ativan for intestinal spasm?

[Guest guest]

Anfuso here, with a new email address. .Anfuso@...

Life has been extremely busy for me during the past 2 years since I was an active contributer to this group (or some of it's various predecessors)

Update for those who remember me:

I am taking Carnitor, coQ10, and Vitamine E (the magic cocktail) which has enabled me to achieve an average of 12-16 hours of functional up time each day, nearly every day ofhte month. BIG VICTORY here! I chickened out on the Imunivir study, pending further research.

My vision continues to deterioriate, but I am still painting, reading and writing. I have a new book about the canals of England coming out in a couple of months. I am lecturing regularly at colleges and universities across the states and in the UK.

My hearing is also getting worse, but I do most of the speaking when I am in public anyway, so I am ignoring it. (and ignoring those who mutter around me)

I am getting more ataxic,and weaker, but a rolling walker and afo's are keeping me fairly mobile, although I have had 5 bad falls since 1998, including 6 fractures. Oh well.

Ongoing and current critical complaint....bowel dysmotility. Which is why I am writing to you all now, hoping for some imput on your experiences with treatment modalities.

If you read some of my past postings on constipation, you will know that I am a veteran of bowel dysfunctions. But this month I have experienced a level of intractible muscle pain and colon spasm which left me quite debilitated and bedridden. I have had during the past 3 weeks : 3 er visits, a six day admit to the hosp, 11 x-rays, 2 CT scans, 2 sonograms, a colonoscopy (real treat, that) and an MRI, all of which have ruled out anything other than the mito which may cause these symptoms.

Now my doctor, a month later, mind you, agrees with my original speculation that this is caused by the same old dysmotility that I was born with, but on a higher level of dysfunction than that which I have experienced in the past.

He has me on Ativan to reduce intestinal spasm. Says it may take a week or two to see effects.

My question to all you MITO heroes out there....have you experienced this med? Does it work for this? Will tolerance to the seditive effects of ativan build up quickly and leave the anti-spasmodic effects stable or to a titrateable level? Or will I be in La-la land forever?

I did try the Magic Bullet program to good effect several years ago, and suspect that it will eventually be my solution here, but what will happen if my intrinsic intestinal motility is permanently impaired?

Email me personally or here with your experiences, advice, etc.

Anfuso (formally tinhat)