Another thread reminded me that I ought to write an update here. I expect this post will rather conclude the matter, as I am happy to report that I do not anticipate another acute episode hitting again.
In February was the first time the cranial osteopathic work I'm doing focused on my abdomen, and I had an acute episode the next day. At the time I assumed it was coincidence, but did suspend further treatments. From that time on I had several months of what I called "partial episodes" that became more regular until it was daily, then all the time. My abdomen was so tender I couldn't even touch it myself let alone have a seatbelt over it. My weight dropped to 78 pounds and I was on the verge of intravenous feeding just to keep from wasting away. I had a CAT scan done and saw a neurologist and two G.I. specialists who were both excellent but - by their own admission - unable to help. The second one advised I travel cross country to the Mayo clinic, where he said even they would likely not have answers but it was my best hope.
After a few months the symptoms began to abate, and removing some foods I had added to my diet also significantly contributed to the reduction in symptoms, which were beginning to mimick an ulcer and may have in fact been one. In any case, upon returning to my D.O. he asked and I agreed it best to avoid direct work on the abdomen, but instead our plan was to "sneak up on it" by working around it.
One average treatments are generally about 3 weeks apart becuase it takes a while for the body to integrate the structural changes. 2 weeks after the treatment a rib on the right side of my back that's been poking me in the lungs for years finally slipped into place, and a few hours later there was a major shift in my abdomen. I have an artery that curls around to he left of my belly button instead of going straight down (which always startles massage therapists to stumble upon a pulse where there shouldn't be one) and what happened was over the course of about 10 minutes I felt something moving from the left towards the center, as if a giant hand was causing it to happen. So weird. It took my body time to adjust to the change as I was overwhelmed with nausea for a time and a few days of being very careful with my body because moving the wrong way would cause a tearing sensation.
That happened about a month ago. Since then, I've had other effects on my abdomen. A few weeks ago the entire lower part of my abdoemn suddenly released, as if I had been holding the muscle tense all my life and didn't know it. I didn't realize it was possible for that area to be loose, but suddenly it was, and the relief was significant.
I had a treatment about a week ago and it was the first time we had worked on my pelvis, which is tilted. A few days ago my pelvis began to move, and things moved in my abdomen as well. The right side of my abdomen is now loose and getting looser still as it keeps adjusting, and the left side hasn't even begun to loosen up yet. This process isn't easy...every time I feel a structural shift in my abdomen I become nauseous, my entire abdomen swells up for days and there are bowel changes as well.
What has me excited is that with this latest set of releases in my abdomen, the thing that triggers the episodes no longer seems to be a problem. In all these months before I could feel when I was on the verge of an episode, it's something inside and a bit to the left of my stomach. Every time I exerted pressure with a bowel movement, or manually put pressure on my abdomen, or my intestines were moving stuff past a certain point I could feel it about to trigger and I would try to be very careful with movement to keep that from happening. As of 2 days ago, that's completely gone. Something has changed structurally so that whatever nerve was being bothered is now no longer grumpy.
My abdomen still has a long way to go, but it looks like I can at last close the book on this mystery and I'm on a good path for healing it. Thank you again for all your replies.
