Physical Therapy

I got my tilt table test results back and I am tachycardic but besides that everything was fine!

I started my colon therapy on Wednesday and I LOVE my therapist!!! She is a variety of things. She is extremely intelligent and funny but most of all she makes me feel comfortable and puts me at ease so those muscles can relax. She was very thorough in her exam. My muscles are very weak and thick. I have a lot of ground to cover. I am looking at six weeks of therapy which isn’t bad considering my GI history.

I go back to Temple University Hospital this week for a Hydrogen Breath Test. They are looking to see if there is any bacteria in my intestines. It should be a fairly quickly trip to Philadelphia. The downside is that I can’t clean out; I will be going thirteen or fourteens days without any magnesium citrate. It’s going to be ROUGH!

blood pressure and pulse rates

I went this past Tuesday for my tilt table test. My gastroenterologist issued the test because my pulse has been running high and I’ve been blacking out from time to time (mainly on the weekends whenever I clean out… nothing major to me). All of this has been going on for about six months and I decided I’d better run it by my GI doc. He said GP patients sometimes have issues with blood pressure and pulse rates. I could be dehydrating on the weekends while cleaning out but it’s better to be safe than sorry.

The tilt table test was a really easy test. The hardest part was staying still for an hour and a half. I did get dizzy when the table raised and lowered positions but no blacking out which was good. My pulse being the main issue was interesting; having to be still-not moving you would think that my pulse would run lower. The lowest my pulse ran was in the low one hundreds and the highest was in the low one twenties. The said that indicated that something was going on (that’s just great… NOT!) but my blood pressure was just fine.

I’ve felt really good this week which is really nice. The cold weather seems to agree with me better than warmer weather even though I FREEZE. I’m trying to eat healthier and follow my diet regimen. I start therapy Wednesday… it’s going to be interesting to say the least. Other than that, it has been a very calm week.

a day of news...

I finally got my gastric emptying scans back from Temple. As expected everything; my stomach, small intestines and colon are extremely slow. They noted that I even had trouble digesting or processing liquids. I really don’t know how that works…..

Wednesday I had an appointment with my gastroenterologist in Winston. We discussed numerous things from biofeedback therapy to pulse rates. I start therapy this Tuesday in hopes to retain what muscles are left in my colon and maybe even strengthen them. (One can hope, right?) Over the past few months my pulse rate will be in the upper nineties and to around one hundred and fifteen and I will not be doing anything. He said people with GP have related issues with that so he wanted to double check just to be on the safe side and that I was probably dehydrated.

We talked about the pacemaker. He asked what Dr. Parkman’s opinion had been and what I had thought about it. To make a long story short, he said that I have three major issues; a bad stomach, intestines/colon and bladder which are all “connected”. Out of every five GP patients he sees, I am the worse; comforting isn’t!? He agreed with Dr. Parkman. It is too big of a risk to take.

I did have to go to the urologist that afternoon. About a year and a half (?) ago the whole bladder issue started. My muscles there as well as my bladder went on the fritz. I had to learn how to catheterize myself which is not nearly as hard as I thought. We had to shrink and retrain my bladder muscles. For numerous months I heard “Jennifer, you have to relax”.

I’m always watching myself, who wants to cath and retrain their bladder over? I thought I was backtracking again. He said everything was fine but that the muscles would get worse because of the GP. (Are you serious??) He had some ways to help on days when my muscles would cooperate.

Overall the day was very overwhelming when I got home and took it all in. I realized that I was not getting a pacemaker which meant no nausea relief and no broadening of the food horizon. My GI doctor did say since things wouldn’t get better to eat something good sometimes like pizza. I am going to pay for it anyway so I might as well enjoy it. I am okay with everything now, nothing has changed. Wednesday was just overwhelming.

Philadelphia: Round 2

I do not have Hirschsprung’s Disease!!

The trip to Philadelphia went well, just hearing that made the trip wonderful. I had a four day gastric emptying scan. It was similar to the other gastric emptying scans that I have had before except this scan followed the food past my stomach into smaller intestines and colon. Usually the meal consists of eggs and toast; they mix the radioactive stuff into the eggs. This time they made me a sandwich of toast with jelly on it and the eggs with no salt… GAG!!!! I even drank water with a radioactive mix.

Tuesday was the longest day. It took around six hours to get the proper scans to follow the food through my stomach. Each of the following days, one scan was required. I could actually see the food on the screen. The last two days, nothing moved on the screen (that doesn’t seem promising). The food just stayed in the same place.

Wednesday we went to the Franklin Institute to see the Cleopatra exhibit (I am a nerd, I admit it). I’d been off my medications for a couple of days and I didn’t think anything about it. My head started hurting but it just seemed to be a normal headache to me. I went to bed thinking I could sleep it off. The next morning I woke up to a migraine and extremely bad nausea. We went on to the hospital and we made it to the parking deck until the vomiting started. I felt so bad for Jacob. He’s driving up the parking deck and I throw open the door and start throwing up. Later that afternoon Dr. Parkman got back to me as well as my neurologist and I did get some relief. I’ve decided that I don’t like being miserable away from home.

The rest of the week went well. We did take in some Philadelphia culture. We went as I mentioned to the Franklin Institute, Independence Hall, the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Washington Square and of course City Hall which was magnificent! We were walking downtown one day and Jacob got him a Philly cheese steak sandwich, I never realized how good those smelled!

They told me that I should have had my test results by December 27^th. I still haven’t heard anything yet. I go this Wednesday to my gastroenterologist in Winston so maybe he will have better luck in getting the test results.