so the Dr was very thorough and nice.
we went thru her entire history of poop issues (and pee issues)
and I told him I had a hunch that it was a tethered chord.

He checked her out, he tapped her knees and heels with the rubber mallet thingy to check reflexes, and spent a lot of time with us.
Interestingly, her reflexes were NOT there. And I found that very curious since last week, when I was at the chiropractor (for myself but the kids came with me) the chiropractor tried to do the kids reflexes with the reflex hammer and the chiropractor didn't find Sarah's reflexes then either. I brushed THAT off as being in a hurry or not trying hard enough or something, but when this Dr tried and tried to get her to kick... and nothing happened... It started to click....

After talking, he said that he would think an MRI at this juncture was probably a good idea for several reasons - especially since she didn't have the reflexes - and then we could proceed with clearing her bowels after those MRI results. She will need to be retrained for both poop and pee. (or her body will ) but I knew that... Not that I thought it would do much good the way she is now... DH and I were trying to think of one thing we could have done differently these past 7 years and nothing rises to the surface. How can you retrain someone to go potty more frequently when they go every 20 minutes to begin with!?!? kwim? (and they miss the toilet anyway)

so, the MRI is now scheduled for very early Monday morning the 18th. Then I'll talk with the Dr again I think the following monday to go over the findings.

So - definative answers in about 2 weeks!

Great news you are finally getting some answers!

Interesting about the reflexes.

That is interesting about her reflexes, have you read anything about the theatherd cord that it might be caused from that?? I am glad they will have some answers from the MRI, will the MRI show a tethered cord?

in reading about tethered cord, they do talk about one of the symptoms of a tethered cord being lost reflexes.
Interestingly, a tethered cord can get worse as a child grows and the tether gets stretched more and more....
so one could potentially NOT have any problems until they're older and the growth finally puts enough stress on the tethered part.

The MRI will most definately show if there is a tethered cord or not.

It's great they are working through everything with you and it sounds like this doctor is working fast to get you answers!!! Keep us updated!!!