Learn from my cautionary TMI tale...

My digestive system has always been pretty fragile, comes with the neurodivergency and all. The short leg and pelvic tilt that the hip replacement fixed didn't help that any, nor does my spinal cord injury or the abdominal fascia trigger points from my huge tits that choke off my intestines...

This is what I'm pretty sure happened yesterday:

1. I'm eating bigger portions than I usually do right now, to get my body the calories it needs to heal. But, I'm following the hospital's constipation prevention methods... and I usually take three times as much Senokot as they had me taking up until yesterday. So, my large intestine was full to capacity. Not blocked or impacted, just not moving.

2. That meant that stuff was hanging around in my small intestine waiting for it's turn to digest. And I added something to that chemical mix that filled my intestines up with gas like an overworked clown making balloon animals. I think it's the chili, but who knows, could be any of the medications I'm on.

3. That meant I had to deal with the distended, too painful to touch belly by first clearing out my large intestine (which took all day yesterday), and then by neutralizing the gas and moving it out of the small and into the large to pass. That took literally all night. I didn't sleep a wink. I also haven't consumed more than water and Miralax in the past 32 hours, so everyone's convinced I'm going to pass out and screw up my hip.

The kicker? I waited nine months to get in to see a Gastroenterologist, after dealing with severe constipation all last year. But once I got in the office, they sent me to a Nurse Practitioner who didn't listen to me, never got me a follow-up appointment, prescribed a medication that made me very ill, and then proceeded to drop me when I requested another medication that needed a prior authorization. The prior authorization was submitted in October, they never even followed up the request. And she knew full well I'd be getting my hip replaced and would need special post-op constipation precautions, I wrote her the minute I got my surgery date. So, I fully didn't have to suffer like this if some Nurse Practitioner had decided I was worth some actual care and passed me on to a doctor a few months back. Ain't American healthcare great?