Tag Archives: irritable bowel syndrome

Stomach Bug?

Apparently, I’m feeling awful because I have gastroenteritis. Or at least, that’s what my GI thinks. Gastroenteritis = the stomach flu. Stupid stomach bug. I don’t have a fever that we’ve noticed, but I’ve been downing pain meds like crazy so it might be suppressed I suppose.

He told me to hold off on my Amitiza for three days, then restart it on the next higher dose (since before the bug I didn’t think it doing anything). If my symptoms don’t come back, then it was just a bug. We shall see. Here’s hoping I survive.

Digestion Shmigestion

Obviously, things have gone kaplooey again. I didn’t think my new medication was doing ANYTHING at all, because I had gone back to “normal” (my normal for 20+ years has been constipation). Yesterday, I suddenly got violently attacked by severe diarrhea. Today, it continues. I have a call in to the GI. Hopefully, he knows what to do.

One of my best friend’s baby showers is on Sunday, so I HAVE to feel at least a little better by then…

FINALLY a Recovery Cocktail

How do you recover from a month of crazy emotional stress, travel stress, chronic illness, and allergy testing?

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Zofran, Tramadol, two Benadryl, two Excedrin Extra Strength

I just got home from my allergy testing, and this is the first thing I did. Well, technically the second. This has just been the most ridiculous month, and definitely not in a good way. Grama passed on the 3rd, and now suddenly it’s the 19th. I do not know what exactly happened to the month of April, but I do know it has been a giant ball of stress of all kinds.

Here is why I’ve been a ball of stress:

Day 3 of Digestive Distress and I am so Far Out of My Element – Please Help!

When I was trying to determine what “severe diarrhea” was defined as, medically, I couldn’t find anything. Seeing as how I have suffered from the exact opposite problem my whole life, I don’t exactly have a reference point. The Linzess says to stop taking it and contact your doctor if you have severe diarrhea. It’s to treat IBS-C. I see problems with this, in that most people that need medical intervention for constipation probably don’t really understand what qualifies. However, while I was trying to find a definition, I did find that you should seek medical help for diarrhea lasting for more than 3 days in an adult.

Today, I woke up completely exhausted, and decided to skip classes to recover my strength (my stomach didn’t hurt at 6am). Then I woke up again at 11a, and realized that my stomach hurt again and I was still exhausted. Sadly, I seem to once again have very watery diarrhea. Tuesday, when I had the watery diarrhea, was a Linzess day, and so is today. But I seemed to have adjusted to the Linzess and it wasn’t causing any problems for a week or two so I don’t know if that’s causing it or if it’s a coincidence? Ugh.

Tuesday, I had one non-watery diarrhea episode, and three watery diarrhea episodes. Yesterday, I had one non-watery diarrhea episode but could barely eat anything at all so nothing was in my system to pass through my intestines anyway. Today I have so far had one and I can tell in about two minutes I will need to rush to the restroom again for another episode of watery diarrhea. Does this count as three days? Why is medical intervention necessary after that long? I don’t have any signs of dehydration above anything that is normal for me (my lips are chapped, but they are almost always chapped; my skin isn’t dry and it is still completely elastic). I’m doing my best to drink fluids, but my belly is upset so I can’t do it too quickly or I feel like I’ll vomit. I see my GI doc on Wednesday. I just need to know  if I should be calling my doc tomorrow morning or if I might be okay over the weekend. My Urgent Care centers can give IVs, so I don’t think I’ll have to end up in the ER if i get dehydrated. I’m just worried and very confused. Any advice?

This Time I Didn’t Eat Mold, So What is the Deal?!

(Started writing this 3/29) If you read this post, then you already kind of know what I’m dealing with today. If you didn’t, a quick summary is that last week I accidentally drank a moldy LifeWater and had to deal with watery diarrhea for a day (and overall feel like I was dying).

Today, I had to go to school. I managed to wake up at 6am and make it to my 8am class because I had to take my exam.

instagram waiting at school signed

just waiting…

I haven’t been to class much at all, but my math teacher is very kind and still recognized me by name and seemed very happy to see me today. I had two hours to take my exam, and I finished it in 45 minutes (that was the total time even after looking it back over twice). I had 15 minutes to kill before the “graduation expo” (or whatever they called it) opened, so I could buy my cap and gown, and my next class wasn’t until 10. While I was waiting, my stomach issues of the last few days got worse. The last two days I’ve had a lot of gurgling high up in my abdomen, and I’ve been having a lot of bloating and some distention, but nothing has really been moving. I’ve really just felt awful as a result, and really haven’t wanted to move. I don’t know what has set this off. But while I was waiting to buy my cap and gown, I started to feel even more sick. My lower abdomen started to get stabbing pains (which is usually a sign that things are about to get dramatic in a not so fun way), but it still didn’t feel like anything was moving; the bloating feeling was getting way worse; I felt like I wanted to throw up just to empty my abdomen out, but I’d only eaten two homemade blueberry muffins so I knew that wouldn’t actually help; and my upper abdomen started to get all gurgly again. I started to get the acid feeling in my throat from the urge to vomit, and was swallowing hard to keep it at bay (I knew I didn’t need to and it was just a last ditch “please help” type of reaction). Then I got all light headed, probably from not being able to take all my meds.

