I’m just reading MyChart results from my colonoscopy last week and find I have a tortuous left colon. It’s the weekend so I won’t be able to talk to anyone at the office until next week. I’ve looked up all the words and have a sense that I have known some of this for many years, a pain in my side after eating and at other times. I’ve had intermittent episodes of extreme diarrhea and abdominal pain with no known food trigger, intensifying this last year. I have followed, loosely, the FODMAP diet described and a gluten-free and no/low dairy diet for even longer.

Many of the suggestions and comments have been very interesting to me and presented things that I plan to try. I do want to share something I do and will do more because they work for me…particular yoga poses that open and expand the abdominal area. Poses like viparita karani (legs up the wall), setu banda (low bridge) and sirsasana (head stand) all allow the abdomen to have more space, open and move toward the spine. This can relax the body and the abdomen to relieve pain and allow movement in the gut.

We are our own best advocates. I’m finding many medical opinions are just that and do not address my particular set of challenges that I must study and discover for my own body.