One of the topics I avoided with people, or was embarrassed to discuss, was constipation. After all, who wants to talk about it? Well, I suspect you do not want to live with it, so I'm going to tackle it. It is a natural cleansing process of every single human. It is one of many ailments that many or most people with Parkinson's disease have to deal with.
It actually reminds me of a M*A*S*H episode where Frank Burns is again finding fault with his rivals Hawkeye Peirce and BJ Hunnicut. "Officers don't steal!" he asserts.
BJ Hunnicut quips back, "We don't go to the toilet either."
Then Hawkeye Pierce chimes in, "We just explode when we're 50."
I can still see the look of surprise on Radar O'Reilly's face. Perhaps that is the same look you had when you came across this article today.
At one point, my dyskenesia was so bad it was hard for me to remain seated as I used the toilet. I was loosing my coordination and balance. It was an ordeal each time I visited the bathroom. My legs literally had a mind of their own thanks to restless leg syndrome. Frequently, I would fall.
Needless to say, I had plenty of experiences that aggravated my visits to the restroom. But, when you have to go . . . you have to go. So, I avoided going to the bathroom, which violated my mom's advice to, "Go every day!" I was constipated.
After my DBS surgery, I realized that I was not using my stomach muscles like I needed to go to the bathroom. I had to condition myself with exercises. The surgery gave me my speech back, so I could complain about it and explain my constipation to my doctor. She prescribed AMITZA, a medicine specifically used to treat constipation.
In addition to the medication, my advice to you is to drink lots of liquids and also eat lots of fruits and grains. Ask your doctor what he or she recommends for your constipation.
I am also convinced that the key to wellness is exercise. Try to do as much exercise as you can tolerate. It us helps maintain fluid motion, and it also helps us out mentally. My work with a physical therapist has also been valuable.
Make sure that you do not fall in the bathroom. You can place handles in a few different locations around your bathrooms for support. These can help you get up from the toilet as well as get around. I know it is hard, but we need to ask for help when we need it, too.
I wish that I could've offered you the perfect solutions so your life would never be plagued with this discomfort or its many difficulties. I hope some of these ideas, and just knowing that you are not the only one experiencing this, help you out. Certainly, there are times we wish that we would just 'explode when we're 50.'
You may also be interested in recent reports that tout the effectiveness of Parkinson's medication, Domperidone, to treat constipation.
