Elderly parents
Twisted bowel..
unicornparade · 11/03/2023 11:57
My 80 year old DGF has been complaining of pain and not being able to eat for a couple of days. A&E visit, it's a twisted bowel and he's now on high dependency, awaiting emergency surgery today and no visitors.
What exactly is a twisted bowel? Has anyone had any experience with elderly family with this condition?
ChairOfInvisibleStudies · 11/03/2023 18:33
Happened to my grandmother at a similar age. Her bowel became necrotic and she had to have a large portion of it removed. It was undoubtedly a very serious situation and took her quite a while to recover from, but she did recover. She was in hospital for a few weeks and then needed quite a lot of care at home for months. The biggest ongoing challenge has been that with a section of bowel missing she has poor appetite and also cannot absorb as much nutrition from what she does eat, so she is quite underweight and has to use fortified milkshakes etc to stay nourished.
I hope things go well for your DGF.
Musicaltheatremum · 11/03/2023 18:34
My 90 year old dad has had this about 3 times. On each occasion they have been able to untwist it by sigmoidoscopy and deflating and manoeuvring the bowel. Dad now recognises the signs and gets to hospital quickly if he starts to become constipated. Apparently dad has a big saggy bowel that twists if his bowel motions aren't regular.
It can be serious if not treated. Worst time for us was when mum was dying in a hospice and he ended up in hospital as the same time.
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