Catching up - Part II

Now that I've recovered from my little nervous breakdown...

As promised, I am posting again to catch everyone up on everything that's gone on in the last month.  I know.  You were all on the edge of your seat just waiting for part 2 of my original post, "Catching up - Part I".   I'm sure it's been very stressful since I left you in such suspense.  You can all relax now.  I'm here to tell you more, tell you more... like does he have a car.

I have had 2 other doctors appointments in the last couple of weeks.  The first of which was with a colorectal surgeon that the GI doc referred me to.  As I'm sure you could guess, there's more poop talk coming.  So if you're one of those people who gets embarrassed by discussions about poop, this is your cue to stop reading.

As I've already discussed before, my entire GI system is slower a snail going uphill on a salted sidewalk.  In addition to that, whenever I have a bowel movement, I have to utilize the pushing techniques I learned in lamaze class despite having very soft, usually easy to pass, stool.  I was informed by the GI doc that the colorectal surgeon would be able to do tests on the muscles used to have a successful bowel movement.  So, since I don't have enough fun in my life, I agreed to see the colorectal surgeon so he could put things in the orifice which is normally labeled as a one way street.

Sure enough, he explained that he believes that I have "pelvic floor dyssynergia" or "anismus".  Everyone has muscles in their pelvic floor surrounding the colon/rectum that stay contracted.  When having a bowel movement, those muscles contract to allow stool to pass.  However, in anismus, those muscles do not relax.  So, in addition to my entire GI system not wanting to move, the muscles  that help the stool pass do not work either.  BUT (no pun intended)... like I said above, he "believes" that that's my problem.  So, lucky me!  I get to endure more tests that will determine for sure what is going on.  I am SO looking forward to more tests that require cold hard objects to travel the wrong way on a normally one way street on my body.  Three of them, in fact!!!  While all of you suckers have to work all the time, I get to do fun stuff like that.  Ha - Ha!!!  (said like Nelson from the Simpsons)

So, I will have to let you know at a later time what comes of all of the poop shoot tests.  To Be Continued...

In 5 days I will be traveling to Atlanta for an appointment with Dr. Fran Kendall.  She is a renowned mitochondrial disease specialist.  I actually met her briefly at the UMDF symposium last June.   She gave a few talks.  I have also talked to numerous people who are or were patients of hers.  They have said nothing but good things about her.  Whereas Dr. Shoffner, also from Atlanta, was able to diagnose me, he was not turning out to be very good at taking care of things  when I am not in his office.  Dr. Kendall will be able to manage the mito aspect of my care from a distance.  For instance, if I come down with a virus, she will be able to talk to my primary care physician about what needs to be done since my body handles illness a lot differently than a normal person.  In addition, follow up appointment will be held via webcam from the comfort of my house.  I am hoping that this will be my last trip to Atlanta.

We are leaving Tuesday at the butt crack of dawn and returning Wednesday late afternoon.  I have to admit, I am very nervous about the amount of activity required for this trip.  In "Catching up - Part III", I will let you know what has been going on with me and how sick I get when I have too much activity.

Until next time...