o.k. girls, i need your help. i've got the results of the PUS (a u.s of the pelvic) and the diagnosis is - suspected anismus (i'm not going to ever have a life at all). anyway it was also written in the reprot "sonographic signs of anismus".... could you tell me what does sonograghic means?
hey mimi,
that's right colonscopy nor sigmoidoscopy (which is the same, they just don't go as deep as with colonscopy) are certainly not enough.
the most important tests are a number of functional tests like:
colonic trasit time - in this test you swallow a capsule in which there are 24 tiny rings that can be seen in an x-ray and every few days you do an x-ray to see how those rings progressed. this test usually lasts for 5-7 days. during this time you must stop all laxsatives, and you musn't do any thing in order to create a bm. they want to see the peristalsis (sp?) of the colon without an outside help. if after 5 days there are more than 20% of those rings (markers) than it is considered abnormal.
manomatry (sp?) - in this test they check the muscles in the anal and rectum, the capacity of the rectum, it's ability to expel the contents in it and the ability to hold the stool - meaning to rule out incontinance, and maybe some other things that i don't know of.
pus (a u.s of the rectum) - also shows the fuctioning of the rectum, but can also reveal any pathologies like cyctocele and stuff like that. also shows if the anatomy of the rectum is normal.
defecography - this is a dinamic x ray of the rectum while actually pooping.... no don't worry, you don't really poop in front of ppl, they fill your rectum with a stuff called barium and give you to drink something (really nasty) and then they ask you to sit on a toilet like thing and ask you to defecate the barium. that way they can see how your rectum acts in real time of having a bm and they can see if there's a prob. like: prolapse of the rectum, rectocele (a pocket created in the wall that between the rectum and vagina and presses toward the vagina and the stool stays packed in there and don't come out. also if there is enterocele - a situation in which there's kind of a prolapse of the small bowel and they just press on the pelvic and this presure causes inability to pass stools (not quit sure if the info i have on the enterocele is accurate though), and also to check if there's anismus - in a normal way, our pelvic is sqweezed in a certain level in order to prevent our secretes to pour out without control. for this job we have a muscle called the "puborectalis", which holds our rectum, vagina and bladder from bein too loose. now, when there's a bm, then this muscle MUST relax and by relaxing it allows the stool to pass. in anismus the problem is that when there's a bm the muscle paradoxicaly sqeezes even more and not allowing the stools to pass. this is a dreaded problem, cause there is no cure for that.... real bummer, cause seems like i have it 
.
anyway, you should do colonscopy just to rule out other bad stuff that can happen, no need for sigmoidoscopy if doing colonscopy. also you shousd have a barium enema that shows if your colon is too loopy or narrowing in certain spots and some other stuff.
all of these are tests to check functional and anatomic probs. of both the colon and rectum.
well i've got to go, i'm soooooooooooooooo late.
good luck to you mimi and keep posting and updating us.
later everyone (don't forget to answer my question at the top of my post - thanks)
love you all.