Google Analytics

As I sat here, suffering, I was looking at Google Analytics for my blog. I looked at how many states I've had visits from, and I was kind of blown away by what I saw.

Bet you can't guess where I live. Anyway, I've reached 42 states! You have no idea how good this makes me feel and not because people are reading MY blog, specifically; it's because that many people are reading this blog and possibly finding something that helps them gain control of their IBS. If nothing here works for them, I hope that at least they leave knowing that there's one more person that knows what they're dealing with so they don't feel completely alone.

But, really, Alaska, Delaware, Oklahoma, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont and New Hampshire? There has to be someone with IBS in your states! Help them find this blog! I'm especially upset with Delaware since I vacation in Rehoboth Beach every summer. Ugh. Whatevs.

So, with that out of the way, I am not feeling well today. I'm down to my go-to foods that never cause flare-ups these past two days, but now one of my two options isn't even working for me. So now I just have cereal to fall back on. Yay! (sarcasm)

Yesterday I was randomly nauseous, and today my lovely diarrhea came back along with more nausea and just general crappy feeling-ness. I'm not happy especially because I couldn't remember the last time I even had diarrhea. I was thinking that it was just because I started my period, which never bodes well for my IBS symptoms, but who knows. I like to analyze what may have caused my symptoms, but I'm just not sure what's causing me problems today. I just want it to be over with! It definitely doesn't help that I forgot to take my imodium last night. Bummer.

Back rubs & bloating

I don't know about you guys, but GasX works for me...most of the time. Then there are times like tonight when I'm a complete idiot and decide that I'm craving a cheese quesadilla...a WHOLE cheese quesadilla...and eat one. Then GasX does absolutely nothing.

The gas gets so bad that it causes stomach cramps that take my breath away when it shifts. I can't sit up straight, I can hardly breathe, and I sure as heck can't talk. It just lodges itself in massive pockets along my GI tract and moves along when it feels like it. It feels like a baseball sitting in my stomach, trying to get through.

That's where my boyfriend's amazing back rubs come in. He's gotten really good at tailoring the massages to disperse the pockets of built up gas so I can feel somewhat normal again. I've found that it helps the most when he sticks to the area below my ribs on the outside of my back and kind of wrapping around to the sides of my stomach. It definitely is a little uncomfortable when it starts shifting the gas all around, but it's 10 times more effective than GasX.

With that said, the bloating has obviously come back, but it's only bad when I do stupid things like I did tonight. It still isn't as big of a problem as before the manipulation, but it's not as good as it was right after I had that done. Stools are still awesome though lol

Update on the soft tissue manipulation

So last Wednesday was the day that I had the manipulation done. I was in pretty intense pain until Saturday.

Thanks to my awesome anxiety issues, I even looked up hernia symptoms and bowel perforation symptoms...luckily neither fit my situation. But if that tells you anything, it should tell you how bad it hurt. I sat in my living room or laid in my bed Thursday through Saturday with my heating pad moaning and complaining. It really, really sucked. I'm incredibly happy I didn't have class or work, or I would have had to miss it.

That was the bad part; now onto the good.

I have had COMPLETELY NORMAL STOOLS since the manipulation. Like 100% normal normal. I can't remember the last time that happened. I get excited every now and then because it somewhat resembles a normal stool, but everything was normal about it. No urgency, completely formed, no nausea/shaking/sweating, and I actually felt like I was finished when I was finished. No leaving the bathroom uneasy only to return minutes later.

That isn't the only part though. I also have been able to eat without becoming bloated afterwards...at all. I have been having a lot of problems with really painful bloating recently, so that has been wonderful these past few days.

I just got back from my chiropractor who must have apologized 10 times for making hurt that bad for that long, but he said that I'd probably still need to do it at least one more time. We'll see about that. He likened it to lifting weights. If you haven't lifted weights in 20 years and you go and lift a lot the first day, you're going to be in a lot of pain. You're also going to have to try again if you want to get the results you want. Luckily I won't have to have the manipulation done as many times as the weight lifter would have to go back to the gym, but I might have to do it again. We'll see.

For now, I'm just really excited about my freaking poop being normal.

"Soft tissue manipulation"

If you EVER hear these words, RUN FOR THE HILLS!

Last night I was at the chiropractor, and we were talking after he had adjusted by neck and back. I was describing to him the gas pains and tightness I feel in my stomach, and he had me get back on the table. He examined my intestines all while going, "Oh my...OH my goodness!" Apparently what he felt was bad.

He told me that there's something called a soft tissue manipulation that kind of "jump starts" or "reboots" the system that is manipulated. He explained that it was like my intestines had short circuited like a computer and that it just needed to be jump started to start working correctly again. He's hoping that this is the thing that finally works.

What he did is push down really, really far into my abdominal area with the fingers of one hand and, with his other hand, he did a like twisting or snapping motion with the other. The pushing down part was incredibly painful...he was going down probably a full 4 inches into my intestines and it not only hurt but also created a lot of upward pressure. Awesome for emetophobes, let me tell ya ;) The snapping motion felt like he had one of my nerves and was blocking the conductance for a second. After the snap, it felt like the shock you get after shuffling your feet and touching something in the winter- just in my intestinal area...

Right after he did it, it felt like the feeling you get when you're incredibly hungry and it feels like your stomach is going to collapse in on itself. When I got home and was showering about 20 minutes later, the feeling turned to more of an abdominal muscle pain that you get after doing 2000 situps or so. After dinner, so about an hour after, and up until now the pain is the weirdest thing I've ever felt down there. It's behind my ab muscles, similar to hunger pains, but also similar to gas pains, but all of that times 100 plus the feeling of having been sucker-punched about 30 times. Also I'd describe it as what I would think someone removing your guts and stuffing them back in haphazardly would feel like.

It hurts mostly when I move, but occasionally hurts when I'm just sitting still. I took the half tablet of Imodium last night like I always do, but I also took a GasX because he said one lady that he did it on had said that the problem she had with it is that it gave her really bad gas pains.

As far as the benefits, I'm having a little trouble seeing past the pain right now. It doesn't rate very high on the pain scale- I'd say like a 6 or a 7- but it's just constant and makes for a very uncomfortable me. As with all muscle pain, I'm sure it'll be gone by tomorrow and I'll hopefully see some benefits. As for now, I've noticed that my gas distribution is a lot better. My gas tends to get caught in one little pocket of my intestines and cause me a ton of pain. It's in a spot that I can't burp or toot it out, but immediately after the manipulation, I noticed that I was able to move my gas through me and get it out finally.

He told me that he'd like to do this soft tissue manipulation at least once more, but I'm not sure I really want that. We'll see if this pain turns out to be worth it enough to suffer through it again.