The Splenic Flexure Syndrome In Depth Path To Health

I've spoken on this topic on You Tube and created detailed emails for viewers searching for help. Since I created another website for a different purpose, I have the space to do so in case somebody asks me what to do about this. This mostly unknown disease, less the acute visitations to a hospital emergency, not being the intractable form, I think you know by now that there isn't much information on it's intractable form. There are few reputable medical websites with limited knowledge but how many physicians do you know that have heard of it? I don't know the true incidence and I don't think they will unless people like myself open up. It's the medical community responsible pertaining to gastroenterology in University schools of medicine and biology. Like the spinal disease I suffer with as you can clearly see my hosting site, it's no different in terms of not being widely known. What happens when a rare disease isn't spoken about or taught? People suffer in silence.

I'll do my utmost to detail the ins and outs of what I personally experienced and how you should follow my lead. First, if this is you, why not make a You Tube channel and just take five minutes to document your experience and make the world a little more tolerable for people like you and I. My troubles began back in 2007 with an acute injury to the abdomen. I faced many troubles other than the splenic flexure syndrome. In short, I was left with terrible adhesions from my pelvis to my sternum bone. My colon had to be resected and also at the splenic flexure which wasn't made known to me unbelievably until years later when I faced this horrible syndrome. There I was going to each appointment and they had that information in hand but didn't expand on it with me despite my pleas for help. Certainly, it would have helped me in my journey which would have guaranteed me the diagnosis that I believed it was years earlier. I will make this clear as day to you. I do not have a formal diagnosis and may never get it. I'm past that point. My physician's know and even gastroenterologists had no idea what I was even speaking about, as if it were such a rare occurrence and likely is. During an emergency visit to the hospital for a separate matter for my gallbladder, I told the attending physician that it was uncommon but she rudely denied that it was and that she had seen it throughout her career. What did she mean by that? This is important to understand, to prove that these emergency physician's haven't a clue about the intractable form. As I mentioned above, I have severe adhesions that are quite painful. They are extensive. I took a regular regimen of opioids for intractable pain years prior and after my surgery in the abdomen and within a few weeks, the opioids were not working the same and in fact failing to provide adequate pain control which confused the heck out of me. It would be a long road to discovering the complexity of what was occurring. Although I state that the year 2015 was the origin, the reality is that it was building very slowly and mysteriously due to adhesions. The type of pain I suffer with doesn't allow for me not to take a powerful opioid which I have to accept to live. My surgery had triggered both lactose intolerance and celiac sensitivity. My diet was being reduced. Many foods were making me sick and I could only stick to chicken and rice and safe meals like microwave healthy meals. I was 187 pounds when this all began. My weight was reducing without lowering my diet at first which pointed to a disease process. Opioids made it difficult enough to achieve laxation but my constipation increased five fold to the point where I was forced time and time again, over and over, to travel to the emergency room for dirty enemas and I was known to the staff all over the city. Boy did laxatives and enemas ever burn and I certainly attribute that to the splenic flexure syndrome by having your gas and air trapped with a messy laxative and burning soap which is most effective. It felt like hell and colonic therapists made it even worse. I don't recommend them due to this rare syndrome. What medical papers are there that do this any justice? Don't worry, I will do my best to explain how to achieve laxation once more and on a daily basis. Although my abdominal injury was severe with adhesions, I did recover nicely despite extensive adhesions. One main cause of the SFS is adhesions but certainly not the only cause. When adhesions are formed, they come in all different shapes and sizes and heal in specific time periods which I wished I understood at the time. It can take anywhere from 1 to 10 years for an adhesion to heal, meaning that they shrink. I have physical proof that they did by my own bellybutton which was pulled upwards by an inch which is significant. Like most, if not all of you who have the true intractable SFS, have lost a significant amount of weight or enough. I put myself through so many tests and laxatives and not that i was addicted to them but how was I supposed to go to the bathroom? I hear frequently in my comments section and emails something I echoed long ago without understanding by any physician and was only left in shame by something they hadn't any knowledge about. A common theme in my life.

