Tag: GI

Magnesium/GI Issues

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2021

At least it’s not 2020. But here I am, talking about poop, in gory, gory detail. You were warned.

I ditched the Mg supplement prior to the PCP appointment. The serum levels were normal. So…

I am not constipated. I poop all the time. Like every time I pee. I poop hard rocklike pellets. I’m guessing it takes about 4 days at least for food to make it through. For me. For most people, it takes 2-5 days, says the Mayo clinic (found with a cursory google search “average time it takes food to exit the body as poop.”)

My insurance company sent a colon cancer screening kit. All I had to do was get some of this granite poop onto a toothpick with bristles and into a tiny plastic case with an even tinier hole in the top.

Attempt #1: my rock-hard poop would not stick to the toothpick no matter what I did. I got a couple of dark brown sand-sized grains onto it, sent it off, and got a new kit in the mail. With the letter saying they couldn’t process the first one. I’m guessing because it didn’t have poop in it.

Attempt #2: I took 1/8 cup of miralax and a little laxative pill. Nothing happened. Tried it again 8 hours later. Again, not even a stomach rumble. The next day, I took 2g (that’s grams, my friend) of Mg in the span of 12 hours. Four 500mg supplements. It took 2 additional days of this dosage to get poop soft enough to put in the apparatus.

Balancing my elbows on the counter and my wrists against a prop, I was able to get some poop in (and some poop out) of the container. Awaiting word of my success.

Meanwhile, nothing else in my life seemed to change with the magnesium. I stopped it, and within a couple of days, rock poop again.

I just don’t know. Clearly I have no answers 🙂

Sensation

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How Huntington Disease Is Affecting Touch, Satiety, and GI Sensations

gender

I don’t hear much about loss of proprioception or sensation. And even less about how it affects GI issues with Huntington Disease. So here goes, though it may be TMI. You were warned.

Sensation: What I Feel (Or Don’t)

My hands and fingers will sense, when touching my leg or arm, that I’m touching someone else’s extremity. Once I see blood I know I’ve cut myself (again) trying a mani/pedi.  I have to floss in the mirror to be able to tell which teeth I’m between. 

I’ve lost sensation in all the nether parts, too. For the last decade or so it’s been hard to orgasm. I can’t tell if I’m peeing (and can’t feel wetness), which can lead to some really awkward situations. I poo perfectly normally except that there’s no advance warning – once I feel I have to go, I have minutes, at most. Worse yet, I can’t hold it. I’ve lost a lot of underwear to public bathroom wastebaskets.  

Satiety

Is my lack of satiety related to other sensory issues? I haven’t felt ‘full’ after eating in years. At least a decade. I can literally eat and drink until it’s hard to breathe or lie on my stomach. And still won’t feel full.

Hacking the Situation

Since I can’t trust my appetite, I rely on timing and visual cues for portioning. I kegel and qigong tap and do proprioceptive and balance exercises. Wait to leave the house until the morning poop. Keep wipes tucked in my bra, since a public stall is no place for my shit coordination to rifle through a bag. I postpone eating if I’m leaving the house for more than a couple of hours, eat out only if I can get home soon after, and fast all day for air travel.

I know this will get worse, it’s HD. But for now I’m mid stage and looking to function as close to normally as possible.

Photo by Hafidz Alifuddin on Pexels.com