Occasionally, one sees a complication resulting from long-standing constipation and associated laxity of the anal muscles, particularly in elderly, bed-ridden patients. Having to strain causes exertion of high pressure on the rectum.

In younger patients, the pressure from straining often causes the blood vessels in the inner lining of the anus to bulge out. That is called haemorrhoids or piles. In these elderly patients, whose anal control muscles (a.k.a. anal sphincters) are weak, the rectum itself gets pushed out little by little. It may eventually become a full-blown rectal prolapse. Prolapse means a protrusion of an organ outwards from it’s normal position.

How does one deal with this? Don’t panic. When the pressure is relieved, the rectum usually goes in by itself. However, it sometimes need to be pushed in by the patient or the care-provider.

So the question is : how do we prevent it from prolapsing again? First and foremost, improve the consistency of the stool by improving the diet. Thus straining is avoided and the pressure produced is reduced. So, prolapsed is avoided. Secondly, an operation may be performed to resect (cut away) the reduntant (extra, flabby) part of the rectum or hitch it up so that it will not prolapse.

In this elderly, bed-bound patient I opted not to do anything more than give some common-sense dietary advice and prescribe stool bulking agents, like ispaghula husk, to improve the consistency of the stools.

Today I’ll just post some photos as follow up to the previous posts…

The blood donation campaign is on-going.

Here’s the shot of Joseph and papa bracing for the landing at the end of the slide. Hmmmm…. waitaminute, actually it looks like papa’s the only one bracing for the landing.

And… just updated at 8pm… Joseph’s kindy class…

It’s Joseph’s birthday today! We had cake over the weekend already. Today, he’s bringing some cake and goodies to share with friends in school.

“The Carnivall” is the new water theme park in Sungai Petani, opened just 2 weeks ago. I’ve been on call the past two weekends and yesterday was the first weekend that I was free to take Joseph to the park. It’ll be his birthday tomorrow on Tuesday anyway, so it’s his birthday treat.

I’ve been getting hits from search engines for Carnivall Sungai Petani many times a day. In fact, this blog is listed ahead of the official site. (Haha, do i sound like Auntie Lillian today?) Now, the info-seekers won’t be disappointed to find some first-hand experience here.

It is managed by and situated right next to Cinta Sayang Club, just 5 minutes from the town centre and 5 minutes from the North SP Exit of the PLUS highway. There are enough signboards to guide the non-SP resident motorist to the park. There’s a promotional free entrance for the 4th person in a group. I was pleasantly surprised that the free entrance was given for the one with the highest entrance fee, not the cheapest as I was expecting. And my parents had discounts for being senior citizens. I found out there were promotional rates for Mondays to Thursdays too, after 3 pm, that is.

The staff were very friendly and helpful. Plus… emphasized that safety came first. Kudos! Before entering the water park area, Joseph took to the “rock”-climbing air-cushion with gusto!

The water park area was a hive of activity, but not too crowded. After changing, Joseph headed straight to the slides - THE BIG ONE. OK lah.. I have to follow lah. To ride this slide,we had to get onto the float provided. Very “kancheong”. Sorry, I don’t have photos of this one yet. I’ll have to scan one that was taken by the park photographer.

There WAS a wave pool with a beach at the edge … it’s small-ish tough, compared to other water-parks. The waves generated also serve to carry the floats around the “river”. Joseph was climbing all over the float though, turning this way and that. The river brought us back to the wave pool and we got off… one round was enough.

Next on the agenda was the other long slide. No floats for this one but we could actually go faster on THIS slide than the first one.

Then it was time for some kiddy stuff. The kids congregated at the play area. It was bigger and there were more things to explore than even bigger water parks. Joseph loved it for half an hour, especially since there were other children his age there.

We went for another long round of all the slides, particularly the BIG slide and play areas until we were all exhausted and trooped to the shower. All-in-all, it was an very enjoyable experience. The park was just the right size for an afternoon of play for the family. Safety was well taken-care of. The staff AND the fellow-visitors were friendly. It made a good first impression and we had a good time.

By the way, let me introduce you to the best chicken chop and fish & chips stall in Sungai Petani: it’s in Eupe Food Court in Taman Ria Jaya. This stall is next to the Char Koay Teow stall and opens only at dinner-time. The chicken and fish are fresh and nicely done. Plus, the chicken chop sauce is superb. It’s a must-try: Joseph won’t take chicken chop anywhere else after he’d taken it here…. unless it’s as good as this one. Yesterday though, he had fish, after a fun day in the water.

Have a good weekend!