Expert: Mary Gordon - 3/14/2010

Question
hi my dad lives with me and my family hes had alzheimers for about 8years .Hes now immobile and incontinent on faesces and urine. He cant speak out for himself anymore . My problem is my dad became constipated and now hasnt had a proper bowel movement for 1month the disrtict nurses have been and gave enemas and he drinks movicol daily but now hes faecally impacted and only having bowel overflow which is a watery brown liquid.Due to this going on for 1month i really feel something should be done immediately to help as he seems to be in pain.I need to know what should be getting done and is this part of the end stage of alzheimers and can this cause any more problems for him .Im very concerned for my dads health as im starting to worry that this is what could be the beginning of the end his life and i dont know if im being irrational but no one will give me a straight answer to my questions . I would really appreciate it if you could help me . Thank you very much jackie .

Answer
I would get him to the doctor right away. The nurses should know better - this is something that needs immediate attention - after trying enemas and laxative a couple of times and not being able to correct things with those measures after an entire month, they should have told you to seek medical attention.

Here is some information on the subject
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/000230.htm

He needs to have the impaction removed and the causes investigated. They are likely to need to sedate him because he won't be able to cooperate and this mass needs to be broken up and removed. He is also likely to need ongoing use of enemas and stool softeners and laxatives to make sure it doesn't happen again.

Mary