does not have cramping, or vomiting at all. Mostly she is concern and starting to be nervous for not been able to have a BM. If someone could help me to figure out what to do, I really appreciated. NEED HELP!


This discussion is related to Severe Constipation in Elderly Woman.

[ggreg]

On the health insurance thing, you could take her to the county health department, they accept people without insurance on a walk-in basis at low cost, she can be seen the same day by a physician, if she has any serious problems whilst visiting you.

I have heard of the abdominal muscles not working very well in some people, and thus the constipation.  What the cure is, I do not know, and I'm not sure what the term for it is, but if you can locate a website online for people who have this problem, you may find a permanent solution.  But it is true that people who overuse laxatives can become dependent on them, so the doctor's suggestion to stop laxatives is a good one.  She should practice strenghtening her tummy muscles by holding them in very tightly several times a day, and within about ten days, that should hopefully help her bowels move better by themselves.

In the meantime, yes, enemas can help a stopped-up bowel.  Another thing that helps is "Baby Lax," which you buy in the drugstore, it's a little box of ointment tubes, you squirt two in the bottom, and it causes the abdominal muscles to push very hard, and usually waste will ease out in minutes.  The lubricant in the stuff allows even large and hard waste to come out with less discomfort.  You can repeat until things feel more normal to her.  She can also get clear plastic gloves from the pharmacy, and get some PLAIN KY jelly on the gloved fingers, and she can carefully dig out some, until more moves down its place, and so forth.  But the Baby Lax ought to do the trick all by itself.

Once she gets cleared out, the best way to encourage good bowel movements is three things:  Drink enough water, eat enough fiber foods, and exercise regularly.  Also, introducing probiotics to the digestive tract helps break down waste, which includes drinking Acidophilus milk or eating Activia yogurt for two weeks.  Also, if she feels the urge to go at a regular time each day, then if she would drink a half cup of coffee about a half-hour before she would like to go, that encourages bowel movements.

This is just general information from my own experience.  But she has been sick for so long, and she is getting up in years, that while a doc said for her to stop laxatives, this is not enough directives or treatment for her.  It could very well be she needs to go to the ER, which the hospital will bill you and you'll have to make payment arrangements, and the docs and nurses there will take into account her age and likely go ahead and take care of the situation, and therefore in some manner get all the waste out for her, perhaps give her a diet she should follow for a while, and maybe even admit her for a night for observation and give her I.V. fluids and nutrients.  Hope this helps.