Spoke too soon...

Well I spoke a little too soon. I had minor pain last night when i twisted to the left. It was minor comparably and was gone within five minutes.  Also slightly constipated in the sense that I wasn't going as much. I knew it was coming as I had the sort of achey feeling all day. So I think it would be wise to start keeping a food and exercise journal. It is probably important to note that I haven't exercised in almost two weeks. Other than of course the massive amount of running around I did at the wedding. 

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Sunday:

Breakfast- eggs with cream cheese. Bacon, muffin

Lunch- I can't remember

Dinner- can't remember haha

Monday

Breakfast- bacon egg cheese from Hardee's. soda

Lunch- hot dogs

Dinner- salmon, veggies, salad and rolls

Tuesday

Breakfast- egg mcmuffin and hash browns and diet coke

Lunch- nothing

Dinner- east coast chicken tenders grilled and celery with ranch

Dessert-frozen yogurt

Wednesday-

Breakfast-sheetZ grilled chicken with marinara and peppoeroni and a pretzel

Lunch- bag of Special K chips

Dinner-Wendy's cheeseburger and fries

PAIN minor bm

Thursday

Breakfast- meatball pizziola subway and bag of baked lays

Oh yea....

I .....


GRADUATED FROM COLLEGE!!!!!!!
:)

Those are some awesome fireworks!

Today is Day 3

Day 3 of no pain at all in my side.

And this is after a weekend of extensive drinking, not eating very well and starting (you know STARTING).

This is also the first week where I am not overwhelmed, don't have school, don't have a hugemongous wedding coming up. I have absolutely nothing (but work) to do. I am totally exhausted from last week, but otherwise I feel ok. I am going to the bathroom one to two times a day. And I haven't been taking Chia at all either.

I'll have to keep updating to see if this sticks. If it does, that means that the entirety of my problems were stress and anxiety........



i.n.t.e.r.e.s.t.i.n.g.....

Weight loss and Curves

So losing weight while battling these issues has not been fun. I have had very little success but it's not to fault Curves. Their program is amazing.

I started at Curves in the end of January. I have gone up and down and up and down and up and down in the past three-four months.

I have pretty much always ended up right here.

I can't get away from there. I think In the additional almost two months, I have lost four more inches and that is it. It's been very frustrating. I try to follow their diet, but to my own fault, when I don't feel well and I am stressed, I don't make good food decisions. And by stress I mean, graduating college (finally) and my sisters wedding, as well as other fun issues.

Not to mention, I must be the oddball with "IBS" because everything I have read says they have weight loss because they don't want to eat. This ailment actually makes me hungry. All the time!

So I have been stuck. I am hoping that after this weekend, I can get back on it and really push myself to succeed. I want to feel good and look good. To myself.

Go Curves!
Curves Website

And I will just tell you, Curves can be as challenging as you want it to be. I do Curvesmart. That thing kicks my butt!!!!!!

So here I am now, May 7th, 2013

I gave up on those medications before I got through a month. It was uncomfortable and didn't eliminate any of the pain. What was the point? I was miserable.

I made a few realizations and decisions:

1. I went off of bc about 2 years ago. I believe this had a lot to do with how I was feeling outside of being constipated. Just the general exhaustion, feeling like crap, other subtle changes. So I decided to try and go back and see how that makes me feel.

It has actually helped. I believe I had some sort of hormonal imbalance. Which is not surprising since I was on it for 11 years straight. Probably not a fix, but right now I need to face one battle at a time. I am not nearly as exhausted all the time, nor do I feel like poo!

2. Realization: I had a really bad fall off of a horse about 3 years ago. We flipped over a jump. I got launched too and when I landed I had contorted my body in such a way that I landed on my shoulder on one side and my hip on the opposing side. I am wondering if this could have cause some damage to something inside me. Whether it be nerve or possibly twisting up some innards.

