In hospital, some time ago, I was on a lot of antibiotics, both oral and by IV. At first, things were pretty stable, but after about 3 days my poo became looser and looser. I was not allowed out of bed, so had to use a bedpan. Soon I needed the bedpan about every half hour, round the clock, not passing a lot of poo, but I had great urgency.
After about a half day, the nurses gave up on the bed[pan, and put me into diapers, not the pull-up kind, but with side tapes. These got changed every at this meant.few hours and were always very wet and soiled. Apparently, they tested my poo for pathogens and found I had C Diff. This is a problem with people who have been on powerful antibiotics for a while.
When things didn't improve after about a day, they told me they were going to put in a indwelling rectal catheter. I'd no real idea about what this really meant, so didn't protest. It turned out to be quite an experience.
A while later, two nurses came in with an enema bag which came from radiology and had an inflatable retention nozzle. It must have held at least 3000ml. They said I needed to be thoroughly washed out before the bowel catheter was inserted. They put down extra Chux pads, inserted and inflated the nozzle, and gave me almost the whole bag of warm water. It flowed in quickly and easily because I was already pretty empty. I was allowed to expel the solution at once on a bedpan.
When I'd finished, the nurses removed the pan and put down new pads, then had me turn onto my left side. They then opened some kind of procedure kit and prepared it. One nurse lubricated the end of a thick hose, about one inch in diameter, and then lubricated my anal passage, inside and out. She then took the end of the hose and inserted it into me. It felt soft. A moment later, the other nurse pushed in the plunger of a syringe and I felt warmth and fullness. A retention balloon, lie that on a Foley catheter, had been inflated with water inside me. She asked if it felt OK and I said yes.
I was then turned onto my back and the other end of the hose was connected to a plastic bag, hung on the bedside.
They then said they needed to test everything by irrigating and hooked up an enema bag to the hose assembly and ran about 1000ml of water into me, then released it into the bedside bag. These irrigations were repeated about every 12 hours.
Saying they were almost done, they then inserted a Foley catheter into my urethra, and connected it to another bedside bag.
After completing these tasks they covered be. I could pee and poo continuously, completely without effort or mess, and just relaxed and went to sleep. Apparently, after a few days, my poo was getting too firm to pass through the tube, so I was given
doses of Miralax several times a day. I was cathed, both front and back, for a bit over a week, and then returned to normal.