Mmm, Fiber.

Fiber. The most disgusting thing I have EVER tasted. Accidentally drinking a beer with a cigarette butt in it? Way more tasty. Here, enjoy my first fiber experience.

Anyways, today was my appointment at the Gastroenterologist. It went ok, other than sitting in the room waiting for the doctor to come in for over 45 minutes.

She says IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome) and dyspepsia. I have to take fiber every day, and I have yet another medication. Told me to take Tylenol and use a heating pad for my pain. Goody!

I am scheduled for a endoscopy and sigmoidoscopy in mid/late January. I'm glad it's after the holidays.

Bone Scan? Guess so.

I guess I'll get some knitting done soon. My blood work came back normal, but the pain is still there. So yay for my pancreas and liver being ok, but boo for not knowing what is wrong, once again. My doctor is sending me for a bone scan. She put me on a new medication to try to help with the pain, and I'm supposed to keep taking the other one since it's helping with the other pain.

Since the one medication can't be taken within 2 hours of my other medication, I now have to take medication 5 times a day. That's going to be fun.

I finally have a PCM!

Finally! I like her a lot. She seems very down to earth and like she cares about me and wasn't just worried about pushing me out the door. I went to the ER before I saw my PCM, which is what rushed my referral even more. The ER didn't do anything but give me a GI cocktail that did nothing for the pain.

I'm in a lot of pain. They think there is something wrong with my liver and pancreas as my enzymes are elevated and my blood work is all screwy. She gave me more medications, which are basically to treat for IBS. They don't seem to be helping with the pain at all. I keep putting a heating pad on it, but it doesn't really help much.

I will be calling in the morning to see if there is something she can do for the pain, because obviously I'm not sleeping. I need to sleep, I have my EEG soon. Although I do need to be sleep deprived for that. I'm trying to stay positive, but it's hard. The Boyfriend is sick, and I feel bad for the poor guy having to deal with my issues too. I just want to feel better, but I know that isn't going to happen any time soon.

My regular pills are losing their effectiveness, but my psychiatrist won't do anything until they figure out what is wrong with my blood work and get it straightened out.

Psych Appointment

So I saw my psychiatrist today and he said he can't give me any more medication since he was looking through my chart and my good cholesterol is too low, my pulse is too high on a regular basis, my diastolic BP is too high but my systolic BP is low/average.


He doesn’t feel comfortable prescribing me new meds until I consult with a PCM and have more tests done. He did put in a referral for me to get a PCM (one that is actually closer to me) which is a good thing.


My abdominal pain is not getting any better, which is what caused him to look over my chart in the first place and led him to put the referral in. The abdominal pain is a dull, burny, achy, stabby, just horrible all kinds of pain pain.


He rushed the referral so hopefully I can get in to see a doctor tomorrow and if not I will be going to the ER as I'm almost out of pain medication. Kyle almost called an ambulance today because I was on the floor writhing and crying, throwing things at the door to wake him up (he has been working nights).


He also (my doc), even though he has pointed out new medical problems and my neurological other problems, told me he will not help me file for disability. He thinks I will become trapped even though I have a concrete plan.


Oh, I have a cold too.

Another 2 months? Really?

I am getting so frustrated.

I had a pretty major "incident" today (well, yesterday... I just haven't been to bed yet). It was enough to scare my Speech Pathologist and have her cancel the rest of my therapy for the day, not bill me, and send me home.

I want to see my **** neurologist. I'm about to the point where I want to call them and bump up my appointment. I don't want to wait another 2 months. I've already had my MRI, and I can't get my ***** EEG scheduled no matter who I call. I've left numerous voicemails and talked to so many people.

I'm starting to have more "spells" as we shall call them. The fatigue is getting worse, the medication is now starting to lose its magic, and I'm starting to feel even more like shit on a regular basis again. Hey, at least I'm losing weight while I look like a pale, shakey, whiney, loser right?

I can't do things I want to do, I can't get a job. I can't stand for more than a few minutes, I can't walk more than a few feet, I can barely make dinner for my boyfriend, I can't clean my house in a day, but I'm not disabled right? I'm fine. Everything is fine. Everything is perfect. I just need to suck it up and get back to doing everything I was doing before.

Losing Weight Without Exercise

So my medications make me lose weight. Side effects and all that jazz, partially because I alternate between not sleeping at all/sleeping a lot, and partially because they suppress my appetite and I have to force myself to eat. I am eating healthy, just not as much. I've lost a lot of weight.

I'm already starting to get flab in my arms. I am not cleared for exercise. My BP used to be about 120/70, now it's low. Last time it was checked about a week ago it was 90/60.

