Help. Problem with fecal incontinence and collapse

[leftyladyfrommo]

I have a friend who is just having a terrible time. Only happens every so often. But this is a typical scenario.

She is 68.

Yesterday she went to the grocery store - one of the big ones where she had to walk quite a ways to get around the store. And she had to walk a ways to get to the store from the parking lot.

She said she was fine. And then she just collapsed and lost all control of her bowels. This episode was worse than previous ones in that it took her longer to kind of come around. The store called for an ambulance and she was transported to Emergency Room. They check for bladder infection and did blood work and then sent her home.

This has happened to her several times. Sometimes she just loses control of her bowels and has to turn around and go home to get cleaned up. But other times she just kind of collapses. Usually she can make it to a bench or chair. And sometimes she just lays down there until she can make it back to her car.

Her sister also has episodes of fecal incontinence.

Has anyone heard of this problem? Any clues? Since she comes back out of it pretty quickly the doctors just get her back on her feet and send her home. But this is starting to seriously affect her life. She is getting afraid to leave the house except for very small excursions.

[LiberalLoner]

1. Maybe a neurological problem like MS? I have MS and those symptoms are

Very common, losing strength in our legs suddenly, bowel or bladder incontinence, etc.

[sinkingfeeling]

2. Could be occupational syncope. Read about it here:

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/182524.php




It is not easy to differentiate a simple fainting episode from something more serious, such as a stroke. If the patient experiences numbness in the face, paralysis, weakness, numbness in an arm, and/or slurred speech you should seek emergency medical help.

People should see their doctor if:

•Before losing consciousness there were chest pains, arrhythmia (irregular heart beat) or a pounding heartbeat (palpitations).
•Fainting resulted in an injury
•The fainting was preceded by fecal incontinence
•The fainting was preceded by urinary incontinence
•There is a history of heart disease
•They are pregnant
•They experience recurring episodes of syncope
•They have diabetes
•They were unconscious for more than a few minutes

[greatauntoftriplets]

3. She should see her primary-care physician, IMO.

[alfie]

4. Her personal doc needs to do a good work up on her

I would suspect a heart issue, but it could be neurological as well. I am a retired ER nurse, we saw lots of folks after they passed out. Most had some degree of urinary or fecal incontinence associated with it. There is also a nerve associated with the GI tract that can also effect the heart and cause a person to pass out. Lots of other reasons too.

[Warpy]

6. Welcome to DU

and congratulations on surviving the meat grinder, retired RN here, too.

Fecal incontinence, whether smearing or full on incontinence, is shockingly common in older women, usually secondary to having vaginal births years ago.

Welcome to the wonderful world of being a woman.

[Warpy]

5. This problem is shockingly common and there are treatments for it

However, the collapse is likely independent of it. A good overview is at http://www.medicinenet.com/fecal_incontinence/article.htm

It sounds like the loss of stool with collapse is secondary to the collapse.

She needs to go in to her regular physician for a complete workup, including wearing a monitor for a few days to see what her heart is doing when she collapses. There are a lot of things that can cause this, but it's necessary to know whether her heart is going too fast or too slow when it happens to her. My guess is that while full-on fainting is rare, she's not feeling too well at all at home.

Good luck to her with both problems, finding appropriate treatments so she doesn't become a shut in. There are treatment out there once they discover what's really going on.

[leftyladyfrommo]

7. I don't understand why her doctors aren't doing more.

She had weird kind of brain tumor right behind her ear - non-malignant. The whole side of her face went numb - lke having shots by a dentist.

Doctors treated it with gamma knife. It did slow down the tumor and I don't think it is growing any more. But I have to wonder what x-ray like that would do to the brain. It really affected her balance and she has to walk really carefully.

I saw her again this morning and she is up and getting around.

I have to be kind of careful around her as she can be difficult if you just give advice - she doesn't want any advice. But I can keep asking if she got ahold of her doctor.

Thanks for the ideas.

This whole thing kind of has me rattled. For one thing she has been a friend for 30 years. But also because just 5 years ago she was going gangbusters and now she can barely get around.

[Nay]

8. My DIL's grandmother had this happen -- docs were mystified for a bit, but soon found out

she had a kidney infection. Once antibiotics had been administered for a few days, she was OK. I hope that helps!

It seems like kidney or bladder infections can interfere with the nerves in the back, which also control both kinds of incontinence AND the functioning of your legs.

[leftyladyfrommo]

9. She did have that happen one time.

it was a while back - years ago. She collapsed and they found out it was from a kidney infection. They did do a urine test at the ER and it was OK.