The other day I was having a conversation with a patient. He was in his sixties and in the hospital due to a recent bout with pneumonia. He was a walkie-talkie but he was distressed because it had been 5 days since his last bowel movement.
As any nurse can tell you older patients depend on those daily bowel movements and to miss a day is a HUGE deal to an elderly person. The older generation are fixated on the timing and number of bowel movements and they discuss their movements with everyone they come in contact with..
So I spoke to my patient about the options relating to his lack of movement. The man told me he has a problem "taking a shit" anywhere but in his own home. He told me that when he and his wife were first married he would leave his house and drive to his mother's home to take a dump! He said it was a couple of years before he could move his bowels in the house with his wife present.
By this time I am fascinated! I am asking, "why could you not take a dump with your wife in the house?" He said, "because I didn't want her to know I did nasty things like that."
Wow! Now she took many dumps in the house, but for some reason he wanted to present the image that his bowels simple absorbed all that waste.
So, later in the shift I gave the man prune juice, coffee, mag. citrate and nothing would work. I suggested he sit on the toilet and give it the old college try. But no dice!
I had an order for an enema, but as you can imagine....a man that will not poo outside his own home is not about to allow a dude to administer an enema.
My shift was cut short as I had to float to another floor, but I wonder is that patient ever found relief. Lord help the pipes when he finally does!
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