My state of health has been a bit rough for the past twelve months or so. I had severe sciatic pain, then a mental breakdown, and following that some nearly crippling anxiety. But it is all good: I’m living a good life, just struggling a bit.
My list of maladies is incomplete, however. I developed an intestinal disorder of some kind starting in April, and it adds to my other problems in interesting and diverse ways.
NOTE: This post will be covering some unpleasant topics about things like bowel movements and constipation. If this bothers you then move on.
My symptoms
I’ve spent most of my adult life suffering from irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), so I’m used to digestive upset. My normal routine is to have a different kind of bowel movement every time I sit down on the toilet. But the variety largely stopped in mid-April of this year. Some days I had no bowel movements, other days I had watery diarrhea.
Some of the time I felt like I had to strain to produce little or nothing, basically feeling constipated with no output. I tried over the counter meds like Metamucil without effect.
Worst of all, everything was unpredictable in terms of timing, which makes living life challenging. I cancelled a motorcycle trip in part due to simply not knowing whether I could reliably make it from point A to point B without a bowel movement ’emergency’. I started to get concerned after a week or so, and consulted with a doctor at the beginning of May.
The diagnostics and progress
I have had many tests under doctor’s orders. Blood tests, fecal tests (at least three different ones), an abdominal X-ray round, and physical palpitations. The result: nothing found. All the tests showed no viral or bacterial cause, no impaction, and no signs of cancer via a fecal immunochemical test (FIT).
Side note: there is something intensely demeaning about collecting small samples of your own poo for testing purposes. It is really a trivial thing, but each test has its own particular way of performing the act. The easiest by far was the FIT, but none of the processes made me feel like a better human being.
While all the testing was going on I was continuing to experiment with over-the-counter curatives under doctor’s supervision. I found that taking daily Senokot pills at night means I reliably have a watery bowel at around 8:00 am the next day. My appetite is a bit off, but not vastly so: I tend to eat smaller meals now, and have lost about 15 pounds since April.
What next?
I’m on the list for a colonoscopy, but my priority is fairly low because of the negative FIT. I expect I’ll be in for the old tube up the backside sometime this fall, something I don’t look forward to mostly due to the preparation required rather than the act itself. After that we’ll see: I hope some specific diagnosis becomes available then, and maybe if I’m lucky some kind of supporting treatment.
Until then I suffer with not knowing exactly when I’ll get the overwhelming urge for a lengthy bathroom break, or whether that will be the last time for the day or the first of several. Lots of people suffer greater problems and indignities, but despite that it does nothing to improve my elevated post-mental-breakdown anxiety.