If I slept and woke up, I was able to pass gas but only for a specified period of time and then it stopped. Of course at the start, I couldn't figure out why. It's traumatic to have your gastrointestinal system altered in the blink of an eye. A daily bowel movement is necessary for your health and so is passing gas. These simple functions can easily be taken for granted. Being able to relieve yourself by a movement or flatulence feels good because God designed it that way. When either one or both become trapped, the result is incessant colic from the backup, not unlike a clog in a sink. Nowhere in literature is it stated (as I am the first) that this is a pseudo - blockage and I have done my best to make national websites aware, such as national rare diseases. They took the information but never called back for the specifics. Is it not worthy? This is the ignorance being displayed by the medical community. This disease or disorder you might call it can be dangerous for specified reasons further in my article. What emergency physician's encounter from time to time or even daily is a form of the splenic flexure that can occur in every human being for a variety of reasons. An arrogant emergency physician challenged me after briefly stating how uncommon this is as I was there for another abdominal cause. Be careful as not all physicians are alike. One may be rude and dismissive based on their personality, not yours. Another might be interested in learning further which to be honest are more difficult to find nowadays. Anyone can have this syndrome induced if they meet the right requirements but not in it's intractable form. It may start with Halloween trick or treating and a later binge of chocolate and candy mixed with loads of chocolate milk. Binging these foods can create large pockets of air/gas and stool in an acute large amount which triggers a pseudo - blockage at the splenic flexure. It's the same in regards to gum chewing in large amounts or alcohol consumption like a dozen beer bottles worth possibly mixed with French fries and cheese after consumption of the alcohol. If it builds up in the right amount, they will find themselves in an acute attack which is no different than you and I in terms of the intractable form who deal with cycle after cycle. All you have to do is ask somebody who has been to the ER for that and say "how would you like to have that repeatedly?" A simple enema, whether soap suds or a portable enema should suffice. That's the difference that the emergency doctor I dealt with wasn't aware of and displayed complete ignorance which turned into arrogance. Maybe you too have left hospitals feeling shameful because they told you nothing was wrong and affected your mental health as will occur if you push for diagnosis.

To be honest, and I have mentioned this from the beginning; this syndrome changed my personality through restlessness, having to move so much and shift constantly due to the transverse colon digging into the left side and rib into the splenic flexure. No, this isn't comparable to ulcerative colitis or Crohn's disease as are the most common chronic acute disorders and I'm not attempting to minimize that hell. I believe this syndrome should be on that list or another one due to the distress it causes. Also, the medical establishment should make available the medications we need to survive. Where I live which is Canada, Buscopan used to be a prescription and it was covered. No other medication even comes close. They consider a drug like Buscopan limited use but without it, I couldn't eat. I haven't tried Hyoscamine which is the other possible treatment as the United States outlawed sales of Buscopan for a petty reason that shouldn't have stopped sales. Any side effects are minimal at best and have no addictive qualities. Instead, in a bid to make more money for Big Pharma, they turned them onto store shelves for irritable bowel syndrome. Buscopan is now a top treatment for IBS which is understandable but know that Buscoapn (hyoscine) was designed for acute colic, kidney stones, and gallbladder attacks and treats this syndrome and making it possible to eat again with some comfort. The drug was designed for acute and severe abdominal conditions in general. If you have the SFS in it's intractable form, you can certainly try all kinds of different cures like Willow Bark but I tell you that all of these helped in a minimal capacity and I lost close to 60 pounds of muscle. You see, I have multiple diseases that were happening at the same time and my life was a mystery, so I was pretty much down and out. I couldn't eat or even drink water for a prolonged period, meaning no more than 500 ml per day for up to five years. It's a bad idea and I emphasize this above everything not to stop eating and create hell for yourself. If you are reading this article, you are one of the lucky ones because back in 2013 - 2015, I had nobody but my own thoughts, no computer, and trapped in a bed due to other conditions and couldn't walk. It was a nightmare on top of a nightmare.

This is an extensive article and all parts are important. Despite being barely able to walk, in 2010 to 2013, I took cabs with walking assistance to the local emergency rooms for a soap suds enema when all I needed was to get one and do it on my own. You wouldn't understand until you saw me why I had to ask for help. I had untreated adhesive arachnoiditis which is hell on earth, hence the website I created. Following each enema, as I sat waiting for a taxi, I was able with my hands and fingers to manipulate all the gas or distension out of my gut and out of my you know what by using my fingers. What the heck is this and how can I do this? It must have been forming already before 2015 but wasn't like it is right now. The adhesions were getting tighter. I was able to move the gas through the splenic flexure because it creates a pseudo - blockage which can be disrupted by hand manipulation which will be discussed further in detail. Prior to 2015 when it struck overnight, I do recall the building pressure in my abdomen, possibly due to shrinking adhesions. By that point, I could still sit down without the constant shifting attributed with the SFS, although my pain creates that in any case.

