State of Digestion: 10/6

Breakfast: 1 bowl Kashi Honey Almond Flax cereal
Contains 8 grams of fiber, 4 grams of soluble fiber and 4 grams of insoluble fiber. Apparently, insoluble fiber is better for constipation.

Lunch: Chicken Tikka Masala from Jaipur, a bit of Eggplant Curry
Normally, this would have been a dish I would have shied away from. Oily, spicy, meaty. But during this recent digestive detente I've decided to push the envelope. I even had taco bell last week. Let's see if I wind up any worse for the wear.

I followed this up with one small dose, about 3.4 grams, of Metamucil, orange flavor. My doctor recommended about 20 grams of non-dietary fiber supplements per day to retrain my intestines, with the goal of eventual resynchronization. Remind me, I'll show you the hand motions he used to demonstrate this to me.

**BOWEL MOVEMENT ALERT** The bowel movement I had after lunch was strained. Maybe all the beer I drank on Friday at the Barbary constipated me up. And for what? Frustration, the beauty of it.


Snack: Small Pumpkin Spice Latte (bless fall drinks) and 2 Metamucil Fiber Wafers
Again, coffee is something I'm trying to avoid, especially on consecutive days. But I was feeling really sluggish at the library so I splurged. So freakin delicious too. Those wafers, though, are terrible. The 2 wafers are another dose of Psyllium fiber, 3.4 grams. Running tally, 6.8 grams.


Dinner: Dokadi(?), dunno the translation
Good, light dinner. Easy to digest. Perfect for when I feel particularly blimpish. I had to take it easy tonight because I was scheduled to play a tennis match at nine.

**BOWEL MOVEMENT ALERT** I had a somewhat more satisfying number two on my way out the door for my match. I thought it would freshen me up for my match. Alas. I played terribly. My opponent didn't put any pace on the ball, but never made any errors, and with all the time to think about my strokes I overthought and mishit eventually. Fuckin brutal. My forehand was especially pathetic. Though I redeemed myself with a doubles win (my opponent was my partner).

Upon my disgraceful return home I munched on some ridiculously tasty chocolate covered pretzels. Again, in the bygone era of lactose paranoia I definitely would have avoided even the modest amount of milk in the chocolate coating. Now that I think about it, I've been really good at depriving myself of pleasure during this whodunnit of a stomach disease/disorder/malady. I accompanied that with my daily Activia, vanilla flavored. In my endless grasping for a remedy, I noticed that the day I went back on the probiotics I had a brilliantly satisfying dump. This could have been pure coincidence rather than causation, but I'm desperate. I think when I was regularly taking probiotics I was more regular, though still bloated, but again, who knows. Desperation.

Nightcap: Large Dose of Metamucil, about 6.8 grams.
That gets me at about 13.6 grams for the day, the number I've been around for a couple weeks. And, this is true- I feel better lately. Slightly more regular, still bloated, but less sluggish and mentally inert. I really hope I've really turned a corner.

Bedtime: 10 milligrams of amitriptylene.
At 100 grams this drug is used as an antidepressant. But since there is a hormonal element to the body's movement of food through the intestines, people with more serious irritable bowel syndrome have to take drugs for the nervous system in addition to fiber therapy and diet modification. This, I think, is the real reason I feel much better lately. Hopefully that's a light at the end of this fucking tunnel.