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???