Heard from my GI doctor today. My CT was..."unremarkable," aka "normal." While I'm glad nothing really serious showed up, I'll admit to being disappointed that I still don't have a solid answer for what's causing my pain. I wanted it to show something. But it didn't. I'm glad we did the CT, as now we've at least ruled out any kind of mass, hernia, or cyst. The doctor would like to do a colonoscopy, as he's convinced the pain is somehow related to my colon. As much as I don't look forward to that procedure, I'm going to do it. Next Monday. He asked that I run the day before so that the inflammation would be more likely to show up during the procedure. I'm running 17 on Sunday, so that should do the trick. If I have what he suspects--exercise-induced ischemic colitis--the inner lining of the colon should present with some damage. He hoped that it might show up on the CT scan as thickening, but nothing did. He told me that if the CT was normal we'd do a colonoscopy. And if the CT was abnormal we'd do a colonscopy. So I should have seen this coming.
If the colonoscopy is normal, I'm not sure how next to proceed. My pain is very real, unbelievably frustrating, and extraordinarily peculiar. It's not a running injury (I do take a bit of comfort in that) and I don't appear to be sick in any way. I'm eerily reminded of my experience with compartment syndrome. I had these intense symptoms that would reproduce about 1.5 miles into my run. This pain does the same, and it's a pulling/squeezing feeling just like the compartment syndrome. Oh, and no one knows what it is either. Every doctor I see just tells me how interesting it is. Just like they did with the compartment syndrome. I remember the day, after months of struggling with it, I finally got a diagnosis for that condition. While I was hit with the fact that, if I ever wanted to run more than 2 miles, I'd have to have double fasciotomies, I was overcome by joy. Finally, an answer. I'm hoping I can get that same feeling with this. But it appears that it's going to be a process.
I had visceral manipulation done today. Kent was hoping that I had been pain free over the weekend. Though I wasn't, I told him I did manage a decent 20 miler. Today he worked on my rectum (via pressing on my abdomen--not in the way you might think). He's done that once before. Presses down with his fingers through my abdominal wall. It is extraordinarily tender, and apparently it's not supposed to be. I felt it release and the pain subsided. My rectum and right kidney were the only two issues today, and he fixed both of them. The right kidney makes sense with the back pain I've been having. But I'm confused as to why nothing showed up on the left, as I've been having pain there too. Anyway--I still have the nagging pain on my right upper abdomen, and it wraps around my side and into my back on occasion.
Today is a rest day and I'm scheduled for 12 tomorrow. I also have my pre-op visit for the colonoscopy, which I'm pretty sure will consist of them telling me how to clean out my colon prior to the procedure. Nice. Anyway--onward.
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