3. I feed my horse this stuff called Chia. Yes, it's the same stuff you make Chia pets from. Properly known as

Salvia hispanica

Plant

Salvia hispanica, commonly known as chia, is a species of flowering plant in the mint family, Lamiaceae, native to central and southern Mexico and Guatemala.

It's amazing stuff. It has so many beneficial qualities to it for animals. I have fed it to America for over a year and have had great results all the way from his digestion to his feets. I don't know why I didn't put together that it could possibly have benefits for me as well!

So I have added this into my diet. I add it to my protein shake in the morning.

Here is what I do: 

the night before, soak:
2 TBS of chia in 8-10 TBS of water. (I generally use the 1:5 ratio)

In the morning:
1 scoop of whey protein-chocolate
Chia (it will have GROWN  into a gel as it has absorbed all of the water added)
1 cup of milk
Ice cubs

Mix it all up in the blender and VOILA, Chocolate Chia Smoothie.


And it has helped a lot. I am not nearly as constipated. And I am having normal BMs. It hasn't eliminated the pain though. But at least, I don't have to deal with diarrhea as well. I am hoping if I stick with this that maybe that pain will eventually go away. But the pain isn't constant, and has now started to be more frequent at night, than during the day.

I don't know. I have come up with so many possibilities of what is wrong.

Horrible Constipation
Twisted Bowels
Diverticulitis
Multiple diseases

Just to name a few. Gotta love the internet.


So here is a website that shows some of the benefits of Chia Seeds:
13 awesome reasons to eat chia every day


One disclaimer, I highly suggest soaking them. Especially if you suffer from any sort of digestive issue. They absorb a lot of water so you want them to soak up and expand before you eat them.

I think I am going to switch to Almond Milk and see if that helps even more.

Fingers Crossed.

Time to go to a specialist!

I gave up on my primary and decided to go to a specialist. Luckily, I have insurance now. Or none of this would have been possible.

I went to the GI specialist. Told him my symptoms. Told him the diagnosis from the PA and my doctor. Instead of coming up with his own conclusion, he just went along with the PA's analysis and said, yup it's IBS.....

He ran some blood tests - all came back normal.
Tested my thyroid - came back normal.

Ordered a Sitzmark test.

Gave me a prescription for Linzess and EQ Gentle Lax.

By the time I had gone to the GI, I was in so much pain and so ridiculously uncomfortable.

I should also take this moment to say that I had started to go to Curves and was on their full program. Curves Complete and the Curves Smart. There were days that I couldn't even work out. And I was getting little to no results. It's really hard to lose weight when you literally have an abdomen full of poo!

So I took the Linzess for a few days, I also took the EQ twice before the test. Now if anyone hasn't heard of a Sitzmark Test. Basically, you don't take any laxatives of anything for five days. On day one you take this pill that has these little rings in it:

Then five days later, you go to get an x-ray done to see if the rings are stuck anywhere. This is not my x-ray, but an example of what it looks like when they find some left inside of you.

Well, they found none inside of me. But I don't think they considered the effect that those EQ pills would have on me. They are STRONG.











So let's talking about the medications I was given:

Linzess - quite frankly, I hate it. It gave me diarrhea for about 6 or 7 hours and then nothing. You literally can't go far from the bathroom, because when you have to go, YOU HAVE TO GO! Some might say, well you aren't constipated. Ohhhhh but I beg to differ. I would go right back to being constipated afterwards. Until the next morning, when we would start the process all over.

EQ Gentle - I am sorry, but there is nothing gentle about these things. I believe they give these pills to patients that are getting ready to undergo a colonoscopy, or other fun procedures. When I say they clean you out, I mean, THEY CLEAN YOU OUT! But not without some consequences. They gave me cramps. I would diarrhea for hours upon hours. I drink a lot of water (dehydration and such). By the nighttime, I was basically diarrhea-ing out straight water. It was insane.

Both of these were just making my dehydration worse. Which only makes constipation worse.