Looking back now, I was passed through a multitude of professionals that performed every test under the sun but nobody even commented on where my major surgery from bowel resection even was. They had access to my files, I didn't. In those days, you had to request a single file but today, thank the Lord, it's digital and accessible as it should be. Ultrasounds to check the status of my adhesions were not accurate, X- rays, Ct's, Endoscopy, Colonoscopy, Barium Swallows. A simple meal that would aggravate it would suffice in a simple X-ray to display a mass of distension int hat area. Aside from painful adhesions and tightening, I wasn't eating well, if at all and I'm supposing that it was this syndrome building and may have been present in a lesser form. One possible enemy of the SFS are opioids or anything that causes dehydration like marijuana. In my case, it's needed or I would die by adrenal burnout. My story should be a lesson because my case would be more difficult for obvious reasons, hence why you should follow my structure. It was a terrible time in my life and I was having to repeatedly withdraw from the opioid because I had to switch to another kind because they would stop working. That was only occurring because I didn't understand what this was and what to do. My article is a steep learning curve. The only difference between you and I is that an opioid makes the stool harder, unless you're already on one. Now, onto my story.

It was the summer of 2015. Again, I had to remove a strong opioid while bedbound. Like all times prior, I made it all the way through the withdrawal and it was day 17 in my bed. My parents were making meals for me of stew and toast which I desperately needed and yes, I was gaining weight. That let's me know that up to 2015, I was still able to gain weight. If you've researched enough about this disorder which can be difficult to locate, you would notice the dramatic weight loss associated with the constant cycles of colic and major limitations of food. Not only does this cause unending cycles of colic but it limits the types of foods you can eat without a major attack and that accounts for about 70 - 80% of all foods. I don't overestimate this and the number may be higher and how could I know without sufficient studies but judge only from my own experience. Mind you, my surgery induced lactose intolerance and gluten hypersensitivity back in 2008 or somewhere around that time. Let me make this clear. You will understand if you truly have this syndrome. Prior to it's inception, I was able to lie in bed like any other person and not worry about the SFS. I do have very severe pain disorders that cause me to shift but this one is different. The only point I am making is that I could stay still despite my pain. How could I ever forget? It began so quickly and I was awake when it happened. Pressure in my abdomen in the SF, rib pain that reached around to the back with referred pain directly through. The referred pain travelled directly from front to back and it was excruciating. I was in distress and not on an opioid. I didn't even have Buscopan yet because I never needed it. When it occurred, it was the middle of the summer of 2015. Due to the level of pain I deal with daily, I take sleeping medication that's non addictive and worked well. I will get back to that. It's only fair to mention that I have autism and when I encounter something stressful and new, it can make life intolerable. Autism can also make one tolerate anything and I had to that point in my life. Now, I can look back and see that this syndrome must have been present all along but not it's full capacity. The adhesions pulling tighter by mechanical force eventually trapped the SF by pressure as medical literature states. What they do know is that adhesions are one cause. When they classify this syndrome possibly with IBS, they don't give it what it deserves, to be in it's own category for obvious reasons but I understand why. My body was already deteriorated from years of neglect but not purposeful from serious disease. It was a lonely feeling and what could I do but wake my mother up at midnight and explain that something terrible just happened. "Go try a warm bath" she said. What else could I do? That's exactly what I did and the relief lasted only as long as the water stayed hot. I kept reaching around my back to relieve the referred pain but my arm and hand couldn't do a thing. This may be the difference between you and I, that I was facing multiple intractable pain disorders of the body and abdomen other than the SFS. I was in hell.

