Saturday, March 12, 2011

my stubborn colon...

I went to the gastroenterologist on Tuesday to see what was causing all of the abdominal pain. I was told by the emergency room doctors that the pasta that I ate caused me to have a GP flair. It made sense to me but it was really bad because pasta is a staple in my four item diet. My GI doctor checked me out and made sure that it wasn’t several factors including a nerve that I have to have lidocaine injected into. He moved down to my transverse colon and he hit the area. I told him that was the area where the pain originated but the pain would move all over the surrounding area. Whenever I ate the pain as well as the nausea increased. He told me that it was my colon not the pasta. He then went on to ask where the nausea originated from; exactly where the pain was – my colon region.

Whenever I eat the food that is in my stomach it pushed into my intestines so my colon started to spasm which caused the pain and nausea. My colon simply couldn’t handle food anymore. What is making matters worse is only cleaning out once a week; throughout the week food is just packing up. He told me to start cleaning out on Monday, Thursday and Saturday with the magnesium citrate (oh what fun… NOT!) in an attempt to ease the colon spasms. As for eating, I am to keep doing the protein drinks and to nibble. I ate a meal today and oh did I pay.

I ask him what my options were. Who wants to live in pain and not eat be able to eat? We talked about my attempts at physical therapy and how my muscles just never came around. He told me to do the magnesium citrate for two months which physically may do me in (it is sooo tiring). After two months I will go back to see him and he will send me to a surgeon to see about having my colon removed. I would not have to have a colostomy bag!! As of now, I am good with the idea of surgery. I would no longer have to deal with constipation and magnesium citrate. I would deal with diarrhea but I’ve dealt with that for years before my colon stopped functioning.

As for situations, thoughts or advice about surgery, if anyone has had this surgery I would love any insight.

3 comments:

  1. Hi Jennifer,

    I'm so sorry to hear that your GP has been giving you so much trouble lately. I have been on liquids- only for a few months now and have actually been able to maintain my nutrition levels despite throwing up almost daily. Have you considered drinking vegetable juices and green smoothies to mix things up? Also, when making smoothies at home, I've been adding peanut butter and protein powder with almond milk and bananas to get some added protein and calories. You can even put spinach into smoothies for an extra nutrition boost that you can't even taste. here's more out there than Special K protein drinks and making your own allows you to cater more towards your taste preferences/ is much more natural. I've also found that I tolerate bland pureed soups pretty well, particularly carrot ginger and butternut squash (the cooking and pureeing breaks down the fiber so that's not an issue). T Im not sure how your body would respond to these things, but extra variety has made liquids-only much more bearable and nutritious for me.

    Also, I'm going up to Philadelphia in a couple of weeks for an appointment with Dr. Parkman/ the multi day emptying scan. Any words of wisdom before i go?

    Hope things start to turn around for you and take care,
    Nicole

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  2. Hey Nicole,

    Thanks for the liquid drink ideas! I have a hard time with juices. I went back a few days ago and tried a Naked drink hoping that it would go down okay and it did!!! Variety!!! I have started mixing Silk Soy with protein mix and it's really good. I would of never thought about the peanut butter though. :)

    I'm glad you're going to see Dr. Parkman. He is extremely intelligent so to me he came off as a little spacey at times(probably all of that intelligence). He has a good bedside manner. He never answered all of my questions, he wanted to get all of the tests completed - he's very thorough. As for the multi-day GI emptying scan bring something to read the first day. I was there for six or seven hours? The following days I was there for two hours the following days then for twenty minutes the remaining days. Temple is in a rough part of Philadelphia, I didn't know that. I wish you the best!

    Many GP hugs to you!
    Jennifer

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  3. Hey Jen! Was this going on when we talked the other day??? I would hate to think our first 'real' conversation was nothing but me selfishly going on about my situation and not letting you get a word in. Did this happen before or after our talk? Please let me know how you are...I will be worried. You know how to reach me.
    With loving thoughts,
    Melissa

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