Sitz Marker Study/Test - Is anyone on??

hi, i had the test last year, same position took up to 4 weeks for the markers to come away. they said i had severe slow transit. I ended up with a total colectomy. best thing ever. I now go roughly 4 times a day, instead 1 per month. A long road to recovery since the op, but you may be offered an alternative i had waited 28 years for surgery. good luck xx

Hi JustK,

The sitz marker will tell if your colon is working properly.  Even if you haven't had a bm, the markers can still be move through your colon but not always.  Where ever the markers are within your colon will usually tell where your colon is slow.  My GI does a different sitz marker test than most GI drs.; I had 50 markers and was x-rayed every day except Sundays until they came out.  After almost four weeks and I still had 15 in my small intestine so my GI quit doing the x-ray and did the anal manotrey (sp) then knew for sure that I would do well with a colectomy (removing all or most of the colon). I had all but 2 inches removed last July and have never felt better.  It was the very best decision that I have ever made.  I had an open surgery and was only in the hospital for 5 days.  I also went back to work full-time after 6 weeks.  It does take a long time to fully heal but if you have had abdominal surgeries before it isn't too bad of a surgery and you will be amazed at how good you will feel.  If you have any questions I would be more than happy to answer them for you; also you can go to the ostomies board and click on the Total Colectomy part 24, there are many wonderful people on there that would be more than happy to help you.

I wish you the very best and hope you feel better.

Judy 

Berkeley,

I'm not one to encourage surgery but if you qualify for a colectomy I would stongly encourage it; it has changed my life for the better.  I seriously did not know that my body looked and felt that badly until I had the surgery.  I have never felt better. 

I hope that your dr is able to help you, as your life can be completely better.

Judy

Berkeley,

No I do not have a bag. My surgeon left 2 inches of my colon.  I went like 20+ times a day for the first couple of weeks then by 6 weeks I was going 8-10xs a day.  I took almost 9 mos for me to have formed bms and then I was having just 2 a day.  But then I had some major kidney issues with kidney stones and had to have them removed through my back and the dr overmedicated me causing me to get an infection called c difficile which almost caused me to lose the rest of my colon and have a permanent bag and almost my life.

It has been a very long struggle since May; I had 4 kidney surgeries in May & June and another last week but I am finally healed and will be returning to work on September 2nd.  I have had major scar tissue issues in the past but haven't had any problems so far.  There is a special thing that they can use if you have the surgery to prevent scar tissue, it is called seprafilm or something like that, my kidney dr was going to use it if he had to open me up.  You have to ask about it, go online to learn about it or ask your dr, he should know about it.

I do have to remain on a low residue diet which involves no eating of fresh fruits, veggies, seeds or nuts but that is nothing compared to how well I feel.  ou can eat canned fruit and veggies though and most drs let their patients eat a normal diet and just see how their body adjusts.

I would highly recommend this surgery to anyone who suffers from chronic constipation; it was recommended to me by my GI dr as I had never heard of it before.  If you have anymore questions about it I would be more than happy to answer them.

Judy

caran,

Thanks for your kind thoughts and words.  I am feeling much better and am looking forward to being very healthy from now on...before you go to your appt, get back to me and I'll give you a list of questions to ask your dr.

I wish you better days ahead and hope that you too will be healthy soon,

Judy

Im hoping someone can give me some input. I have already had part of my colon removed 10 yrs. ago due to a floppy colon. (sigmoid flexoscopy surgery) Now, almost 40 and have sever bloating to where I look 6 months pregnant. Dr. did a colonoscopy & said, you have colonic inertia lets do a sitz marker test. After 5 days, he said all markers were out and no surgery. He said my colon is still flopping around in there, but "just deal with it." NOW, my question, that colonoscopy really upset my whole colon, and I took marker study just 5 days after it. I'm wondering if the ton of laxatives I took for the colonoscopy could have helped those markers down. It was only 5 days after that that I took them. SO, still bloated like I'm pregnant & still miserable. Should I demand another test? Pls, someone tell me what colonic inertia is really like. Thanks!!!!

Leslie,

I cant believe you are still having such problems after that surgery! How horrible. I think once you have the sitz marker test, that will reveal a lot. My doctor is not going to do another one for a couple of months at least, but I am taking 17 grams of Miralax a day. I don't know if it will work yet. I know how you feel with the swollen belly. It's very uncomfortable and the upset stomach never stops. Hold on until your test . . . I think that's the best test for you at this stage.

hi leslie and judy, caran here. my dr appt is coming up and judy you said you'd have questions to ask. leslie, as long as you stop the laxatives the night you swallow the markers, they do not affect the test.

Caran, I actually took mine the whole time I did the study.  Do you have any questions or are things going well for you?

Let me know:)

Judy

 

Berkeley,

No I never had that problem I would only pee twice a day but my GI dr told me that he bet I had seen a urologist and a gyn. before him because of the way my colon had dropped and expanded so I wouldn't be surprised if you do have urinary problems.  There are so many things that can be affected by your colon, especially all of the toxins that remain in your system.

I hope this helps and you get some help soon,

Judy

Okay...we have dealt with severe constipation issues in my 9 year old since he was born....miralax had at least partially worked at 17 grams a day until about a month ago...then all of a sudden even it stopped working...up till that point he had only ever had three hospital cleanouts and two er cleanouts but he got hospitalized for a cleanout and was discharged and then a little over a week later was readmitted for another cleanout because he hadn't gone at all....at that time they had increased his miralax from 17 grams once a day to 17 grams or three capfuls a day spread out through the day and three senna tablets and increased free water through his g tube....didn't make him go one time though. So now we are in the middle of the sitz marker test....on the 18th they did a barium enema (don't know the results yet) and we had done saline enemas daily for the 6 days prior with pretty good results other than they are almost impossible to administer to a child with Cerebral Palsy and autism who seems to have super human strength. They wanted him to take two of the capsules with the sitz markers (not sure why as it seems everybody else only does the one with the 24 markers) so now it will be three days exactly at lunch time and so far I have only seen four of the markers out of the 48 in his very watery stool in his diaper. Is it common to have only passed that few on day three or am I most likely looking at something beyond the "pseudo constipation" they suspect?? Input would be helpful now as I don't know where to go with this as up until this last hospitalization and me throwing a fit the doctors just kept telling me it was his autism and it was behavioral but I know he's been like this since at LEAST 6 months old when he was too young to purposely "hold" his stool due to autism....Please help

Can anyone help me? I just had my 3 day x-ray for the Sitz Marker test. It showed that all of the rings were scattered. The only thing I found odd was that 7 of the rings were still in my stomach. What does this mean?? How can they still be in my stomach after 72 hours? They just told me at the hospital "lets wait and see if they have moved by the 5th day". What are some of the causes that the rings would be in the stomach after 3 days? I have had 2 bowel movements since the test started but all 24 were still in. At least 10 were ready to come out at any moment. Some were in the colon. HELP!