I get dizzy, I'm not supposed to do a lot of walking or go places by myself because of the seizures and passing out, and I can't walk even do half a flight of stairs without getting winded.

I still haven't gotten in to a PCM, I'm on a waiting list.

Stupid Potassium!

I swear to G-d, no matter what I do, my potassium levels are always low. I'm going to talk to my Dr and ask for a prescription or something (every blood test I've had has shown low potassium, when I was in the hospital for my surgery it was super low and I had to have a drip for days).

I eat nanners. I eat taters. I eat veggies. Why does my body hate me?

I don't want to just start taking something because of all the meds I'm on. I want to discuss it with him first, kwim? Plus I'm po'.

I called the hospital to check on my blood test results, and they're not in yet, but she said that they've been consistently low every time I've had blood drawn and to call back on Monday. I just found out my dr's have weekly meetings about me.

Speech Pathologist

So I am seeing a Speech Pathologist/Memory person for my TBI stuff and she says that I have "executive memory function" issues and gives me assignments.

I now get to write To-Do list.
And I have a day planner.
I schedule daily cleaning.
But I'm doing better on writing stuff down!
She's super nice, I  love her.

Neurologist Appointment

Had my neurologist appointment today. Let me just say, I did NOT expect it to be a 2.5 hour appointment. I have an EEG that's going to be scheduled, an MRI, they referred me to the TBI clinic, they gave me medication for my headaches that is also an anti-seizure medication, so hopefully that will help some.

No diagnosis of course, but they're leaning heavily towards Atonic Seizures and MS. I had a seizure yesterday, luckily I didn't scare Katie.
Atonic Seizures | epilepsy.com
https://health.google.com/health/ref/Multiple+sclerosis

At they're getting closer to figuring something out.

This isn't the first doctor to say MS.

Allergic to the pain meds!

Yeah, so, the main reason I've been so miserable: I'm ALLERGIC to the pain meds they gave me. I can't even begin to tell you how much better I am feeling already.

I also have a UTI (ugh) and some fluid build-up in my abdomen, but it isn't infected yet! So if I take care of my incisions I should be ok. They gave me some cirpo to take for a while to get rid of that.

I am able to move so much better already. I can't believe I didn't realize that it was one of my drugs that was making me feel like crap.

Gallbladder Surgery

I'll condense everything to one post-

04-25-2010


So I've had a fever since after I got home. It's been hovering right around 99.5 the past couple hours, which is up .5 from when I woke up. They said if it goes over 100.5 I probably need to go in again.
04-27-2010

Waiting SUCKS
But I got to eat REAL food today, and I have my blanket and pillow, so it isn't so bad.

I hate hate hate sleeping on my back. My shoulder is killing me because of it, and my back is miserable. They've upped my pain meds because of it. Sad thing is that I don't even feel it anymore (the drugs), I feel normal :/ (other than the pain)

MRI to check my bile ducts, and surgery based partially around that. I have a 3cm gall stone that's obstructing junk. Something about some sort of infection, something about low levels of potassium and high liver enzymes, blah blah blah.

So I'm sure surgery will come in early and wake me up to tell me what's going on. Since my test was done so late there's no idea when anything is happening, but there's a pretty high chance that I will be going in to surgery TOMORROW (today for anyone outside of PT)

04-28-2010
My surgery is tomorrow morning around 7:20. They said I'm the first case, so the chances of getting bumped are pretty low. They're going to go in Laproscopically first and convert to open if they have to.

Going in to surgery

8+ hours in the ER

I've been home around 7 hours now.

I was in some of the worst pain I'd ever felt last night, and just couldn't sleep for the life of me. Kept vomiting & vomiting, so DB finally demanded that I let him take me to the hospital.

Tons of tests later, they ran a CT scan, which didn't really show much. Then a dr came in right before they were going to discharge me with bad heartburn, and felt my stomach- and sent me off to get an ultrasound. I have huge gallstones, and they're probably going to take my gallbladder out.

The one good thing about this is they approved me for charity through the hospital, so if I do have to have the procedure it will be covered.

I've been sleeping for pretty much the last 18 hours.

I guess I have an appointment

So I guess the only thing the last Dr I went to wrote down was that I have wicked bad anxiety and depression.

I got a call from the hospital asking me if I wanted to make an appointment with one of their psychology/psychiatry (is that right?) residents. I said why the hell not (it's free, I don't have insurance).

I'm kinda bleh about it. On the one hand I get to talk to someone about my issues, but on the other I really don't see what good it's going to do. And I have a hell of a time opening up to new people, especially when I'm all nervous n stuff.