Back to my sleeping medication. To that point, it helped me sleep like a baby for fourteen years. It may have been the night after, I took my sleeping medication as per usual and for whatever reason, I woke after only 2 - 3 hours. Sleep means everything to me with terminal cancer equivalent pain. Sleep is vital to anybody's health. My physician prescribed an off label use antipsychotic called Seroquel for sleep. Seroquel is like a heavy anticholinergic that knocks you out. I'm hypersensitive though. Suddenly, I found myself in the worst position and the scariest time of my life. Telling my story of the SFS must include my whole picture for you to understand what it did to me. Sleep helped me regenerate strength that was imperative to my life. At that very point in my life, I was attempting to stay clear of opioids to figure out what was wrong with my abdomen with a diagnosis of Narcotic bowel syndrome that was incorrectly diagnosed and it almost caused me my life. The reality was my adhesions were tightening which led to this. Adhesions heal slowly over ten years. So, I found myself awake at 3 am with unreasonable pain in my body and abdomen. Not only that but now I'm awake but heavily sedated by Seroquel and will only wear off in 8 hours! How on earth will I fight this sedated but unable to sleep? I found myself in a vice. But why was I waking up? To this day, it's still a mystery but I suspect it was the SFS. The most valid reason is that I was breathless and that's why I woke up. From self study, I found that breathlessness is a common feature, especially when eating. It's difficult for me to discern what happened when because I also acquired throat dysphonia around that time. The pain associated with this was incredible. It was my first true colic disorder. I'd like to share the symptomology near the end but it's too difficult not to share while I tell my story. Imagine being trapped in a bed with the SFS and not able to walk longer than a few minutes, if that. It was a nightmare scenario. Not being on a painkiller wasn't helping my situation but I had to push through to heal my gut which didn't turn out to be the narcotic bowel as I first thought, no, it was something worse forming. I couldn't believe how quickly it began and became intractable. Just like that, without any warning. What more could I do while trapped on my back? In my hallway closet, I grabbed an old style (from the 70's) heating pad that had no safety switch or temperature control, meaning it could get hot and stay hot. I had it on my abdomen day and night for months and I burned most of my abdomen to a crisp. It literally turned brown and I didn't care. You need to understand that I was close to palliative care at 95 pounds.

Some of the first things I noticed at it's inception was the inability to pass gas except during the morning or upon waking, as if there's a special mechanism of relaxation and there must be coming out of sleep in your sphincter muscles that shuts when aroused. Like I said several times, my story likely doesn't reflect yours because I had other disabilities but I'm sure you agree and empathize with a lot of it. The worst stage of my life was taking place. The pressure was so heavy on my left side, into my rib and I had a hard time breathing but not a cardiovascular cause. Let's face it, the SFS has many mechanisms that can reflect a host of diseases of the abdomen like bowel death. heart attack, the list is endless and medical literature states that many unfortunate exploratory surgeries are performed due to the acute presentation.

To me, that represents the ignorance of the medical field. How many attacks have you incurred that felt like a heart attack? I cannot count the times even on this page. I specifically remember feeling like a hypochondriac because I was asking questions about my aorta being squeezed as my heart was pounding. You see, the flexure is anatomically close in relation to the heart, hence the feeling of a heart attack. This is important information. Away from opioids, I could achieve laxation if I ate enough but not with the SFS, no. It became all too easy to obsess about it because let's face it, going to the bathroom daily or even every few days is necessary. When you lose that ability, your life takes a spiral. Not only that but now I couldn't eat any foods or even water without wanting to throw up or feeling severe nausea. I nearly lost my mind that summer and lost my ability to sleep by 90%, just like that. I had other fish to fry of course. It got so bad that I gave up food and most of my water by 85% and dropped to 95 lbs. That's how far I went to try to defeat the so called narcotic bowel before giving in to a much needed opioid. When I recognized that it was fruitless, I incorporated an opioid and I felt much better, for a short while. After a few hours post dose, my stool would turn hard and tough and what I didn't know and couldn't know was that the SFS requires just the opposite or face sharper more painful attacks of colic. Now I was really caught in a tough place. That summer, I nearly lost my mind from an inability to sleep and a lack of nutrition. Even if I wanted to reincorporate an opioid, clearly, I had a new and terrifying issue to deal with. I was out of it and completely delirious from a lack of sleep and pain control. My parent's had to intervene or I would die. They even wanted to put me in palliative care as a possibility. I barely even spoke due to a lack of nutrition and sleep. During my time in bed, I tried laxatives several times, enemas which only made me more ill and burned in my abdomen. No matter what you think, even with minimal eating or no eating at all, humans develop waste and it needs to be removed.

Due to the overwhelming nature of my illnesses, I made an attempt on my life that summer with a serious neck and shoulder injury and wound up in hospital and onto psychiatry. Don't be taken back by my actions as I lost all comfort in life and this was my reality. Prior to the attempt on my life, I tried to reinstitute the opioid and it only helped for a limited amount of hours for reasons I couldn't have possibly understood in that state. It should be simple for you to understand if you have this syndrome to understand that hard and tough stool is the enemy. What it amounts to is hard stool with edges and trapped air behind it at the flexure. Make no mistake, there is a way to pass all that through even on opioids. I know because I take them with special measures that cannot be broken or for long without repercussions. You need discipline today. It was in hospital that I made an attempt to stay on my feet which is another story altogether but I was on opioids once more with the aid of colonic therapy and enemas. Let me make it clear; I became acutely ill after each colonic therapy within 24 hours and would last for up to 48 hours. Don't let me persuade you not to do it because it also may have been my gallbladder as colonic therapists use elbows and tough hand manipulation. Despite the pain they induced, I wanted stool out of my body more than the pain it induced. Such were many things in my life. I faced many yin yang situations in a benefit versus risk ratio. One month they kept me and i made an honest attempt at weight gain despite the acute colic. They weighed me everyday that I was there and my weight wouldn't surpass 114 pounds which confused them. That speaks volumes. I would be hospitalized the next year also for two months and they couldn't believe it. My weight would plateau despite eating double portion meals without any Buscopan. You might ask me how I did that after everything I just told you about how food made me sick. What you need to understand is that i was very lonely and trapped by myself in a bed with multiple acute intractable pain disorders. Can you image how hungry I was, being 187 pounds of muscle before all of this? The opioids did help with the eating compared to having none.

