Gastroenterologist

I went to see my gastroenterologist yesterday. I told him everything, including the fact that I’ve been pretty much stuck on a bland diet since Sunday morning (due to the Saturday night incident). (Follow-up about the Saturday night incident.) Turns out that, apparently, when you’re system is backed up it’ll send signals to your brain essentially telling it to not put anything else into your intestinal tract, making you have the urge to vomit. Not really sure why this triggered after the fact for me, but it has. Either way, he thinks it is due to my severely irritable large intestine. Apparently, the pain I have is also due to this. He said that my large intestine is so sensitive I can probably just feel the entire thing all the time, so anytime anything goes through it I can tell. Suddenly, things make so much more sense now.

Anyway, because my large intestine is still so spasm-y and painful and triggering not so fun feelings, he wants me to try Linzess. However, because my intestines have proven incredibly sensitive to change, he only wants me to do one capsule every other day for now. (When I started VSL #3, a probiotic, he had me take just one a day. The box says that 2 a day is the usual low-end treatment for IBS. Taking it daily swings me all the way to rather severe diarrhea.) I haven’t started it yet because I want to look up some potential side effects (to avoid being surprised and so I know what to watch for), but I’m hoping it can calm down my system.

I also asked about the liver hemangioma that was found on the ultrasound that I had back in November. Mine is very small, only 12mm by 8mm (a U.S. dime is about 18mm in diameter). Apparently, the only time you really get symptoms from them is when they are quite large, or when they hemorrhage. Since neither of these things are true with mine, he really thinks it’s 100% benign. I guess that means the main cause of my nausea is likely my crazy sensitive large intestine.

Neurologist

Today was my neurology appointment. Joleen had advised me to tell him EVERYTHING that has been going on, physically, for the past several years in case they all could be part of one thing. Needless to say, the majority of the hour was me talking because I wanted to say everything. He did do some basic movement tests in my arms and legs (and strength). He also did some tapping on reflex points. I’m not sure if the places he tapped in my arms are supposed to do the same thing as tapping on the knee does, but my arms don’t do that at all.** It definitely seemed like I was missing some sensation in my right pointer finger. I don’t know how I did on my strength stuff. Ultimately, he thinks I might have some sort of peripheral nervous system thing going on. I have to go back next Friday (3/4/16) to do an EMG (electromyography) test. Luckily, I’ll have the EMG results the same day because he’s the one that does the test. So, for now, just more waiting.

*After reading the link above about the reflex points, apparently my arm should have moved. Literally nothing happened on either arm. I don’t think that is a good thing.