# This person claims to go weeks without a bowel movement - How is this even possible? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 20, 2011, 8:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-person-claims-to-go-weeks-without-a-bowel-movement-how-is-this-even-possible/593420 "2011-08-20T08:54:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2011, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-person-claims-to-go-weeks-without-a-bowel-movement-how-is-this-even-possible/593420/21 "2011-08-23T03:47:31Z")
> [@brossa](#): > > As a resident I once was called for an urgent consult on a pediatric patient (maybe 7 or 8 y.o.) who was already in the OP having tympanostomy tubes put in. The boy was under general anesthesia, and at the end of the case the nurse taking the drapes off the table noticed that the patient had a large, protuberant, lumpy belly. The ENT docs felt his abdomen and were afraid that there might be a huge tumor there and wanted to know if we (peds surgery) wanted to take a peek in his abdomen as long as he was already asleep. > > Long story short, I disimpacted four heaping emesis basins worth of poop from the lad - the poor kid must have been miserable for weeks. I hope the pain relief from the disimpaction was worth the sore b-hole. His parents had no idea that he hadn’t been pooping. 1. don’t you have to get parental permission to do work so far outside the scope of the planned procedure? 2. didn’t the parents wonder why a 15 minute operation took 3 times as long? 3. and I’m going to hate myself for asking, but just _how_ is a disimpaction done? Two fingers / scoop and sweep? something else? Having had to give my 6 year old son an enema (encopresis, though not nearly as bad as that poor kid) it was NOT a fun procedure. ---
**Author:** ![Girl\_From\_Mars](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3da27b/32.png) [@Girl\_From\_Mars](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Girl_From_Mars)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2011, 6:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-person-claims-to-go-weeks-without-a-bowel-movement-how-is-this-even-possible/593420/22 "2011-08-23T06:58:42Z")
> [@pbbth](#): > > Maybe they were taking prenatal vitamins. :mad:☹ > > Excessive iron in supplements can make it so pooping is damned near impossible, and when you do go it is quite difficult and almost nothing exits your system. I finally determined the best thing to do is alternate prenatal vitamins so that I only take ones with iron every other day and the others are iron-free because otherwise I was staring down the barrel of 9 poopless months. I recommend a little extra water and a kiwifruit a day - that seems to do the trick for me when on the prenatals. ---
**Author:** ![KarlGauss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/karlgauss/32/3713_2.png) [@KarlGauss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGauss)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2011, 9:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-person-claims-to-go-weeks-without-a-bowel-movement-how-is-this-even-possible/593420/23 "2011-08-23T09:07:08Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > One of the side-effects of Vicodin is apparently severe constipation. I’ve taken Vicodin several times, and not experienced that particular issue, but I know several people who have. > [@Tom Tildrum](#): > > Supposedly (suppositorily?) that’s true of heroin too. Constipation is a common, virtually inevitable side-effect of all narcotics\* and not just of Vicodin and heroin. In fact, as a general rule, it’s advisable to prescribe a so-called ‘bowel regimen’ to anyone who’s going to be using narcotic drugs for more than a couple of days. And, even with the use of such a regimen (often consisting of a combination of _several_ laxatives), constipation is still _very_ common. \*narcotics, e.g. codeine (in Tylenol #1 2, and 3 among many others), oxycodone (in Percocet, Oxycontin), meperidine (Demerol), hydromporphone (Dilaudid), morphine, hydrocodone (Vicodin), . . . ---
**Author:** ![Dog80](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/6bbea6/32.png) [@Dog80](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dog80)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2011, 10:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-person-claims-to-go-weeks-without-a-bowel-movement-how-is-this-even-possible/593420/24 "2011-08-23T10:03:34Z")
One time I decided, just for the heck of it, to completely fast for one week. All my intake was water, coffee and some orange juice. Nothing else. I still had bowel movements throughout the week, abeit very tiny. I guess that came from my metabolised fat that I was burning while fasting. ---
**Author:** ![Antigen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/848f3c/32.png) [@Antigen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antigen)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2011, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-person-claims-to-go-weeks-without-a-bowel-movement-how-is-this-even-possible/593420/25 "2011-08-23T14:23:12Z")
> [@Dog80](#): > > I still had bowel movements throughout the week, abeit very tiny. I guess that came from my metabolised fat that I was burning while fasting. Nope. Leftovers. Metabolizing fats and sugars while fasting takes place within the bloodstream - the fats you’re breaking down don’t go from your love handles into your intestines to be digested, leaving remnants for you to excrete. Any wastes from this sort of metabolism will be passed in your urine. Something _exiting_ your digestive tract must have been _in_ your digestive tract, so it was probably bits of a slow migrating lunch from a day or two before the fast. ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2011, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-person-claims-to-go-weeks-without-a-bowel-movement-how-is-this-even-possible/593420/26 "2011-08-23T14:41:21Z")