In 2015, by the end of summer, I was let out with a new perspective enforced by being around others. Being trapped in hell by yourself is a hell of it's own. During my visits to emergency rooms for GI causes from 2011 to 2014, I was frequently given Buscopan which was still a prescription for free that was covered. They would leave me with a small bottles worth. I thought nothing of them because I didn't fully recognize it's potential. When I got to emergency rooms, due to being severely dehydrated, they would give me water intravenously and also put in Buscopan with it which felt good. The staff knew what it was for but I never thought twice about it until 2016. Yes, I did take one on occasion but had no idea what around the clock dosing could do and I was never told that either. Believe me, I've tried eating without Buscopan and what I mean is after being chronically dosed for years and not having it suddenly by forgetting which doesn't happen that often There are times in my busy life when I forget to take one, two, or every medication in my regimen and try to eat. It's night and day and I full believe that with the SFS, it's not a want, it's a need. If I didn't have it, I would feel like passing out and or having a heart attack and have trouble making it through each and every meal. No addictive qualities and a great side effect profile. When I came home that summer, I had the idea that I could get better but my conditions were too much to bear alone. It was being social that gave me the energy to keep moving. I could barely walk but I was still trying. I faced two obstacles that finally overtook me. As you already know, sitting with the SFS is difficult for long periods. It feels like I'm forcing something that simply doesn't fit. A constant writhing because the flexure is being pushed in hard. How could any person be comfortable that way? Well, this is a day in the life of a SFS sufferer and it's one of those things that you wouldn't wish on your enemy. I've put it this way before and I'll say it again. The stool and air in the transverse colon for me can feel like a metal bar spread all the way across and beating up into the SF on the left side and trying to force that bend. It's like having a crow bar stuck in your colon. I was forcing myself to do things that were making me very uncomfortable and it failed eventually in favor of being couch ridden again. When my fall came, I recall hearing an uncomfortable gastric sound arising from my stomach and gurgling which was audible to anyone around me. This sound drove me mad. The only way I could get it out was to burp it up. That sound is uniform in this syndrome and I know when it occurs. When the colon pushes hard enough into the SF, the stomach reacts with everything behind it like the stomach. It's like a cycle. This whole disease is a cycle. The flexure pushed so hard into my left side and rib that I was continuously pacing when I was on my feet.

Make no mistake, without proper colic treatment for meals, you will endure severe restlessness which can easily be mistaken for psychiatric issues. In 2016 during the summer, I was hospitalized once more but this time for two whole months. I ate and endured the pain for that much time and paced the hallways endlessly. A nurse approached me and asked if I was restless. In the state that I was in (barely speaking), I didn't know how to answer because I didn't want to be blamed for psychological restlessness which it certainly wasn't. My pacing presentation certainly appeared that way and to be honest, it changed part of my personality towards certain activities that can make it worse. For instance, if you were to sit with a date at a table for the first time, do you think you could avoid telling him or her how difficult it is to stay in one spot? This syndrome robs you of comfort perpetually and in that, it changes your personality. I can't say that about my other issues, although they produce cancer equivalent pain. When it's in your gut and has a plethora of symptoms and signs, it can easily overwhelm.

