I made it through this week. It was difficult at times but I stand by my decision to not bring in a substitute aide. I did have my regular aide in for the day yesterday because I had a doctor appointment. She was so helpful that she made herself available to be here during her vacation. I didn’t even ask her, she offered immediately when she realized I had an appointment.

I went to the gastroenterologist. Always dealing with the back door issues. Everything that was working has stopped working so I need to shake things up again. I have been having luck taking Linzess that I had left from the last time I went to the gastro doctor. I knew I needed the revisit. The only thing was I didn’t go back to the original doctor. Truthfully I liked him a lot but he is just too far. My neurologist recommended him but my neurologist is located on the north shore. I live on the south shore. I instead went to a practice I was at years ago that is closer.

This doctor did my first colonoscopy when I was 43. In my opinion that already makes us intimate. He understood my issue with multiple sclerosis and the bowel but was questioning running tests. He was curious if I ever did the tests to see the strength of my sphincter muscle. He was explaining how to do this. One was an MRI type of thing as I’m moving my bowel. Well, hello, I don’t have a clue when I am going to be moving my bowel. He said oh don’t worry they give you an enema. Well enemas don’t always work for me. I was hoping that was the end of that but then came the next suggestion. That they insert balloons in my butt and inflate them to see how the sphincter reacts. OMG!!! 23 years of having MS do you really need to go in there to test what I know is and has been weak for many many years. I don’t have enough to deal with. Let’s just add to the humility of having multiple sclerosis.

By the grace of whatever was looking down on me that afternoon, he decided to leave those tests alone. He prescribed Linzess again for me. I have a follow up appointment in a month. I am not planning on taking it daily because I think my body gets use to the medication. I have learned my body needs to be confused to work well. Might not make sense but I know my body the best. I certainly know how weak my sphincter is without needing balloons to measure. Well at least I averted that situation. ??