Bad Days

TMI Warning: There will be poop talk.

"Mama said there'd be days like this, there'd be days like this my mama said." Figures that they'd eventually catch up to me. Yesterday it did. A long, long day full of belly cramps and aches in which I did little more than constantly move from the chair to the sofa to the bed, mostly the bed. With a tired numb expression of angst. One of the things I've been fighting with since surgery is constipation. When your guts get jostled around and some get removed, they're angry at you for a while. And though I believe we've moved past the 'angry guts' phase, I think we're still in the 'we don't trust you, keep a sideways eye on you' phase. Amoungst what I call all my new 'old lady' accessories (heating pad, butt donut, prescriptions) is a laxative that I take almost daily. The instructions say not to take it for more than a week at a time, but I think that sometimes the rules have to be broken. It seems every time I skip a day that I pay for it slightly a couple days later. I happened to skip two days early last week because it seemed like everything was moving along just fine. Three days without pooping later, on top of whatever chemo introduced to the picture, and I paid. Dearly.

I've learned a lot of new things about how poop works in the body over the last couple months. More than I think I wanted to know. Eating stimulates chemicals and hormones in the body to start moving the prior meal along. Water is very important to regular pooping. Heat also helps when you are bound up. So I spent a lot of a 100+ hot day (thankfully we do have some a/c) laying on a heating pad, drinking lukewarm water, and not eating. Oh yeah, the water. One of the lovely side effects of the Oxaliplatin is neuropathy, which is a sensitivity to cold. Drinking cold liquids feels like someone jabbing your throat with pins and needles. I haven't actually experienced it, but just trying some below room temperature water gave me a really strange crackling feeling in my throat. Enough to convince me not to test it. Now mind you, I did want to eat and I tried. But when your belly is cramping as bad as mine was and you can't sit straight due to consequent back pain, it ain't so easy. There was a lot of poop happening all day and night though. Hard little poops that had been sitting in my suspicious guts just waiting to say "I told you so."

Woke up feeling so much better today. However, the not eating for over 24 hours didn't go over so well. Actually, more like 30 hours since the last real meal I had eaten on Thursday didn't stay down. Many of you have likely heard me say that I'm always looking forward to new experiences when the opportunity presents itself. Passing out was not an experience on the list. My husband was here however, and he caught me before I upended into the cat litter box on my way to the bedroom. I find it funny now. After another nap (I'm turning into my cats with the constant sleeping!), I woke up hungry and craving fruit. It still amazes me how the body knows how to fix itself. I've eaten frequent small meals today, even helped make dinner, and am feeling right up to my perky old self again. Today was a better day and I am thankful.