Well, it’s changed…

So my abdominal pain has changed. Maybe this is a good thing.

All I know is that I’ve decided that Rubraca is to blame, and I’m going off of it. I’ve been having various GI and abdominal pain issues since two weeks after I started it, and this is unsustainable to me. Quality of Life has suffered immensely.

The most recent episode has changed where I’m experiencing the pain. If you’ve been following along, first it was upper right quadrant, and it was decided that it was due to constipation. It was discovered that there was a stricture at my sigmoid colon. Changed things up dietarily and saw various practitioners and I think maybe that stricture has released. Constipation resolved.

However, still pain. And not just upper right quadrant but across the front and top of my belly too.

See massage therapists and rolfer and maybe make some progress on the assumption that maybe the pain is due to scar tissue, so work on loosening that up. Okay, maybe it’s working a little. Don’t know. Rolfer is encouraged that what he had worked on last week stuck, so he didn’t have to start over this week. That’s good.

Took various pills, meds, supplements one evening, maybe three or four evenings ago, and woke up at 2:00 a.m. in tremendous pain in my belly. Took acetaminophen and ibuprofen, which was probably a mistake, being an NSAID. Works like a charm though. Then two days ago had a small bowl of Indian vegetables, which I thought were mild in spiciness but were medium, with some white rice, and it was like an instant explosion of pain in my stomach. And my body spent the next 12 hours getting it all out, in sort of traumatic and violent ways, I’m sure you can imagine. So now I’m thinking I have a stomach ulcer. Was able to visit virtually with my PCP, she advised omeprazole twice a day, which luckily I have on hand, and so now I’m eating with the perspective of low-acid, stomach-healing, gentle food.

What would normally be done to diagnose an ulcer is an endoscopy but she says with Covid-19 going on they won’t even do it. But the treatment would be the same regardless. So I’m starting that, and also looking into other natural cures, which as I’m reading, include aloe vera juice, curcumin, cabbage juice, licorice, etc.

The one sort of interesting and unexpected side effect, possibly of all that retching, is that maybe the scar tissues have loosened up or got broken down. My friend Maria was telling me about her post-knee-surgery scar tissue problem, where she couldn’t straighten out her leg, and the “cure” was tripping on a hiking trail, landing wrong, and breaking up that scar tissue amidst a lot of pain, and then after that she was all better. I’m definitely not feeling the other abdominal pain nearly as much, so maybe I’m all better in that realm. Or maybe I’m just very occupied with feeling stomach pain right now.

All I know is I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired in my belly. I just want to feel normal-ish. I have this tremendous covid-19 staycation going on and I don’t feel up to doing much. Everyone else seems to be doing major projects, gardening, whatever, and here I am just literally sitting or lying around. Ugh.

Speaking of Maria and Covid-19, she’s had it and recuperated from it, and said it was the sickest she’s ever been. So, keep being mindful about physical distancing, but do keep in touch socially, as we are herd animals and need each other. But it is nice to have a valid, government-enforced, reason to just stay home. I am a true introvert at heart. I know this is probably killing our extroverted friends. Here’s hoping we as humans will learn some new, or maybe relearn some old, ways of being, so that post-pandemic, this world can be a nicer place.