Liquid Stool

[Indiana-Girl]

Good morning, fellow travelers on this horrid journey!

My husband was diagnosed with CBD about 5 years ago. He is now bed bound, can barely speak and requires 24 hour care. He is in hospice and they are wonderful. He now has another UTI but that is not the concerning issue. For about the last 6 weeks he has had a very liquid diarrhea. It very dark color and the consistency of coffee or perhaps hot chocolate. Lately he has developed what looks like sand in his stool. It is very difficult to remove and clean up. He is getting weaker and weaker and sleeps more and more. He still has an appetite, albeit much less of one. Has anyone else experienced anything like this? The doctors seem to be at a loss we have tried everything and nothing works.

[Zerachiel]

I don't know if this would help, "Type 1" talks about it breaking down into pebbles, could he have an extreme version of that?

unitypoint.org/news-and-art....

[Indiana-Girl in reply to Zerachiel]

I have not seen Type 1. To what does that refer?

[Zerachiel in reply to Indiana-Girl]

It's on the Web page, follow the link at the bottom of my last message

"Hard Poop - Type 1

Hard poop happens when you’re constipated. It’s passed in separate, hard lumps, similar to pebbles. Hard poop likely sat in the large intestine for a while. During an extended stay in the colon, water and nutrients are removed from the stool, causing it to harden and break apart into pebbles. This type of stool also lacks the healthy bacteria found in poop that’s housed in the colon. Since the bacteria is missing, there’s nothing to retain water, which makes poop soft"

[carehope]

Hi Indiana-Girl , I think that one of the greatest things that could happen in health care would be if there was a lot more attention paid and a lot more solutions found to the problems that affect our internal plumbing !!

In addition to the input you've already received, here's some more:

When we have infections and take antibiotics, the gut biome is really thrown off. The ingestion of probiotics taken at least 3 to 4 hours after / before each dose of antibiotic is invaluable in helping to prevent the overgrowth of "bad" bacteria that are typically populating our GI tracts but are normally prevented from proliferating due to the presence of beneficial bacteria that keep our GI tract functioning well. Antibiotics not only destroy the bacteria that they're targeting ; they also destroy the beneficial bacteria in the gut.

The infection that is all too common as a result of antibiotic use is:

Pseudomembranous Colitis . It is diagnosed by getting a stool sample to the lab with a doctor's order to culture it for Pseudomembranous Colitis, both strains. (Think there's an A and a B if memory serves). I'm actually hoping that this has been done already ! Six weeks is five wks too long for loose stools ! If the problem IS Pseudomembranous Colitis which is caused by overgrowth of a bacteria: "Clostridium Difficile" , the patient is given another antibiotic to treat this infection. The antibiotic considered to be the best choice would be oral Vancomycin . It will only be active in the GI tract and won't exacerbate the diarrhea problem. Be aware that Flagyl is often prescribed as the first choice because it is much less expensive. However, it often will make an extreme situation such as this one worse as it's a difficult med to take and to tolerate.

Hopefully your husband's physicians have taken steps to rule out the above or other GI based infections; but if not, they should.

Lots of luck in solving this problem. How sad and frustrating that your husband is having to go through this !!

Best wishes to you both !!!

Love,

Elise

[DALLY123]

Hi, I am sorry to read about your husband. My dad had PSP and it really is an awful disease.

I just wanted to comment as my dad suffered a stomach blockage due to his muscles inside not working, a symptom of his PSP. This was unnoticed until he was sick (a lot) one evening. It was like coffee granules and very dark in colour. This was due to his stomach not emptying. We suspect that his stools would have indicated a problem prior to this happening but unfortunately the care home did not mention anything to us. When he got to hospital a scan showed that his stomach was huge and it needed to be drained.

I just wanted to let you know as this is something we were not on the lookout for as we had not read about it previously xx

[Witchit]

Hello

Sorry to hear about your husband.

My mum has PSP and in her case she ended up with faecal impaction which was only discovered upon hospital admission and a CT scan. Her stomach was hard and distended too and full of poop but she had been having liquid stools a few days prior to this and the GP prescribed an anti-diarrhoea medication. We were told at the hospital that this is called “run through” and was just the liquid stuff just getting around the solid blockage. They also said that the anti-diarrhoea medication would have made things worse.

It may not be relevant in this case but I wanted to mention incase there was anything in the description that could help.

All the best to you both and I hope it gets sorted.

[daddyt]

All great responses. Diarrhea is a symptom of constipation. The dry stool can build up and create further build-up in the GI tract, running the risk of bowel perforation and leading to sepsis.

Tim