...at least according to the book title, everybody does. People with multiple sclerosis do it, just not as often as they would like, and not without effort and patience.
Personally, I am constipated more often than not, and it is extremely uncomfortable. It feels stifling, constrictive, and nauseating. It is incredibly frustrating, and since being relaxed leads to relief and a greater degree of success and eradication, the frustration increases with every [ironically named] passing moment. Countless games on my phone are played while I just sit, not going to the bathroom. Sometimes I clip and file my fingernails while I sit, not moving my bowels. Aside from consistent (depending on the venue) convenient parking, erudite hands and fingernails are an indirect benefit of the disease. I have a surplus of free time sitting, and I spend it clipping my nails, both fingers and toes, or brushing my teeth, or shaving. Sitting for excessive periods of time has led to a more refined and civilized level of personal hygiene.
I have not found there to be any benefit to loss of bowel or bladder control.
Like so much of the disease, bowel movements are unpredictable and thus impossible to plan for. Going to the bathroom is an activity that requires planning and at least some advanced notice, especially if you lack specific muscle control (sphincter, in this case). Relying on nothing but the body's unwillingness to obey and do something as incredibly unexceptional as defecating is unreliable. You must be able to react if your body demands it, but multiple sclerosis has rendered my body unable to do so effectively. I have fallen for that trick before; I have falsely believed that my chronic constipation would keep me tidy, if not bloated and frustrated. I have been wrong. I have lost what little control I have and soiled myself in public in a crowded department store.
I have spent countless hours sitting on the toilet waiting to feel the eventual, sometimes necessary, relief of excrement leaving my body. Many times, I have sat and begun to feel my legs tingle ever-so-slightly, then tingle more, then tingle excessively before going numb completely. "I can stomp it out," I think (the numbness, not the excrement). I think this, so I wait, while stomping my feet and shaking my legs. I shift my wait from side to side, lean forward to turn the water on in the bathtub for the cat or brush my teeth with the toothbrush I have conveniently placed on the bathtub next to the toilet, then I lean back and sit up straight and tall, then lean forward a minute or two with my elbows on my knees, then sit back again. Every position feels like it will result in a successful bowel movement, but the positions are not successful, and regular bowel movements remain an unpredictable rarity.
I'm worried I will stand, feel another, more urgent, need to try again, and sit back down a moment later...at which time my legs will fall back asleep and the cycle will repeat itself. Each time I wipe, which is a challenge in and of itself because with numb legs or legs that are waking up, it is difficult to put enough weight on one leg to raise the corresponding cheek. Wiping is usually done for no reason whatsoever, not even for a faint whisper of a nearly imperceptible line of brown hue, but I feel it's barbaric not to do so.
In the meantime, my legs will sting as they begin to wake. I will stumble, either unable to rely on them to hold me up straight, or stand completely still and not want to move them and be alarmed by the shock of their (re)animation. In this condition, my legs do not necessarily hurt, but the unintentional stimulation is enough to motivate me to avoid moving them. I know I must move them and I need to endure that feeling, but I wish to do so either while I am sitting, which never works, or move them slowly to avoid my legs completely giving out when I stand and attempt to take a step. It becomes a precise and carefully articulated series of movements designed with safety and comfort in mind. Hands are placed carefully on walls and railings as I wobble and take steps which mimic the first steps taken by an infant. Although not restricted to bowel movements (or attempts at bowel movements), my leg muscles shudder when I stand after sitting static for any length of time. It is best to stand still, or voluntarily still, and merely look like someone [poorly] dancing despite having absolutely no rhythm.
Leaning as far forward as possible, sometimes attempting to tie shoelaces or straighten my [usually argyle] socks, isn’t effective. I think it was once, and since nothing else works with any consistency, I repeat the pose. I try to alternate leaning as far forward as possible while arching my back and shoulders to sit up as straight as possible. I don’t recall any specific time or instance this worked, either, but constipation also breeds desperation.
I recall being constipated as a child, and attempting to force the feces from my body by pressing against the walls of our cramped bathroom. Reflecting now, I’m astounded that I didn't push holes in the drywall or horsehair plaster of my childhood home. Much like the veins in my temples, the blood vessels in my face and the limbs that stiffened as they wedged against the walls all swelled as blood pounded through them. I could realistically(?) envision my intestines breaking free from my body and spilling forth as if poured from a tipped cauldron. That vision has restricted me from pushing the walls of other small bathrooms, even if I could. I don’t want to risk it.
The stints of stultification may last hours, handfuls of hours, or even days. I don't want to take yet another pill, even one advertised as a "natural" remedy for something as innocuous as constipation. I already take enough every morning, though most are vitamins. I simply don't abide by Old Wives' Tales like prune juice. I like prune juice, but don't employ it. I don't have a good reason, not even that it would make me feel even older than I already feel. I just don't drink prune juice, and more than likely I don't do it because subconsciously I don't want to change yet another thing about my daily existence. I believe those battling MS understand this. Remember, ACCEPT, ADAPT, and ADVANCE.
#multiplesclerosis #MS #constipation