Reminiscing

So, while I was on the pot earlier today, trying to channel Obama and hope my bowels into regularity, I had something like a flashback. I thought back to the whole gut transit study that Dr. Parkman at Temple University's Digestive Disease Center scheduled me for. I chuckled when I remembered that it involved eating a "radioactive egg sandwich" that was spiked with radioactivity. This test is designed to chart the progress of a typical meal as it meanders down my irregularly lethargic digestive tract, so the doctors can get a better since of where the major point of blockage is. Because if it gets stuck in my esophagus that would be treated differently than if it gets stuck in the lower bowel, say.



Anyway, I was fine was this test, a) because I get to eat a radioactive egg sandwich, and b) I felt like it was good information to have. My constipation and incessant bloating told me there was definitely some bottleneck point, and knowing that would expedite my recovery. Back then, you know, I was hoping for recovery. But, for some reason, after analyzing the pictures that were taken over the course of four days, the doctors concluded there was nothing abnormal. And for that week, they were right. It baffled me that during the four days of the test my bowels stopped acting up. By the way, this mysterious behavior led me to speculate that there was a mental element to my sickness- that since my mind believed with these tests being taken that steps were being taken that would lead to recovery, it got soothed and let the poop flow.

But as I was sitting on the toilet, straining, skimming The Economist and hoping for my first satisfying bowel movement in over a week, I was wondering why they couldn't trace the movement now. Clearly, it isn't "normal." In a lot of psychological studies I know there is a phenomenon where the investigator has to take what the test subject says with a grain of salt, knowing that responses might be altered with the presence of the investigator. No objective point of view, etc. I need a whole gut transit study redo. And not just because I want more radioactive scrambled eggs.