About my coccyx...

Intriguing title, huh? Well, I thought so anyway.

Today I was blessed with a major migraine. You know the kind- lights hurt, sound hurts, lovely sloshy feeling in your head, want to take an ice pick and a hammer to your head migraine. This month I'm on my 3rd (!) pharmacy rotation at a small independent pharmacy, and the people there are just wonderful. The pharmacist I was working with today noticed how much pain I was in and told me I could go home.

Instead of going home, I decided to move my chiropractor appointment up to today instead of waiting until Wednesday. I hadn't been in about a month and figured that was part of the reason for my migraine today.

Now, I know what you're thinking- "This girl goes to the chiropractor? What a looney bin!" and I'm right there with you. Up until a few months ago, I thought chiropractors were sleazy old men trying to make a buck off of unsuspecting looney bins. Until I tried it out. I had been having migraines every.single.day for a few months and nothing else was working. I also couldn't find a doctor who cared enough to really try to get to the bottom of it.

One day, I read something on Twitter or someone on Twitter told me I really needed to see a chiropractor, so I decided I'd try it. What could it hurt? Well, I was pretty sure it could hurt a lot. I even thought I'd end up either addicted to it like I'd heard or paralyzed. Seriously.

Long story short, I went, I got adjusted, I didn't get paralyzed, and my migraines AND headaches went away. I also lost that annoying as hell stiffness that was everpresent in my upper back and shoulders.

It was until today that I mentioned to my chiropractor what a shitty month I've been having- I've been having diarrhea multiple times a day again, major MAJOR, painful bloating, stomach cramps, nausea, urgency, pain, etc etc etc. He said, "Have we talked about this before?!" I told him that I mentioned it when I first came in, but that my main concern then was my migraines. He told me about some other cases of IBS that he had seen and how all of the people (all girls) had seen major relief once he adjusted their coccyx.

He asked if I'd ever fallen down and hit my tailbone, and I told him I had played basketball since 1st grade and had a bully in grade school always pulling my chair out from underneath me...so, uh, yeah I'd fallen on my tailbone a time or five hundred. He felt for my tailbone and found that it had been pushed up at almost a 90º angle to my spine. He explained to me all of the nerve plexus that attach to the coccyx and how if it isn't positioned correctly, the parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous systems get all out of whack and can cause some major problems with your GI system.

While all of this sounds absolutely lovely, and I really hope it helps, I'm not exactly won over with his argument. I've had these problems since I was 7 years old, and I don't expect anything to be this easy. With that said, I'm seriously hoping he's right and that I'll have some major relief after a few more adjustments. For now, I'm just happy he's fixed my migraine situation.

I'll keep you all updated on the coccyx situation.

IBS thoughts

I'm sitting here eating breakfast, and I just realized what I was thinking about.  I was thinking about all of the things I had left to do to get ready for work and worrying about how much time I have left after all that to go to the bathroom. Do normal people worry about things like that?

Rough stretch

The past couple of weeks (or is it months? Time has been flying by lately) have not been easy. While there have been some great days, most of them just seem to be rotten.

I feel like I'm getting back to the old days where simple food that I've previously had no problems with rip me apart. I'm back down to 125. Actually, when I weighed myself last night I was 124.6. :( I'll just pretend I never saw that because it depresses me. I swear it seems like yesterday when I had decided I was going to start cooking for myself instead of sticking to my staple foods. Now, not only can I not handle the meals I was cooking, I can hardly even handle my staple foods.

I've been eating mostly cereal the past couple of weeks with a few other meals thrown in there when I feel like I can handle it. A huge part of the cause seems to be stress. Other than random changes in my body's chemistry, that's all I can think of that could have changed. I just finished my last final today, so hopefully that helps.

I'm still going to my therapist and beginning CBT; I can't wait to see if that can really help me. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it does! I just can't deal with this downward progression in health and weight...there's only so much I can lose before I start feeling like a zombie all the time again.

The last few days

The last few days have been anything but pleasant. I either a) ate something really wrong, b) got food poisoning or c) caught the stomach bug that's been going around.

It all started Thursday afternoon when I had cheese dip & chips then followed it with a PopTart. Yes, I know how foolish this was, but I was craving each thing & thought I'd reward myself by giving into my cravings. It did not turn out to be a reward whatsoever.

I spent most of the evening in the bathroom until the Pepto and Imodium kicked in. After that I felt so nauseous that I had my doctor call in an antiemetic for me. The nurse on the phone said that a stomach bug was going around (which I already knew) and tried to tell me to just stay hydrated and eat a bland diet. I then told her that I have a phobia of vomit, and asked her to please call in some medicine for me. Luckily, the doctor did & I got a little piece of mind.

I didn't end up having to use it, but just knowing it was there in case I needed helped calm my nerves at least. Part of the difficulty with IBS is never knowing just what causes your symptoms. I've had that cheese dip before & never had problems. Granted, it was about a week old & I might have had a bit much; adding a PopTart on top of it probably didn't help either. But it was just so sudden and severe that I can't say it was entirely due to IBS. So my poor boyfriend has been upset since it started because I've been avoiding him, just to avoid giving him anything I might have.

One good thing about the last couple days is that I only lost 2 pounds instead of my normal 5! I'm also recovering pretty well & have already started eating normally again with only minimal stomach upset. Usually after episodes or sicknesses it takes my body a lot longer to get back to normal. Let's hope it continues this way so I can be well for finals!