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Burn Out

My house is burning out: both Dan and I are burning out, actually. We’re both pushed pretty far towards our limits and both our burn outs are feeding into each other. It’s not a good situation really, but luckily we have each other and the little strength we each have left is stronger together. Dan is really busy with school, and work, and the stuff around the house that I can’t do, and the home improvement stuff that I can’t do, and taking care of me. I’m busy with school, and the stuff around the house that I can do, and trying to get the stuff done for making money that I want to do, and trying to figure out how not to be in so much pain, and all my doc appointments, and dealing with side effects, and getting over a head cold, and trying to figure out what I can actually do around the house, and trying to make sure I have the spoons I need for the commitments in the coming days.

The burn out is really why I haven’t been on here. I’ve just been trying to survive right now. It’s been harder than it sounds. Hopefully, things will start to equal out soon.

Internet Hiatuses Can be Good, When My Stomach Doesn’t Rebel

Whoops. I kind of dropped off the planet for a bit. Though, I have to admit, my three day hiatus from the internet was kind of nice.

fireworksSaturday was my 26th birthday. I can’t believe I’m 26. It’s odd. I am actually starting to finally feel a bit more adult. At the same time, I still feel like I’m “pretending” half the time, but it sounds like that feeling never goes away. Dan and I are starting to fall into an “adulting” rhythm (meal planning, house stuff getting under control, organized, etc) that seems to be really helping to add to the feeling of being an adult. Oh, and I should be graduating in May, which should really help. Not having homework anymore will probably make me feel older.

I woke up on Saturday feeling awful, actually. That morning, it appeared that my new headache medication was really kicking my butt. Or something. I seriously just felt horrid. I was exhausted. cd0ec9ab3ff18c2d10f8c778bd3fc2a9Like, I got out of bed and took a shower and could barely get back into bed type of tired. I’d been up all night tossing and turning and having serious temperature swings and having to pee and it was terrible. Before bed Friday night I’d also suddenly been hit by a wall of exhaustion which pretty much meant Dan had to put me to bed. Thankfully, after rest and some fluids I felt a bit better and was able to get myself pulled together enough to enjoy my tiny get together. Three friends came over and we chatted a bit, played a game, and went to dinner. It was a lot of fun. I pushed myself a little harder than I probably should have, but it was still a much needed emotional uplift. I also realized I do not talk to people outside this blog often enough (or outside of Dan often enough) as I accidentally talked about my physical stuff a little more often than I meant to. Oh well. Thankfully, the friends that came seem to really understand what goes on with me physically so they were very understanding.

Sunday & Monday were interesting…

Rocky Pill Days

So the pill days still seem a bit rough. I’m not completely incapacitated today, however, just a little more ill than I wanted to be. My digestion is still a little worse than I’d like, and the nausea and cramping are back. Thankfully, nothing is as bad as it was. I would definitely say I’m adjusting, but I wouldn’t feel comfortable leaving the house for too terribly long while I’m like this. Hopefully, it’ll be okay soon. I think I’m going to restart my probiotic on non-pill days to help keep things moving. Luckily, actual meals yesterday seemed to go just fine 🙂 Hopefully this is a sign that things are going to look up a bit!

Did My Body Suddenly Adjust, or Will I Feel Like I’m Dying Tomorrow?

So far, today has been a random and sudden surprise. I woke up, and I realized I no longer felt incredibly ill. Of course, I was tentative about it. The nausea was still slightly present, but that’s been pretty constant for several years at this point (I wake up nauseous daily). I ate my oatmeal, and expected the cramping and pain to start back up… but it didn’t! I got dressed, and still nothing. I used the restroom, which is where things usually take a turn for the worse, and my intestines only did a minor bit of spasming but without pain. I went to my first class, and made it all the way through without pain. I went to my second class, and made it all the way through that one without pain too!!!!! I’ve been home for over five hours now, and still [belly] pain free! Each time I use the restroom there seems to be some residual spasming, but no pain and no unpleasant bathroom things. So far, so good! I’ve been able to eat my oatmeal for breakfast, and two blueberry muffins AND some buttered noodles for lunch. I’ve been able to drink some water and a Pepsi and some green tea. So far, I’m actually feeling a lot better.

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