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.

So much discomfort

I'm in the middle of my finals week right now, so I know a lot of what I'm feeling probably won't stick around for very long but for the past 2-3 weeks I have been feeling so much discomfort. I usually feel it right after I finish a meal.

You know the feeling you get after having a huge meal? I think they call it...full...lol. Well, I haven't felt that since this round of IBS started. I get something similar to a full feeling but it's more just bloating and tons of nasty gurgles. But lately it's been the bloating, nasty gurgles AND pain. When I was younger, the pain would feel like something had stuck a baseball in the middle of my belly and was just rolling it around, but now it's more of a generalized pressure type pain. I feel like my intestines are going to burst or something. So now, after finishing a meal, I have to sit in one position while my insides figure it out.

I tend to think it's just gas, but the gas pain I get is usually sharp and stabbing and doesn't last this long. It does help when I burp or pass gas another way ;) however.

Has anyone experienced this type of discomfort after eating? What do you do to get rid of it? GasX just isn't doing the job...