This one’s a little gamy. When I have diarrhea, I often rub myself raw in an effort to stay clean and I bleed a little around the rectum. I end up bathing the wound an hour later in liquid feces. Why don’t I develop a raging infection in the abrasions? Does that area of the body have a higher concentration of while blood cells?
You’ve merely increased the chance for infection. It happens. People** do** get infected hemorrhoids and do develop infections in misc areas more frequently when the skin is damaged and/or fouled with germs.
Precisely how the body recognizes its own ‘home’ pathogens and (generally) peacefully co-exists with and avoids getting infected by them, even when under the stresses described in the OP is still one of the enduring mysteries of the immune system. We’re getting more insight into the mechanisms, but no clear answers yet.
Of course, nasty infections do result when the immune system gets disabled and the normally present bacteria/fungi/viruses get an infectious foothold. That’s how AIDS generally debilitates a person.
And rectal abscesses (among other things) do happen in otherwise healthy folks. So it doesn’t always work.
Have you considered a bidet? Or maybe just taking a shower post-evacuation?
In addition, the bacteria in the colon would have have evolved to live in the colon. The bloodstream is not a good environment for them.
Second this! I had one installed when we built a new house and it’s great. The bidet that is. :smack: We also have a shower though.
Hey, they’d love to live in the bloodstream! Oxygen, warmth, fluids, nutrients all over the place! They would thrive there, if the immune system let them!
They have those little antiseptic towelettes, if a bidet is not an option . . .
Speaking as someone who was once dehydrated enough from a horrible bout of diarrhea to need emergency hydration*, I would have spent three days in the shower. Moist towelettes like baby wipes are a good idea (not antiseptic ones, though - they’d dry your butt out even more).
*If you’ve never had to have an I.V. started when you’re dehydrated, you’re lucky; I think they got my flat vein at about the sixth stick. Drink about twice as much fluid as you think you need when you have diarrhea!
Butt infections happen all the time. I’m a Peace Corps volunteer, a population notorious for having diarrhea for years on end. And I know plenty of people who have had major problems- including multiple surgeries and long-term hospitalization- from diarrhea-related infections.
Diarrhea is indeed one of the risk factors we look for to identify clients at risk for skin breakdown. Others are immobility, altered mental status, poor nutrition and age - the more risk factors you have, the more often I’ll do a head to toe check of your skin to make sure it’s still intact. If the area isn’t cleaned and dried thoroughly after each bowel movement *or *urination, it can result in skin maceration (that is, softened skin from prolonged liquid contact) and skin maceration can lead to breakdown (cracks or wet looking red patches) or even sloughing off of the skin. It can provide a great home for bacteria, leading to nasty infections.
Why doesn’t it happen all the time? As has been said, we just don’t know. The immune system is a wondrous thing, and we’re still learning.
At first I read the title as “Why no retinal infections?” I read the mouse-over about diarrhea, and thought, “You get feces in your eyes? Will not read.” :eek:
Another one chiming in recommending those little moistened wipes. Sometimes you can find them in the baby aisle at the drugstore for super-cheap. Please stop rubbing yourself raw with dry toilet paper, if that’s in fact what you’re doing. Your tushie will thank you. There’s a reason entire segments of the globe think Westerners are <barfy smily!> for wiping with dry pieces of paper.
Thank you for the suggestions. I doubt we have room for a bidet, but the towelettes are an excellent idea; our kids are grown and I had forgotten about them.
I take my immune system for granted when I should probably say a little prayer of thanks nightly - I appreciate the insights.
After thorough cleansing with a towelette, take 2 squares of regular dry TP. Fold them until you have a small but thick square. Put about half an inch of A&D ointment on this square, and use the square to apply the ointment to your rectum. If you’re raw, it’ll help you heal. If you’re not raw, it’ll reduce the chances of getting raw.
I have IBD, and I get frequent diarrhea. This is one of my coping mechanisms.
Many brands of moist towelettes are not supposed to go into the toilet after you’ve used them because they don’t break up like toilet paper and you might clog your plumbing. Check the packaging to find out.
The brand that I use that specifically states it breaks up like TP so you can flush it, but the name temporarily escapes me.
…
nm, I found them. They’re “Kandoo”, aimed at toilet training kids.
Yes, our neighbors had a Plumbing Incident not long ago. I had once heard the mom say that her whole family was in the regular habit of using and flushing baby wipes. I remember asking her if they used the flushable ones, and she laughed and assured me that they bought the “cheap ones”, which shouldn’t cause any trouble. She was wrong.
Apparently, even the “flushable” ones really aren’t. Best to gently wipe with toilet paper first and then a wet wipe, and put the wet wipe in the trash.
Doesn’t all that cleaning lead to … uh … itchy butt syndrome? I mean, there’s clean, and then there’s clean, where you’ve stipped all the natural oils and the skin gets irritated. I get this when I try to use the (cheap) tissue at work, and the time I tried to alleviate by using wet wipes it didn’t seem to help.
The application of feces to an open superficial skin wound is not particularly likely to produce an infection. Historically, I believe some cultures have even used various types of dung as healing salves.
The reason is that most bacteria need a nidus–a little pocket–to really gain a good foothold most of the time. Host defenses are pretty good at clearing out the handful that do get into the bloodstream every time you defecate, or brush your teeth, or pass stool over your rectal abrasions. Bacteria that enter a host’s bloodstream and find a little protected area (such as a roughened lining of a heart valve) in which to hide can cause significant problems. Most bacteria in the bloodstream eventually pass through the liver or spleen (or equivalent tissues) and are filtered out.
On the other hand, if bacteria get into a pocket under the skin near the rectum (or anywhere else) they do tend to cause abscesses. Protected within those pockets (glands; cysts; subcutaneous tracts) they can multiply more readily, and we commonly see various types of peri-anal abscesses which need to be drained before they will resolve.