Found this article that was prepared by Stoke Mandeville Hospital- The hospital's National Spinal Injuries Centre is one of the largest specialist spinal units in the world. The article offers very useful and detailed explanation on how to effectively manage your bowels post injury.....
That 24 page document on stool management is absolutely excellent. I have a few comments though.
When I was in rehab they did not show me or explain the real benefits of massaging the abdomen. Does one do that themselves or does somebody else do it for you when you're a paraplegic? I find I tense my abdomen when I try to push down. Does anybody have any tricks or a video?
When I was in rehab I would often have colleagues from work show up and bring supper and we would chat until I had to go get my bowel treatment, and I found an acronym for that whole bowel reeducation process in the evenings. Which ever RN or LPN who was in charge of doing my bowel treatments activity I would call them B.E.R.T. Even today if I'm on the phone with my cousin or texting her I will say that I have to let her go and go do B.E.R.T.'s job.
Living in Quebec, the employees were French speaking so they wouldn't know I was talking about them and around my colleagues ( who are all RN's or know enough about the field) also less embarrassing than to go say I have to go have a crap. :-)
Hey sherry, my nurses have told me that massaging the abdomen does help but I don't really do that. I think it should be fine to do it on yourself, I can't imagine why it'd be different
B.E.R.T huh, I like it! I'm surprised the staff didn't know English, I guess in a way that's a good thing
Your welcome wavewolf... I do have a video here sherry that may be of some help. Its worth a watch, my continence nurse actually showed me how to massage but its difficult to explain.
We do have an continence nurse who has offered to help with any questions/advice for forum members and i think it will great to get some input from her.
I will send her this video link also to get clarification and opinion on the technique shown in this video.
The lady who is presenting the video and demonstrating has written books on bowel issues..but this isnt a special SCI related video so advice will be useful.
Yes Lαrα great video, she explains very clearly. I should give it a try but I almost always do BERTS job in bed, especially that I do it twice a day, every day. Once I got home from rehab I didn't get my RAZZ chair for eight months so I really got used to the bed. When I transferred onto the extension on the toilet, my right leg would always want to fall into the slit or opening on the side, not to mention the mess it makes with splashing and everything. At the rehab we didn't have to worry about that there were cleaning ladies.
Found this article that was prepared by Stoke Mandeville Hospital- The hospital's National Spinal Injuries Centre is one of the largest specialist spinal units in the world. The article offers very useful and detailed explanation on how to effectively manage your bowels post injury.....