In my pocket, I carried different medication just in case and one happened to be Buscopan. Around Christmas of that year, I recognized what happened if I continued taking them. I certainly knew that they relieved some distress but in my mind, they never equated to something like an opioid or a Lorazepam. This type of drug, I didn't understand it's nature or why it was designed in the first place. At least I now had an anti colic medication that had been under my nose for up to five years. I do credit Buscopan for the ability to eat once again. I can't count the number of times since 2015 that I felt like I was having a heart attack with a heavy squeezing that was the SFS. Sharp pain it would cause in that region. When I arrived home after 2015 from the hospital, at first I swore to never be bedbound again from the horrors the SFS created on my back while attempting to resolve the so - called narcotic bowel. Instead, i found myself eating a small meal and pacing around my parent's main floor. I was too sick to go outside pertaining to anything but an appointment. I thought to myself "Is this my life now?". Boy, did the SFS make me restless, especially after a meal. After a meal, the flexure was jammed so high up in the SF that I became irresistibly restless without colic medication and differing that from psychiatric restlessness is unfair but also tricky if you don't know what's happening. When the nurse asked me if I was restless, I was too ashamed to admit that I was, based on what they may think or do. Sometimes, people acquire multiple illnesses at once and diagnostics becomes anything but easy. You need to be your own advocate. What if you acquire multiple abdominal illnesses? That happened to me and I was forced to tease them apart which took many years and time. Albeit, I was acutely sick when doing so.

From 2015 - 2016, I was going through cycles of being couch dependent and back to my feet due to my lower back and legs. In 2016, after another attempt on my life, I was once again hospitalized for two months in which case I wound up on my feet again from repetitively pacing which helped build endurance. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner, I consumed more than a full meal and was weighed most days only to find that my weight had plateaued. The nursing staff were confused at my low weight. I believe it was this year after being let go that I incorporated Buscopan into my regimen on a permanent basis five times per day. This part of my story is imperative for you to understand. Although I didn't know the SFS name yet, I knew that around the clock dosing of a single 10 mg pill did the trick to relieve abdominal pain and colic. It was the most necessary lesson and the most important one. The SFS is relentless in it's intractable form. You don't just take a Buscopan for each meal, no. Although a dose is necessary for the immediate pain from eating, you need to remember that post meal, a cycle continues and the flexure continues to push, push, push. The only thing that can help at that point is a consistent dose every five hours or may be four. If anyone has a better idea how to control this while eating every single meal, I'd like to hear it because I tried so many solutions but what mattered the most was quelling the colic in which Buscopan was magic. I have difficult speaking called throat dysphonia, not psychological. It began around 2015 and Buscopan treats the contraction in my esophagus and treats it well. Make no mistake, the smooth muscle is affected in the SFS. I don't want to give you a long boring story. The first person I went to was an internist and he could only offer Dicetel and wrote down IBS which was anything but. Ignorance with this disease for the treating physician is bliss. Next was a naturopath who tried to dissect my entire past which made me feel very uncomfortable. I found that no matter what I did, nobody understood and my own investigative skills were paying off. I knew for certain that this was it and never let anybody tell me otherwise past a certain point as the cycles are undeniable and strong. What strikes me is that a medical study showed that many unfortunate SFS sufferers undergo exploratory surgery in a bid to reveal what the cause is and is proof by surgery alone and bad decisions that this disease causes and is known as the "great imitator of diseases". You can look those very words up. I'm not mistaken because I've passed over it on several occasions. Can you imagine having surgery when it wasn't necessary? What's the reason for this? I can think of two reasons off the bat. The first is exploratory surgery pertaining to the heart because an attack of the SFS can feel and imitate a heart attack. The second is possibly bowel death, bleeding, or something to that effect. The SFS in a single colic attack can make the sufferer appear acutely ill and it's up to the individual physician whom you are dealing with to make a proper conclusion which rarely occurs. My own estimation of self recognition by patients after years of suffering must be in the top 90 percentile. Please don't take that to heart, it's only what I've witnessed and read from stories sent to me directly from SFS sufferers. It may take some time to reach that conclusion after exhausting many avenues. What is a family physician supposed to do? Not once was I called a hypochondriac pertaining to this but I can understand how it would lead to that. This syndrome can make you feel and even look crazy due to many factors. Unless you have a thorough family physician who is willing to explore all possibilities, what happens is that is goes through your regular physician and onto one, two, or even three specialists. If nothing is concluded, in many cases they begin to look at you and that's unfortunate with an exotic disease. How do I know? Just look at this website. I developed it because I suffered that fate for nearly thirteen years and the answer lay in my spinal canal and nobody looked at that possibility. My main message to people going through a similar situation would be; be your own best advocate but don't drive yourself crazy on medical websites. If you have a good suspicion, go and try for the diagnosis or specialist. Yes, I understand this disease may not be diagnosed at all despite it being there and never leaving. Trust me, it isn't going anywhere.

