The Following Summer

We are now several months in from when I first started  taking my probiotic.  I religiously took my probiotic morning and night because I was terrified of getting sick again.  I was doing so well over the last several months that I didn't want to go back.  I still did not understand what was or what could be wrong with me at all.  I had tried to track what ate with how I felt. It made no logical sense, but I knew that these probiotics were working so I was going to keep taking them!   However I did't know what lie ahead.  I remember working at the movie theater one Saturday, and we're getting ready to open and I had to rush to the bathroom again!  Panic instantly rushes through my head.  I am not ready to start this again.  I give it some chances to pass, paranoid that I may have to ditch a customer I was helping and run to the bathroom.  Thankfully when that did happen there was another employee was free and able to cover my line.  I finally was able to get some medicine in me and have it relax.   I went home that day my anxiety high and hoping to talk to my mom for some comforting words.  This stuff was so unpredictable and the pain was so intense that it has kind of turned me into a hypochondriac.   I went home and my mom said not to panic since it could just be something I ate or just your body going through stuff.  It happens and every one deals with it so I continued to try and live my life and not worrying about it.   After a couple more weeks, it hit me again. This time around it was not as frequent but it still happened too often for mine or anyone's own comfort.  We decided to try another stool test.  I  was hoping for good news, while I didn't want a ton of issues to surface, but I wanted to know what was wrong and what I was fighting. We even ran ultrasounds on my gallbladder to see if there was any issues.   Sadly the test came back negative.  The doctor said to let it ride for a bit longer and see if subsides.  I switched up my probiotics, and started feeling better again, but I still felt beat up emotionally over what is going on.   Two tests down, and nothing to be found. What the heck is going on?  I shortly started a second job as waitress once I got my confidence back and was feeling great...besides my headaches but that's a bit of a different story...

{{Two Weeks...and More}}

When I got back from Hawaii, it was time to start diving back into my life again.  Which meant I needed to get a car, and a job.  So I went back to the movie theater part time, and I got my other old job back and the bookstore, (formally Borders but in the middle of switching to Books-a-Million.).
As the bookstore was going through an ownership change it meant changing and remodeling everything on the inside.  I was a morning shift of 8-5.  My body had taken a small rest of about a week that it wasn't acting out.  So I thought maybe my stomach pain and issues were just due to the stress of traveling and extreme diet change.   However, once I started back at work it didn't take long for it to kick in.  I was at work maybe a week, (the timeline is a bit fuzzy) when my stomach started acting out again.  I was at work shelving books when it hit me like a mack truck. I had to rush to the bathroom every 5 minutes.  I was in extreme pain and struggled to leave the restroom in order to get back to work.  My stomach felt like I ate rocks all day, it was so swollen and bloated all the time.  I couldn't nor did I want to eat,  I tried drinking Powerade to replenish my electrolytes and have something in my system.  I drank a ton of Rootbeer because it caused me to belch a ton, which helped relieve pressure in my stomach.    The store was about to open and I was nervous about helping people all by myself because what if I had to rush to bathroom in the middle of  checking some one out?  Talk about horrible and awkward, what I couldn't get away in time and had an accident?  What about driving to and from places? How do I deal with this scary unknown that is causing my body to shut down?

After about three weeks of this and realizing it wasn't going to go away we finally made a doctor appointment.   I went in for an evaluation of my symptoms with nervousness that they weren't going to find out what was wrong.   After talking about everything, I was required to take a stool test to see if there was any bacteria or bugs living in there that could be causing my issues.  (you can imagine my excitement...) It took me three days to be able to go in a cup...shocking, I know. Considering other day I was having extreme potty issues, but I was not looking forward to this test so of course my body was like "nah we aren't going to potty right now." Besides the fact that I was practically living on Pepto-Bismol at this point.  After attempting to test my stool, I went back in for my check up...they didn't find anything in the test, but instead gave me a heavy narcotic for my cramps and basically told me good luck.   If that's not frustrating I don't know what is.  I was crushed and didn't know what else to do at this point.  If a doctor can't help me then what am I supposed to do?  I didn't want to believe that I would have to live with this forever but when you aren't offered hope what are you supposed to think?    After a few more days my stomach started to get worse. It was so bloated I thought I would pop. I just went home that night and laid on the couch because I was in extreme pain.  I had tried peppermint pills which did mildly help with my stomach pains.   My mom came home one night with a probiotic for me to try which is supposed to help with stomach issues.  At this point I am not well versed in the importance of good bacteria in your gut.  I was willing to try to see if it helped.  Within half an hour I had significant relief in my  stomach bloating.  I was so excited and hopeful that that's all I needed.  I wish my story ended here.....