How do paralyzed people go to the toilet?

[curiousnorway]

I've always been curios on how people who's paralyzed from the waist down goes to the bath room. I've heard many of them can't control their bowels or bladder. I'm open for all details if you knows the answer. : ) I'm just curious and this isn't meant to offend anybody.

#ParalyzedToilet #BathRoom #HowDoItWork?

[BlueCoyote]

I've wondered about this too until I saw a documentary with a young, paralyzed woman who was brave enough to talk about this in front of the camera. basically, she had a surgery where the doctors inserted kind of like a catheter (basically a plastic channel) into her anal tract and into her urinal tract (one each). Along with the catheters, there were small machines or chips around the size of a cardiac pacemaker. These "machines" were capable of giving off light electric charges which would in turn make the muscles contract in the right way. The machines/chips were connected wirelessly to a small remote control that the woman could carry in her pocket. On the remote control, there were two buttons, one for "big" and for "small". So she could basically just sit on the toilet like anyone else, press the correct button and it would just "happen". Apparently, this is how most paralyzed people use the bathroom.

Also, if you're "only" paralyzed from the waist downwards, you should be able to feel the urge to pee or poop, since the bladder and the bowl are both slightly above that line and mainly controlled by the central nerve system in your spine. However, if you are paralyzed from the neck downwards, I imagine this becomes much more difficult. I unfortunately don't know how people do it in that case. But considering that modern technology is far advanced in this field, I can imagine that there is some kind of solution for this.

[curiousnorway]

Which documentary was it? I thinks I wants to Google it.

[BlueCoyote]

It's in German, so you wouldn't understand...

[curiousnorway]

Okay. But thanks for answering my question. : ) It's quite interesting and I've never heard about a such technology before.

[BlueCoyote]

But here is a reddit page on the topic that might be helpful and interesting:
www.reddit.com/.../

[curiousnorway]

Thanks! : )

[BlueCoyote]

And no problem, I always like your questions ;-)

[curiousnorway]

What did they do in the past then before the 20th century?

[BlueCoyote]

I have no idea... wear some sort of diapers I guess? Though I think modern diapers are also quite a young invention. I'm sure there was something like that in the 19th century but it was probably more complicated and less comfortable to wear. My mom actually still used cotton diapers for my older brother who is 33. Back in the 1980s, this was quite common. And from what she told me, it was very cumbersome because she had to clean every diaper individually, first by hand (the big stuff) and then throw it into the laundry machine. One-way diapers only started to come on the market in the late 1980s, which was around the time I was born.

[curiousnorway]

So paralyzed people are able to pressure their feces and urine out of their body?

[BlueCoyote]

I think so... yes. But I don't want to say too much because I'm not paralyzed myself and I don't want to tell you something wrong ;-)

[Browneye57]

Many have a catheter that drains urine from their bladder into a bag.
If they do have bladder control you'll find them in a disabled stall with plenty of room to maneuver their chair over to a toilet and hoist themselves on.

[Nodachi]

Presumably if they can't at all stand up they will have some kind of catheter to drain urine - essentially a pipe thing that they can pee through or whatever and empty the fluids into some kind of bag.

I'm not entirely sure myself though.

[Shimy]

Some of them use diapers, some of them use something to extract... well you know lol

[curiousnorway]

"Well you know"

I don't know something I don't know and I'm open for details. I'm curious and want to know. :)

[Shimy]

Well they use some medical device to extract pee and excrements from their body. That's something paraplegic people do for example

[alice55]

I think they use diapers (for the one who are completely paralyzed).

[Whatthefluff]

Depends on the exact type of paralyzation/paralysis

[curiousnorway]

Can you please give me some examples on the methods?

[Whatthefluff]

If their arms aren't paralyzed, sometimes they can drag themselves to the seat

[curiousnorway]

Yes. But people who's paralyzed often can't control their bowel or bladder because these muscles are also paralyzed.

[Whatthefluff]

True

[BronzedAdonis]

no idea, I always assumed they had a nurse to assist somehow