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What Causes Severe Diarrhea?

Posted on Sat, 20 Sep 2014

Question: My mother has developed explosive diarrhea. What could be causing this? We have tried lomotil, kaopectate, She has no control and tries to hold buttock together until she can get to the bathroom. Once there, the stool is semi liquid and exits with great force going everywhere.

Answered by Dr. Vaddadi Suresh (53 minutes later)

Brief Answer:
how long

Detailed Answer:
Hi, how long since has she been having these problems??

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar

Follow up: Dr. Vaddadi Suresh (16 hours later)

About 2 months. It has gotten worse. Saw her doctor last week. He did some labs but have been unable to get results.
she had surgery in August last year for bladder prolapse. It ended with a colostomy due to bowel involvement. She did well and the colostomy was revised in December 2013. The last of XXXXXXX 2014, she started with discomfort in left lower quadrant. Then the explosive diarrhea started. She lives next to me. She takes care of herself. Rides The lawn mower, does her housework and cooking. She is very independent. This has been very hard on her. Goes to church but has to leave quickly to make it home. Then it is like pressure pushing the stool out. I would like to know if there is something more I can do. She does not want more surgery nor hospital stay. Help... I am the only child...

Answered by Dr. Vaddadi Suresh (8 hours later)

Brief Answer:
ok

Detailed Answer:
Ok.
Was some portion of her bowel resected? Is follow up colonoscopy done to check everything in the large intestines is normal? What do you mean by bowe involvement? Was it an accidentally injured bowel or some disease requiring colostomy?

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar

Follow up: Dr. Vaddadi Suresh (5 hours later)

They had to remove part of bowel. It was wrapped around bladder or something. She had a x-ray and they determined the bowel was healthy. So they reconnected her bowel. Things worked well until 2 months ago. Now she is having a lot of gas with very forceful diarrhea. Today she has had diarrhea 3 times. It is a moderate each time. She is not eating or drinking very much. She has reflux occasionally. Takes Prilosec occasionally. She has been taking Immodium AD 2 times a day. She is getting more cranky. She is normally very happy and outgoing even after the 2 surgeries. We stopped some of her medicines(unnecessary). That did not change anything so we have restarted them. We even stopped Milk for a while.

Answered by Dr. Vaddadi Suresh (4 hours later)

Brief Answer:
osmotic diarrhoea

Detailed Answer:
This seems like short bowel syndrome. Reduced bowel length leads to defective absorption of bile acids and altered osmolality in the gut leading to osmotic diarrhoea.
It usually precipitates by certain infections, diet or other comorbid diseases.
Let her take a prebiotic drug along with loperamide, reduce the fat content of food like avoid cheese, oil etc. See that she doesn't land in some electrolyte disturbance.
She will be better soon.

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar

Follow up: Dr. Vaddadi Suresh (5 hours later)

Thank you. We will give this a try. I plan to go by MD office and get a report on her labs. Worried about Potassium and sodium levels. She loves cheese. Will try. Thank you so very much. Mom is a retired LPN and I am a retired RN. We forget a lot of things when we do not use it. Appreciate your help.

Answered by Dr. Vaddadi Suresh (2 hours later)

Brief Answer:
ok..

Detailed Answer:
You are welcome to post any further questions in future.
I wish her a happy recovery.

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Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar