Tuesday, June 16, 2009

fiber pill experiment

I have finished my fiber pill experiment. The results are that the psylium based pills help and the inulin based pills do not. I did not even finish the three days of the inulin pills. The three days with no pills felt somewhere in between. I would like to say that the psylium pills brought me back to feeling normal, but that is not the case. I have some good days and some not so good days. I think the immunosuppressants are just too powerful to completely overcome.

Gary and I are heading to St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands soon. We have been really looking forward to the trip. We missed our vacation last year when I had the transplant. It will be so nice to enjoy a beach vacation such as this with no insulin pump to contend with.

Thursday, June 11, 2009

State Champs

Gary's track team became the Division 2 State champs on Saturday.  It was very exciting right to the end.  The team overcame disappointing injuries of both his fastest sprinter and fastest distance runner to make things even more interesting.  He is very lucky to have an athletically gifted and dedicated team and a talented and enthusiastic staff to make this goal a reality.  I know that his dad was watching intently.

The girls and I went to Columbus to watch and had a great day seeing Gary in action (and soaking up some sunshine).  Our son was in Hawaii at the time, but kept in contact too.

Thursday, June 4, 2009

Crazy Stomach

I am still struggling with my stomach. I seem to have taken a turn for the worse and am trying to figure out why and what to do about it. The only medication I take for it is the fiber supplements. A few weeks ago, I found one that is in a chewable form instead of a capsule. That seemed much more appealing to try in addition to all of the other capsules I take daily. Now I am wondering if that was my downfall. I am now trying an experiment to see if can determine its effects.

I am taking the full dose, 6 pills a day for three days, and then no pills for three days. I am already on the second day of no pills and I think it is better. The third day of the pill days was the worst day yet.

I am still not good, but better. I am going to try not taking any pills for awhile and see how that goes, and then try the capsules again to see if they have a different effect. This sure is a crazy problem. It is so frustrating to have health issues limit my activities. I had to back out of my golf league this year, not because I don't feel like playing, but because there just are not enough bathrooms on the course.

I did learn one interesting thing about my crazy stomach. A few weeks ago, we went out to dinner with some friends and had a really long wait for our table. During the wait, I had 2 margaritas. After awhile, I noticed that the irritation that I had been feeling in my intestinal area was gone. I laughed about it at the time, but it has never come back!