You may remember when my pharmacist caught what would have been a potentially fatal drug interaction some months ago, when I was still on Parkinson’s meds. At that time my Gastro was searching for some way to help my digestive system to work properly. He had prescribed Triavil, but ended up putting me on Bentyl instead. I have been taking it four times a day ever since. It worked well until I started on the Primidone, but I have had increasing and persistent digestive problems ever since.

He put me back on the strict Bowel Retraining program, limited my food choices even more, put me on the high powered PrevPak to heal the ulcerated stomach that the Endoscocpy found, and expected me to improve. I didn’t. Then he tried a week of some new med called Alinia, but still not any real improvement.

So today, since I am no longer on the PD meds that contraindicated it, I start on Triavil.

It might help if I explained how all this tummy trouble is related to the Movement Disorder. When I am not on medicine for it, it’s real easy to see the uncontrolled movements of various skeletal muscle groups. The twitches, jerks, shakes, tremors, and awkward gait could not possibly be ignored.

But what cannot be seen is what is happening inside me. If I try to stick out my tongue, even now that I am on medicine, you see that it is in constant motion. The same thing is true of throat muscles. Sometimes I can hear the click of the soft palate spasms, and I really didn’t realize that this was anything unusual. I have always had times when I could hear that click. Then come the muscles in the esophagus, that should rhythmically move food down to the stomach, where coordinated muscle action churns the food, passing it on to the small intestines. After the coordinated movements of peristalsis push the undigested food into the colon, the body removes the liquid and eventually we eliminate the solid waste, again using coordinated muscle movements.

Gee, did you notice my intentional use of the word coordinated??? Well, mine AIN’T!!!! It’s no wonder I have GERD, stomach cramps, bloating, gas, constipation, and even problems using rectal muscles properly.

So the Neurologist helps with the skeletal muscle problems, but it’s my Gastroenterologist who helps me with all these internal muscle problems. He has found the right combination to keep me comfortable before, and I am confident that he will this time, too.