Most people think that being paralyzed just means you can't walk, but there's so
much more to it than that. Some of the worst things about having a
spinal cord injury are loss of control in your bladder and bowels. In fact, some
people who have a spinal cord injury can actually walk but still suffer from
problems with their bladder and their bowel control. A lot of the things that
people struggle with the most after a spinal cord injury and certainly the things
that Craig struggled with the most are often considered awkward or taboo
topics. And maybe it's because they're not often talked about and the
information about them isn't all that easy to come by
that people struggle with them so much. So we thought that it would be important
to discuss these topics. We've decided to make a video series where we talk about
bladder, bowels, washing, sex, ejaculation, money and anything else you can think of
that may be considered awkward. We put all of these videos into a playlist
we've made called spinal cord injury the awkward stuff. So make sure that you
subscribe to our channel and click on the bell button so you don't miss any of
these juicy videos. Last week we talked all about peeing as a paraplegic, so if
you haven't seen that video you can go and check it out, but today we're going
to be talking all about poo. Most paraplegics and quadriplegics also have
paralyzed bowels, which means they can't just sit on a toilet and squeeze a poo
out like a normal person could. So how do they go to the toilet? Well there's loads of
different ways you can use to help get the poo out and I had to try a lot of
different ways to find one that worked well for me. When Craig was first in rehab
he used a combination of glycerol suppositories along with manual
evacuation and digital stimulation. A glycerol suppository is a jelly-like
bullet shaped object which you push up your bum to help trigger a bowel
movement. So you have to sit on the toilet,
push it up there, wait about 20 minutes for your body to start working and then
after that you have the lovely job of putting on a glove, getting some
lubrication on your finger and sticking that up there as well and at this point
you have to swirl your finger around the outside wall of your bowel and this
triggers a reflex which helps any more come out. And then you have to do this a
few times until things have stopped coming basically. Craig didn't get on at
all with this method of bowel management, he used to have accidents pretty much at
least once a week, which was really really frustrating. So
quite quickly he moved on to the next method he tried which was a bisacodyl
suppository. So this type of suppository is also known as a magic bullet, it's
basically a stronger chemical than the glycerol suppository, it'll trigger a
stronger bowel movement, but it does take a lot longer to work. So at this point I
was putting it up there and having to wait about 45 minutes before then checking and
doing more stimulation to try and get anything else out. So yet again with
the bisacodyl suppository, it still wasn't really working for Craig, he was
still having pretty much the same amount of accidents as he was with the glycerol
suppository and again it was just really, really frustrating for us at that time.
It's pretty mortifying being your 20s and basically pooing yourself when you
can't control it. Fortunately, I spoke to some people in rehab and one of my
friends there told me about something called anal irrigation, which I'd never
heard of before. So anal arrogation includes enemas and it also includes the
method which I now use called the Peristeen. Anal irrigation basically just
involves washing your bowels out with water and that just brings out the poo.
Anal irrigation is a much more expensive way of managing your bowels compared to
suppositories and my doctors really didn't want to let me try it out until
I'd exhausted everything to do with suppositories. I was just so fed up of
all the accidents and everything that I really had to push hard and eventually
they caved and let me try it. And ever since then it's been a complete
game-changer, I have basically no accidents anymore. In
fact, we actually think the only time he would have an accident now is if he was
to get food poisoning or something like that that might give you diarrhea and
basically the same reasons that an able-bodied person might poo themselves.
So it's now nearly two years after my spinal cord injury and I still use the
peristeen to manage my bowels, so let's show you what it is and how it works. So
the Peristeen comes in two parts, you have a reusable bag and pump system,
which you just fill up with water when you need to go and you have this bit
here which is the bit that goes up your bum, this bit's disposable, you just screw
it on,. pump it full of a air and this stops the water coming out prematurely
and then pump water into it which flushes out your bowels.
We've got this bottle here which we've
filled with fake poo to show you how it works. So just put the catheter inside
your bum and inflate the air.
You then start pumping the water. The air is gonna
stop the water from coming out too early so that it allows everything to flush in
one go. Fill your bowels all the way up and then
when you're ready just release the air
and everything flushes out. And once you're done, you can just pop the catheter
off the end and chuck it in the bin. So it doesn't work quite as quickly as that
it actually takes about 20 to 30 minutes to flush out, but a nice thing about the
water is anything that doesn't get flushed out, it triggers your bowels to
squeeze and that'll squeeze it out. After I'm done, I still have to stick my finger
up and do a bit of a check. So that's how you get your poop out, but how do you
know when you need to go? So obviously I can't feel my bowels, so the key to
knowing when I need to go, just like with my bladder, is routine. If you're
able-bodied, you might not realize it, but most people tend to go to the toilet at
the same time every day. Before my accident, I used to go every day in the
morning. And now that I'm paralyzed, I still go in the mornings after I get up.
Another advantage of using the peristeen to manage my bowels is
because it clears so much out in one go, I only have to be do my bowel routine every
other day, so this saves me a lot of time in the bathroom. Another thing that Craig
uses to know when he needs to go to the toilet is by taking a medication called
Senna. Now Senna stimulates his bowels but it takes 8 to 12 hours to take
effect, so by taking this at the right time every evening, he can use it to time
when he'll need to go to the toilet in the morning. Another thing I have to
consider as part of my bowel management, is the consistency of my poo. If my poo is
too hard, it will get stuck in my bowels and lead me to become constipated, but if
it's too soft it may come out uncontrollably and cause me to have an
accident. You can control the consistency of your poo by having a lot of fiber in
your diet, but a lot of people with spinal cord injuries also take laxatives
or stool softeners to help with their consistency even more. We know that
bladder and bowel management can be a bit awkward to discuss and some people
are not open to discussing that, but we really
mind, so if there's anything you want to know or you have any questions then just
feel free to leave that down below and we will do our best to answer that for
you. If you found this video useful please give it a thumbs up and remember
to subscribe and click on the bell button so you don't miss any other
videos in this series. Thank you for watching, see in the next one, bye bye.