Help with Fecal Impaction

[NPwant2B, BSN]

Hi! I am a registered nurse, but am not experienced with this problem. My mom is the patient. She is in the hospital for pneumonia and some other things, and hasn’t had an actual bowel movement in 8 days. She has had a laxative every day and as much fluid as she can tolerate. Yesterday, she started to have a bowel movement, but she is so constipated that the walnut sized hard prices are just stuck half in and half out. As you can imagine, this is very painful. She is fully bedbound. I was able to manually extract a couple of “balls,” but her orifice is just stuck stretched open. The nurses are obviously concentrated on the more critical issues with her respiratory situation, but any advice on how to help get her some relief from the impaction. They do not want to do an enema due to impaired kidney function.

Thank you in advance from a concerned nurse and daughter.

[JadedCPN, BSN, RN]

Unfortunately we can not offer medical advice on the forum. I'm so sorry your mom is going through this though - of course her respiratory status is of the utmost importance, but that doesn't mean that this can't and shouldn't be addressed at the same time. My suggestion is to bring this up to the team during rounds to see what can be done. Good luck to her.

[sirI, MSN, APRN, NP]

Hello @NPwant2B,

We know you are very concerned, but as stated, we cannot provide the medical advice your mother requires. @JadedCPN has some very good advice to discuss this with her Team and healthcare provider. We sincerely hope she improves.