FINALLY!!!!!

Altho, I thought there would be more...stuff. Maybe not all of it's worked it's way out yet? Is it a bad thing if there's a little bit of blood?

While I was, erm...waiting... for things to work their way out, the nurse from my doctor's office called. Said to try miralax. I still feel like I have to do more. Maybe I'll try that to make sure I get everything.

I guess I'll clear my schedule for the day.

Erin - It all depends. How much blood? Was there mucus as well? Were you straining to have a bowel movement? Straining can certainly cause a little blood in your stool. Keep an eye on it and if things get worse, call the dr or go to the ER. There maybe something else wrong other than constipation or in addition to the constipation. Also, keep in mind that some of the stool softeners/laxatives take a day or two to start working. An enema would be more immediate. A colonscopy prep, well...., it works and sometimes fast.

I was trying not to strain, but I probably did a little bit. It wasn't that much blood. Just enough to make me go "oh...there's blood".

Not sure if there was mucus, there was something in the bowl, but it could have been something from the suppository.

I was surprised there wasn't more...stuff...there. It'd been a few days, but the nurse said that if I hadn't been eating a lot of solid food for the past several days, that might explain why there wasn't a giant pile of stuff there.

When my arm was in severe pain the past several days, it's affected my appetite a lot. So, I really wasn't eating all that much. I guess I should be happy that I hadn't put too much stuff into my system the past few days. The pain from the shoulder/arm may have helped this other problem not be so horrible.


I called the orthopedic specialist about my arm a little while ago. Explained that I'd had pain that was bad enough I had to do two ER visits in one day for it, and asked if I could get an appointment sooner than the 11th. So now I have an appointment for wednesday for them to tell me if I actually have frozen shoulder or if it's something MS-ish.

I didn't get much sleep last night, so I think I'm going to go take a nap. I'm tired!

Erin,

Not only the amount of food that you've eaten in the last week, or lack there of, is important to consider, but how much fiber was in it as well. Things that are primarily animal sourced proteins like meat, fish, poultry and dairy products, as well as refined starches like bread, pasta, white rice - all have very little fiber in them and so, tend to leave little residue.

On the other hand, if you have eaten a fair amount of vegetables, complex carbohydrates like oats and whole grains, and fruit, you should expect some substance to remain after digestion.

Hope that this helps and that things back on track for you.
Good luck with the PT for your shoulder.

With love, Erika

I was eating mostly soup, some toast. I did have some apple the other day, and some canned pears yesterday. I really was not eating all that much. I did have some candy, because I bought my mom a three pound box of See's Candy for her birthday that was today. And since there's three pounds of candy, and three people living here. I wanted some of the candy. That probably wasn't the greatest idea to eat that saturday night, because I know chocolate can cause issues.

I'm still not that hungry. I had some soup and toast tonight, but I barely ate the soup. The toast tasted funny to me. I just ate some crackers. Just not feeling all that great still.

at least I'm probably losing a little bit of weight. Probably not the greatest way to lose it, but I'm losing some.

Hoping you are feeling better, Erin.
ANN

I'm sorry, Erin, I know you've been having a rough time, but that made me laugh.

getting ready to go see the orthopedist about whatever is wrong with my arm.

Hopefully it's something he can fix, but I have a feeling that it's something MSish, and that he'll say that he can't help. Because that's the way my life seems to be going all the time.

one good thing to look forward to today, my new iPad is on the UPS truck and "Out For Delivery". So, at least I'll have a new toy to play with later today.

Not to put a damper on your new toy excitement but be careful with how much time you spend on it. I have found that I get shoulder and arm fatigue/pain if I spend too long on the computer. An iPad might be different but I've found that any time I keep my neck and/or arms in the same position for a long length of time I get pain in my neck/shoulder/arm.

I'm back from the doctor. The second emergency room doctor the other night was correct, it was frozen shoulder.

The orthopedist told me that he sees three or four women a week that are my age with frozen shoulder. So apparently it's fairly common. He left the room, and came back with two really huge needles, full of cortisone. He injected both needles directly into my shoulder joint, and told me to sit there and move my arm around for 10 minutes. Came back into the room and my arm still hurt, so he gave me another shot.

For future reference, Cortisone can make you a little queasy.


He gave me a prescription for physical therapy. Hopefully I won't ever have to go back and get those shots ever again, because that really sucked. I do have to say that the morphine shot I got Saturday was more painful than three shots of Cortisone in my shoulder joint today.

I can get my left arm above my head if I help it along with the other arm. It still hurts a little bit, but hopefully I'll be able to wash my hair tonight

Now I'm just sitting here moving my arm around, and waiting for the UPS truck to show up with my iPad Air. I thought it was here a couple of minutes ago, but it was just FedEx with a package for my dad. I was disappointed.