Ever since I learned that Elvis died with more than 30 lbs of feces in his body all I can think of is….. how???? Assuming a person is continuing to eat day after day, how can you continue to put things in and have nothing come out? I don’t understand why your body wouldn’t force you to expel what’s in your system (well before 30lbs) one way or another?
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Your body doesn’t. In most open-casket funerals they put [this](https://www.frigidfluid.com/shop/funeral-home-supplies/embalming-accessories/a-v-closure/) up your butt so that the fluids don’t come out.
Edit: I’m stupid, op was talking about when people are alive, not dead.
The intestine is MASSIVE and skin stretches. It can kill you eventually, obviously. Once things dry out and is all bunched up it just becomes impossible to move.
however, look into fecal emesis if you want to….
Oh you can keep in lots of feces! My nephew would not poop from a very young age. His parents didn’t realize he was holding in his poops. When he was three he shit out an eggplant sized poop at my house, I learned then what a poop knife was.
So basically, he was afraid to poop and held it in. His colon stretched to accommodate that extra bulk. He had accidents and still does because liquid will always find a way out. Oh and he is 17.
He was also a heavy opiate user which comes with massive constipation.
So I wouldn’t say it was his body stopping him from expelling it all out. It was all the drugs.
Opiates slow down your intestines which causes more water to get pulled out of your feces. So continued drug use just causes hard rocks to build up in there.
I remember spending about 13 days without poop. From my experience, your body will push it out, assuming drugs are not involved, but it takes a lot of effort and an unpleasant process.
In my case, I spent a long time at the hospital and they kept asking if I was able to move my bowls, I didn’t know what bowls meant at the time. As days rolled, I was moved to the rehab center for physical therapy. During day 4-ish (maybe?) I decided to put an end to the urge to poop that keeps coming but nothing coming out. I remember it was difficult and I sweated a shit ton. But I kept holding my walker while making progress. Eventually but surly, I felt this stiff and slow release dropping down my skinny body like I dropped an organ.
The answer, weirdly enough, is the square-cube law.
Imagine a square. If it has sides =1, the area is 1. Increase the sides by 1, and you gets sides =2 and area =4.
When the sides increase, the area increase by a lot more.
In the same way, when in you increase the surface area of something, the volume- the stuff it can hold inside- increases by a lot more.
It’s called the square- law because measure the surface area in square units and the volume in cubic units.
But what does this have to do with Elvis and his poop?
Welp, the normal colon is about 2 to 3 inches across and 4-5 feet long, when he died, the King’s colon was 8 to 9 feet long and 5 to 6 inches across, according to his doctor who reviewed the autopsy.
So, it’s possible to increase a container by not much- 100% as wide, 50% as long- and get a result in volume about 900% greater.
Also- a long career of opiates and refusing to talk about embarrassing medical symptoms will lead to this particular outcome.
This shit happens to little kids. They hold so they don’t have to stop playing, then when the hard poop eventually passes it hurts. So they hold and hold because it’s hurts to poop. The colon and anus get so stretched they lose all sensation and they literally never have the urge to poop, so they don’t.
Pooping is important. My gram died of not being able to poop. Her bowels became gangrenous and most were removed. Ischemic bowel. Not pleasant. I remember calling an ambulance for her when she was puking up her own shit.
There are many ways a bowel obstruction can occur. One may be diet, another could be narrowing of the intestines (trauma, scarring, cancer, etc.), another could be aganglionic mega colon, some prescription drugs can slow bowel motility enough, the intestines can twist on itself, etc.
Many reasons.
Your intestines (small and large) are smooth muscle that is approximately 15’ Iong (4.5m). There is a lot of space there and dehydrated feces is dense (density = mass/volume). From the formula you can figure out what happens when the numerator or denominator changes.
Often with people that have a bowel obstruction they will begin to vomit, and show signs of constipation, which indicates that the food can’t move forward and is being expelled. Typically, an NG tube is inserted, they are given IV fluids, and are NPO (nothing/nil per os). Barium enema can aid in diagnosis and NG tube placement is confirmed with X-ray.
If the obstruction is complete surgery is needed in most cases.
As someone who was born with a “slow transit colon” which developed into a megacolon by the age of 12 (my worst superhero name ever) – it goes like this. Gradually.
You don’t suddenly wake up with 30lb of shit in you. It builds up over time. You get some impacted faeces. It gets hard. Stool will still go around the blockage and you shit like normal, maybe a bit of diarrhoea. This can go on for months. In the meantime this hard lump inside gets bigger ever day. The colon is quite stretchy. It’s usually once you start getting noticeable pain from an impacted colon that you notice and get treatment. When I was 12, I had a nasal gastric tube put down my nose and spent 8 weeks in hospital getting my bowel cleared out. It’s the same mixture that’s used for colonoscopy prep. It’s easier to deliver it via a NG tube then drink it for impacted colons that aren’t going to rupture. I lost 10-12 kilos after my bowel clean out when I was 12.
Yes, my bowel is still a pain in my literal arse. I’ve now got an ileostomy.
*edit* I’ve now realised one of my most upvoted comments is about the fact I can’t shit. Sweet.
*second edit* sweet jesus please dont make it to the main page
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