Firstly, I'm at home, taking a sick day today because I'm hurting, nauseated, and feeling worn out.
I called my GI's office again today, begging for the test results and he finally called back to say that all four tests came back negative. The news is, of course, bittersweet, because that means we haven't nailed down the cause for my pain and diarrhea. He mentioned that inflammation in the colon may be a possibility, and that this is still possibly IBS - it can get as bad as this.
The next step is to get a biopsy of the colon tissue via colonoscopy to take a look at what's going on inside. I went ahead and scheduled it for the earliest day I can get it done - Tuesday at 11am.
In the meantime, the nurse is faxing a prescription for a drug that usually helps with IBS called Xifaxan (aka Rifaxinin), along with detailed instructions for my colonoscopy preparation to my pharmacy. The bad part is that this drug is rarely covered by insurance. I checked online with my insurance and it is not covered. This could cost me a couple hundred bucks. I also need to buy Miralax, Gatorade, and Magnesium Citrate for the colonoscopy prep.
Thankfully, the Xifaxan was covered by my insurance. I sure hope it helps.
ReplyDeleteI've had to pay the out of pocket costs of medications. It's so frustrating. Let's hope this works for you!
ReplyDeleteMy dear mother is INSISTING that flax (linseed) is going to be the key to fixing whatever is wrong with my guts. She says she had ulcers in her stomach and that medicines are bad for guts and that when you cook flax it makes a glue that protects your digestive tract.
ReplyDeleteShe refuses to understand that I'm trying one treatment at a time so I can tell which ones are helpful, and that I can't try this now because I'm on the Xifaxan for two weeks. (She speaks poor English and I speak poor Polish so we don't communicate well on technical subjects.)
Has anyone done this? Is there is truth to this? I'd like some testimonials.