Monday 7 January 2008

Pic of the day: This is indeed some of the worst I have experienced on the physical plane at least. This picture from the anime Lovely Complex depicts the feeling very accurately. (Also, I only noticed the T-shirt afterwards. "Let out" indeed.)

Rectal prolapse? (TMI)

Well, actually the headline is already Too Much Information. But yes, on January 7th I had a second case of the same rectal spasm that I experienced on November 27th. No amount of pressure (and there was a lot of it) could make the feces depart from my body, but instead a bubble of rectal wall protruded from the anus. Luckily I survived this time too - as evidently virtually all people do unless they have some other serious health condition - but it didn't really feel so sure at the time.

Also, like the last time, I was not only unabled to defecate for those hours, but also urination was blocked. It would seem that the swollen or twisted bowels were putting so much pressure on the surrounding tissues.

An online friend thought it sounded like a rectal prolapse, and reading up on this I agree that may be it. Evidently it is never going to reverse, though it will not automatically continue to decline in all people. Knowing now that this is a recurring feature, I am going to pay more attention to regularity (prunes, here I come!). It seems that it only happens to me when the sigmoid colon fills rapidly, so perhaps it can be avoided. Then again, perhaps not, this seems to vary from one patient to another.

Anyway, it won't happen again (in full) for the next two months. Then again, that will be two months with more fruit than usual, and great reservations about going too far from toilets at any time of the day and night. It is worth it though, to avoid such a horrible experience.