I could barely walk all the way to 2019 but did my best. I knew for sure what this was but nobody was willing to diagnose it and simply put it on paper. Let me make this clear. A diagnosis can be made by X-ray alone and it's not like we can't provide an image of the flexure with a ton of gas and stool built up at specific times like during and after eating and other specified times like a long walk. This is simple science. Go eat a big candy bar and drink some milk and take an image. I think you get my point. For me anyway, it doesn't fail to pseudo - block. What does that mean? If you don't understand this concept, I'm guessing you don't have the SFS. Pressure on the left side by the transverse colon and the SF push so hard into the left side and cannot turn that flexure for a limited amount of time. Yes, I'm sure some material moves through but not the way God designed it to. What I'm discussing here is a uniform sign that I've discussed with others who either send letters or write comments. I don't think the medical establishment understand the complexity of this syndrome which can come out of the blue or by mechanical means, for example, adhesions. It only makes mechanical sense that enough pressure can hem the colon in and cause it. The question remains: Can the SFS induced by adhesions be cured by surgical means by relief of that pressure. How many have that answer? This section should be added to a medical journal as I don't see it reviewed anywhere. Let's create an example of pseudo-blockage. You wake up and begin a meal. You may wake up with the pseudo-blockage already depending on what you ate the night before and or how late. Sometimes, I wake up in hell because it's pushing so hard into the left side in the flexure. I wonder if it can be measured, the pressure because it's real and that's the mechanism of colic. When it can't push any harder, everything behind it makes you sick as hell. You stomach may be agitated and gurgle. I'm sure you hate that one because I sure do. You may experience severe breathlessness as I do. So, either in the morning or following and during a meal, it begins. That pressure begins and it appears that the pressure only contains a limited time to do so, meaning that at some point, it will release. That's quite the intricacy for an unknown disease that needs recognition and a fair regimen of medication. I hope you read this and finally understand what it does. The flexure may remain essentially closed for a specified period. Remember I told you that at the inception of mine, I used a heating pad until my abdomen burned? In the same way, I also developed a horrible behavior but it was only due to the flexure. Maybe you have done this yourself? Five years, I dug my finger and hands incessantly to get it out and only damaged my skin. What an embarrassing disorder to have and want to travel anywhere? I believe this sign is uniform with this disorder. Do you have any issues travelling? Everyone I speak to does. What happens is that the SF has a chance to warp itself by beating into that flexure. The main goal of treating this is forward movement like walking to push it through and hydration not to be underestimated. I know my own experiences. Sometimes I'm ok but you may feel like you have to get out and you squirm in your seat. That's why couch dependency was bad. Anyone asking me for help in understanding this must themselves understand that this is about drinking water throughout the day and moving the colon as a lifestyle of necessity. Man, I know that sounds strict but it's reality, especially on opioids.

I managed to get the national research for rare diseases on the telephone twice and one callback but never any follow up for extensive information. Pay close attention to what I explain next because it could save your life. That sounds dramatic but keep reading. Last summer, 2023, I woke up at 10 am with severe nausea and vomiting. It was brutal. I sat on the edge of my bed throwing up green bile, possibly from my gallbladder disorder but also due to something I will reveal. Green bile was an indicator that something was truly wrong. My first thought was food poisoning or the stomach flu. With terminal cancer equivalent pain, I cannot afford at any time to miss an opioid and concurrent pain medication doses. The result is scary. Twice I tried to carefully swallow the pill but no go. I kept vomiting and was forced to call an ambulance. I threw up in the ambulance and in the hospital repeatedly. Eventually, with no pain medication in my body and a long ambulance ride, when they saw how bad I was, they finally injected Dilaudid and antinauseants. My presentation surpassed what the stomach flu creates to a person. Something else was wrong. Now, I want you to pay close attention. I had diarrhea but the only way it would pass the flexure was to push it downwards. Imagine having to live that way. You might understand when and if this happens to you. I refer back to pseudo-blockage. My understanding and experience speaks volumes. This is a dangerous contraindication that deserves more study of pathology. The attending physician ordered a CT scan and when they came back with it, he told me he needed to speak to me with a surgeon, like what? It was actually three doctors. The two emergency physicians confronted me together and told me I had the stomach flu and intussusception of the bowel. To be honest, I was out to lunch with much loss of stomach and bile fluids and hooked up to an I.V. If I felt like having diarrhea, I had to go to the bathroom and move my flexure aside to let the distension and diarrhea go. Intussusception in an adult is a 2 in 1 million chance, so how did it form and what is it? They say that something must be sticking up in the bowel and the muscles of the bowel push the stool along with finger like muscles that move it along. If the bowel hits an area that stick up, the entire bowel folds in on itself like a telescope. What are the chances that it's my adhesions because I have never had a single complaint of internal adhesions but I did have major surgery. My own take is that the SFS pseudo-blockage created it by having the stomach flu. There are no studies, so now do you see why I contacted Rare Diseases? No, I can't be certain but the stomach flu happened at the same time which is no coincidence. Did the storm of the stomach flu cause it? My legs needed to be punched from acute pain during this episode only to find out intussusception can do this. Should I fear getting the stomach flu again because that's insane for real. It was a miracle mine disappeared as only so many cases do not need immediate surgery. I believe I've shared everything that might help you in your journey except for my instructions on how to live a proper life and move the colon along strategically. As long as you are willing to walk twice a day or one long walk, I can almost guarantee you a bowel movement almost every day but you must be patient and not panic if you cannot achieve this in the morning and strain so hard that you hurt yourself. That simply won't work.