And here's the big kicker.....neither eliminated the pain. That's my biggest problem. I have a really hard time believing that my constipation is causing the pain, when i am taking two pills that are literally eliminating everything from inside me and yet I am still in pain. 

Have I mentioned that I am frustrated???

January Doctor Visit

Well....it was January or early February.

Needless to say, it was longer than I should have waited. By this time, constantly taking Miralax, I have now gone into a phase where I am either constipated or having diarrhea. Nothing is fixed.

I went back to my Primary Doctor's office. I was seen by a PA this time instead of my doctor. I guess they were too busy. I explained everything to her. I believe she didn't take into account the Miralax and then diagnosed me with IBS-Constipation.

So here were my symptoms at the time:

Constipation
Diarrhea (duh, I was taking miralax a lot)
Sharp, tearing pain in my left side
Tired
Not feeling well
Dehydrated 


In this time period, I had also acquired a sensitivity to certain foods. Fried foods, beer, red meat and some veggies and fruit. So it is understood where the IBS came from, i'm just not convinced it's something else.

So we got an xray of my innards:

To which the PA responded, "yup you are really constipated."













........THANKS, I hadn't noticed. So I ended this appointment with a perscription of Amitiza and still no answers for the pain other than it is the constipation.

Still not happy. I went to fill the prescription of Amitiza at Walmart (like the cheapest prescriptions ever) and it was $300!

Are you freaking kidding me!!!!!!!!!

Frustration

When I realized there was a problem.

I used to have bad kidney issues. Well, to be honest, I brought them upon myself. Being genetically prone to weak excretory system organs (they all suck), I pretty much asked for it. I drank WAYYYY too much when I was in my early 20's. Who didn't really. But I should have known better.

September, 2012

So on a trip to SC with some friends, I started getting a really sharp and horrible pain in my left side in my abdomen. I was CERTAIN that it was my kidneys. I didn't want to ruin everyone else's fun so I tried to just suck it up and not be a party pooper.

WELLLLL....needless to say, that didn't work. I ended up having to head all the way back home early. I went to sleep while everyone else partied and drove home early.

The next day, I went to the doctor. I told her about the pain. I realized I hadn't been going to the bathroom like normal. Not once a day or every other day. I was only going a few times a week at most. So she classified me as constipated.

I was told to take Miralax once a day, however much I needed to, and sent home.

Needless to say, that was  not exactly the answer I was looking for. Considering this was an issue that basically POPPED up out of no where. I was hoping I could get some sort of answer as to why. But I didn't. So I did as I was told. And i'm pretty sure this screwed up my system.

All this really did was give me diarrhea. It didn't get rid of the pain. I put up with this until January.....

Why a blog about my innards?

I have started this blog for multiple reasons.

1. I would like to log my health and have a way to look at what I have done, where I have been and how I got to where I am. It's great to have a place to look to see the avenues you have been down.

2. If someone else stumbles upon my blog and happens to have the same issues, i'd love for that person to be able to share their findings or to maybe find relief in something that I have discovered myself.

3. I want to lose weight and have a place to see the changes.

4. I have been very frustrated with my health as of late. It goes up and down, gets better and then much worse. I'm in pain and then not and then pain again. I will probably vent.


Most of all, I hope that I can eventually say that I have found relief and that someone else can find some comfort in that.



So what is wrong with my innards?

See that is exactly what I would like to know. The pain originally started here at the red box.....just recently, I have started to get some discomfort at the orange box.

It's a very uncomfortable feeling. The red arrow points to the worst of the two. It's odd really. It feels like a really bad pulling sensation. Happens mostly when I twist my abdomen, or shorten and unshorten that side of my body. It is as close to feeling like a ripping sensation, without actual ripping. After, I get this strange tingling sensation, then it will hurt for a few hours. Usually, going to sleep helps. But sometimes it doesn't. There has even been times that I have awoken with the pain all over again!

On top of that, I suffer from constipation and dehydration. I suspect that one is the culprit for the other, but we'll get to that.

It's been fun....