stomach pain relief

[Tremulous Tetra]

Everyone is different, so perhaps a little background will help people to decide whether this will help you.

I am tetraplegic C4/5, however there is some incompleteness.  Nothing to really speak of physically/mechanically.  I am unable to work my triceps, or even achieve wrist flexion, my incompleteness mostly comes in the form of feelings, however I do seem to have some ability in my legs and back towards standing.  I am able to stand on spasm.  Which I haven't done for about five or eight years because it does take a lot of assistance for initiating the process, and balance.

At various times since my accident I have suffered from particularly acute stomach pain.  I believe this is to do with some kind of irritable bowel syndrom.  From my limited knowledge, irritable bowel syndrome is spasm in the bowel, and seeing as we are particularly susceptible to spasm this seems a likely candidate to me.  Also, what I have found alleviates it is rhythmic breathing.  What I mean by this is, start from 100 and count your way backwards, 100 elephant, 99 elephant, 98 elephant, in this way spacing you're counting by roughly 1 second.  At the same time as you count breathe in and out with each number, concentrating if possible on locating the breathing has a high as possible, just under your rib cage.

At this point I am completely guessing, but I believe because your diaphragm is going up and down in a rhythmic fashion it massages the bowel in a rhythmic fashion, out of its locked on spasm, in to the kind of rhythmic spasm the bowel is supposed to operate upon to move your food through the system.

I have found other types of breathing, deep breathing etc, seemed to make the situation worse.  This method may be specific to me, but it has brought great relief, so I thought I would share it.