Sisters Comforting Hands

Incontinence Care in Upper Chichester, Pennsylvania

Bowel and Bladder Management

Bowel and bladder management is an integral part of home health care. As technology advances, bowel and bladder issues must be managed with therapies that allow greater independence in performing bowel or bladder activities.

Sisters Comforting Hands offers bowel and bladder programs that work with the patient:

To determine their bowel or bladder needs.
Understand what can help them achieve bowel control.
How to help reduce the risk of urinary tract infections (UTIs).
Retain good hygiene measures.
Maintain skin integrity in proper ways.
How to prevent problems in bowel or bladder areas by using models, pictures, and other materials when needed.

Handling Bowel Incontinence from a Personal Perspective

Incontinence affects millions of people every day at some point in their lives. People with bowel incontinence experience involuntary bowel movements, often as a result of an accident or illness. While bowel control is necessary for good health and normal functioning, maintaining bowel continence is not always easy.

How common is bowel and bladder incontinence?

Bowel and bladder problems are common in people age 65 and older. At age 85, more than 50% of adults have bowel or bladder control problems daily. However, bowel problems are also fairly common among younger adults who have diabetes, multiple sclerosis (MS), Parkinson’s disease, stroke disabilities, or even urinary tract infections.

Incontinence Care in Upper Chichester, Pennsylvania

What Causes Bowel Incontinence?

There are several factors associated with bowel control loss, including:

Bowel or bladder infection.
Bowel resection surgery (often due to bowel cancer).
Bowel obstruction.
Radiation enteritis.
Inflammatory bowel disease (Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis).
Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).
Neurological conditions such as stroke.

What are Some Personal Experiences?

Patients may experience the sense of urgency that overcomes them just before they have an accident, called fecal urgency or “buttock spasm.” They also may experience a sensation of incomplete emptying after bowel movements known as tenesmus.

Patients with bowel incontinence often find it necessary to use the bathroom more frequently than usual. Bowel control isn’t always perfect; sometimes, there is leakage stool or urine with physical activity or bowel movements.

Many patients experience bowel incontinence in mucous or blood in their bowel movement due to bowel inflammation or damage, ulceration, or even cancer.

How is Bowel and Bladder Control Different from Bowel and Bladder Management?

Health care professionals often use these terms interchangeably – and for a good reason. Continence refers to the ability to hold onto urine or stool until there’s a socially appropriate time and place to go.

Management refers to using regular toileting habits along with other strategies such as diet modification, exercise, and medication (depending on an individual’s specific needs) so that people can continue participating fully in everyday activities without losing bowel or bladder control.

Home Care Services in Upper Chichester, Pennsylvania and Delaware PA, Montgomery PA, Chester PA, Philadelphia PA provides bowel and bladder management services for people who need assistance with bowel or bladder control. For more information on bowel and bladder management, please contact Sisters Comforting Hands to speak to one of our knowledgeable representatives about bowel and bladder management or any other home health care service that you might need.