You should trust my knowledge concerning this because I do this while under the usage of strong opioids. I bet I could achieve the same results at twice the dose. You may apply this to your own life without opioids. If you know anything about this disorder, you must know by now that small frequent meals are a must to avoid being sick and also to eat slowly and avoid air intake because that will only serve to strengthen the colic cycle. First, find a healthy enough diet and drop refined sugars and heavy carbohydrate intake or too much fat. There are still some good foods out there. Sipping water throughout the day to stay hydrated is being smart and likely helping keep your stools loose enough. Stool will harden with dehydration like a brick and create hell for the SFS. Imagine trying to walk a brick through the SF right? Drink water and not junk or at least find real fruit juice and always look for hidden sugars. Find pure fruit juice or make your own. Do what you want and I know about studies pertaining to consuming liquids while eating but to stay hydrated. I drink water with my meals. This is my personal daily routine and I never stray from it to stay healthy because who wants to lose the ability to achieve laxation? Just keep the water intake up throughout the day. Give up those laxatives that are only killing your kidneys and eventually your life.

Let me describe what I can only imagine you might already deal with. You panic because you're straining and nothing is coming out or incomplete movements. Why not try dropping the laxative idea for one week? Give your body a chance with food (eat enough) and see what happens. Personally, I gave up on going and relied on colonic therapy and laxatives. It's too simple to develop an eating disorder surrounding this, meaning that you might eat less because your afraid that your bowel will fill up and become severely impacted. Believe me, it takes many meals to do so. If you are in the process of trying this, when you wake up in the morning, do not expect a bowel movement and eat as you regularly would. The main goal is to wait for it to come. Make sure you have a strong urge first and don't rush because it will come back. Do you know it took me years to figure out how much I had to walk, how many times, and when along with the foods I ate? Never do I fail to have a movement unless I wake up early or have another illness affecting my body. Straining will not produce what you need or want, only hemorrhoids. I'd like to share my personal schedule.

1. Wake, take meds, and eat. Clean up.

2. Workout at home for one hour and shower.

3. Eat oatmeal with fruit everyday. Then, I eat a small frequent meal.

4. Go for walk after the meal for at least 2km and sometimes much further.

Can you see what I'm trying to do? I walk through the flexure after eating to

bring it back to normalcy. I don't stand around after a meal. How comfortable

do you feel anyhow after eating? Sometimes, I come back worse but that's life.

5. Get home and do chores or whatever else needs doing until another meal. I snack

in between as well as the SFS making you chronically hungry. I do believe the SFS causes a bottomless stomach.

6. Go for second walk for at least 3 km. You could get by with less than 2 km. Push that food through and force it by walking. Make sure your drinking and sipping all day and night.

7. Come home and eat a snack and sit down for dinner at my least meal. Eat greens, a lot of them and if possible good vegetables. Add fruit whenever you can.

8. This may help you but I do it because I'm on opioids. I take two stool softeners, morning and night and a small cup of Restoralax prior to bed. Stool softeners only soften, not push. Restoralax doesn't push for me either in small amounts. I use it to help soften ever more.

9. This point is paramount. Now, I take sleep medication for acute pain but for you, well, that's up to you. A restorative rest can ease the morning movements. I take a Buscopan immediately before bed for a total of 5 x per day which is still under the limit. Remember to stay calm as you can move your bowel all day. Only get worried when it's past a certain point like days. Make it a point to make a plan to walk, to push it through that flexure which is the name of this game.

I know that this is a long article but it's complex. My story was more complex than yours likely due to my other diseases which clouded the picture further. My hope now is to share this on social media, You Tube, so I never have to reiterate the same story over again. As you can clearly see, it's not easy to explain. God bless you on this journey to wellness.