Chronic idiopathic constipation (CIC): Diagnostic Experiences

I am going for it tomorrow. Will update u. Thankyou

May I ask how long the procedure takes?
Thankyou

I don’t know. I haven’t had these procedures, they were just recommended to me. I’m trying to find out more before I go ahead. Your experience will help if you’re comfortable sharing about it.

Will let u know tomorrow after the manometry

Thank you! I hope it goes well for you.

Well, this is going to sound convoluted. I landed at Mayo as a second opinion from my primary who said he “was treating me from a working diagnosis of peripheral artery disease. I had also seen GI at home and they agreed I would benefit from an integrative approach. Cardiology at home told me my issues were psychosomatic and offered no help. Obviously some systemic problems. Once at Mayo I had a plethora of blood tests and a number of consults. Cardiology confirmed I didn’t have PAD but I was having spasms. GI ordered the anorectal manometry and said the program would help if the results were what they thought. It made absolutely no sense to me based on how I was feeling. I was desperate and they were confident. I went back to my home GI and they ordered pelvic floor therapy. After a few weeks of it I was willing to pay for Mayos program up front not knowing if my insurance would cover or not. It was the perfect thing to do. I really am not sure what all is happening in my body at this point but I am better, a lot having to do with this program.

Thank you. I’m just gathering information to see if I want to go ahead with all those tests and knowing about your experience helps. I’m glad it’s helping you.

All the test that you mentioned would be beneficial in giving them more information to the cause of your CIC. I have had all three of them done. None of them are test to have done, but they do give information to rule without any obstructive cause, anatomical problems, or pelvic floor coordination that might be causing your problems. The sitz marker test will also tell them your transit time and how fast things move through your colon. All of these allow my doctors to have more information to decide if there was something that needed to be done surgically or not. Good luck to you and I hope that if you choose to do the test that they will give them more information to guide your care!

I looked a bit online to find out more about the sitz marker test your doctor recommends vs nuclear transit test I am scheduled for. Thank you for prompting this!

Sitz marker: seems straight-forward, swallow a marker that is used to track transit time through the intestines when suspecting slow transit constipation or functional bowel disorders.

Nuclear transit: more comprehensive using an injected liquid to evaluate gastric emptying, small bowel transit, and colon transit all in one. It can be a follow-up to the sitz marker test to look for additional motility disorders. Drawbacks are higher cost, accessibility and radiation exposure.

Does this fit with your understanding? Why the MRI, or I guess what is it?

Hello
Had it done this AM!
Took about 25 minutes.
A catheter is inserted in the u know what.
A balloon attached to the proximal tip of the Catheter is then inflated.
U will be asked to hold and push as instructed by the clinician.
U will also be asked to tell them your sensations each time they inject more air into the ballon.
Then the inflated ballon attached to the Cather will be left inside u for u to push and strain until it gets ejected from your behind
The whole thing is to measure the musculature and contractions of your lower intestine , I believe.
No anesthesia needed only lubricantbis applied to the area to ease insertion of the catheter.
Hope this can help
Sincerely