> [@KarlGauss](#): > > Constipation is a common, virtually inevitable side-effect of all narcotics\* and not just of Vicodin and heroin. In fact, as a general rule, it’s advisable to prescribe a so-called ‘bowel regimen’ to anyone who’s going to be using narcotic drugs for more than a couple of days. And, even with the use of such a regimen (often consisting of a combination of _several_ laxatives), constipation is still _very_ common… Preach it! In fact, I thought I’d seen narcotic-containing preparations used to help combat diarrhea but can’t find any cites right now. I have periodically gone on a course of iron supplements (medically supervised, not done at random) and have found I have to basically alternate them with Fibercon tablets - the iron in the AM and the Fibercon in the PM, or every other day one or the other, or some such. otherwise, shit DON’T happen and misery DOES. A friend and I had our gallbladders removed within a few days. We both got narcotics from our surgeons. Both of us knew about the side effects and were loading up on the high-fiber foods, stool softeners etc. - but in NEITHER case were we reminded of this by the medical staff. In fact I asked the nurse for some Colace while I was still in the hospital, and she looked at me like I was nuts (by contrast, the “new mom goodie bag” from each of the hospitals my kids were born in included several doses of that, LOL). ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2011, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-person-claims-to-go-weeks-without-a-bowel-movement-how-is-this-even-possible/593420/27 "2011-08-23T14:51:43Z")
> [@Antigen](#): > > Nope. Leftovers. > > Metabolizing fats and sugars while fasting takes place within the bloodstream - the fats you’re breaking down don’t go from your love handles into your intestines to be digested, leaving remnants for you to excrete. Any wastes from this sort of metabolism will be passed in your urine. Something _exiting_ your digestive tract must have been _in_ your digestive tract, so it was probably bits of a slow migrating lunch from a day or two before the fast. This sort of “leftover” can even survive phase one of colonoscopy prep… which I guess is why they have you do two phases. You’re basically excreting pure Gatorade (or whatever) a few hours into the first stage… but as I found the next day, there was sludge when I did stage 2. Weird. Actually though: since the gut does have some flora, and a [large part](http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/203293/feces) of the bulk of your feces is dead bacteria, maybe that’s where the sludge (and Dog80’s fasting poops) came from. ---
**Author:** ![SanDiegoTim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/85e7bf/32.png) [@SanDiegoTim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanDiegoTim)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2011, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-person-claims-to-go-weeks-without-a-bowel-movement-how-is-this-even-possible/593420/28 "2011-08-23T15:35:43Z")
I don’t know about “weeks,” but In 1969 I was drafted and sent to the Marines. It wasn’t until the 13th day in boot camp that I had a bowel movement, I ate every day and felt no discomfort. Figure it was simpy the shock to my system (physical and mental). ---
**Author:** ![TurboNuke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f19dbf/32.png) [@TurboNuke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TurboNuke)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2011, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-person-claims-to-go-weeks-without-a-bowel-movement-how-is-this-even-possible/593420/29 "2011-08-24T23:24:30Z")
I came in here to say something similar. When I went to Navy boot camp I didn’t poop for 9 days. It was common. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2011, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-person-claims-to-go-weeks-without-a-bowel-movement-how-is-this-even-possible/593420/30 "2011-08-25T00:14:29Z")
> [@Mama\_Zappa](#): > > 1. and I’m going to hate myself for asking, but just _how_ is a disimpaction done? Two fingers / scoop and sweep? something else? I’ve seen it done that way. Wouldn’t surprise me if there are other techniques, but yeah, fingers. Note: I am not a doctor. I was not the person doing this, that person _was_ a doctor. ---
**Author:** ![goldmund](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a4c791/32.png) [@goldmund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/goldmund)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2011, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-person-claims-to-go-weeks-without-a-bowel-movement-how-is-this-even-possible/593420/31 "2011-08-25T00:26:33Z")
I had an opiate addiction in the past (not any more). I do recall that on one occasion, I went approximately 2.5 weeks without a BM. I didn’t feel much discomfort during this time. It is the case, with opiate use, that you have a significant loss of appetite, so I wasn’t exactly pumping much solid food into my body during that time. Probable TMI, but when I finally did “go” after those 2.5 weeks or so, it was about an hour long process. When the “poo passed the starfish” as it were, it was extraordinarily painful, resulting in pretty much primal screams from me. Looked into the toilet after that, and saw a log about 3 inches wide. Very surreal. So while a month **may** be possible, my anecdotal experience leads me to believe it would be extraordinarily unhealthy, and quite painful when you do finally let loose. Also, when I was younger, I went a full week without a BM at Boy Scout camp. Why yes, I did have issues with the “open” configuration of the outhouses. I don’t recall any significant issues relating to that, though. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-person-claims-to-go-weeks-without-a-bowel-movement-how-is-this-even-possible/593420.md?page=1)