Good Report

I just got back from Dr. Woodford's office and he said the calcification around my ovary is probably a little ovarian cyst from an corpus luteum egg that was released that was filled with blood. He examined me and everything was normal in there and he's gonna do an ultrasound in 4 weeks to make sure the cyst doesn't "grow". If it does grow, it could be a dermoid cyst and it would have to be 6 mm before they would need to remove it--but that's probably not the case. So, that's all good news. Dr. Bailey scared me to death about that cyst!

I'm gonna work on losing some weight to see if that helps the acid reflux from the haital hernia and keep taking the medicine and hopefully the pain I've been having will slowly diminish. Thanks for your prayers.

Some test results...more to follow

I had to go back to the ER for the third time early Sat. morning b/c I was in so much pain. They did a CAT scan of my abdomen to rule out any other problems I could be having. Those tests results revealed NO problems with kidneys, pancreas, diverticuli, NOR any presence of tumors, so that relieved me a lot. However, they did find calcifications on my ovaries and a possible clot in a vein near my ovaries which I was instructed to follow up with Dr. Woodford to see what's going on there. Before my endoscopic procedure this morning, Dr. Bailey saw the CAT scan reports and told me to make an appointment with Dr. Woodford soon so that he can look into what they found on the CAT scan. Dr. Bailey told me that I might have to have that ovary removed which made me cry when he said that because I want to have another baby. I'm trying to think positively. It's just scary when there's something they found and you've got to have it looked into further.

Anways, I had the endoscopic procedure done today. It wasn't bad at all. I don't even remember them doing the procedure. It turns out that I do NOT have an ulcer. I have a hiatal hernia which is when the upper part of your stomach goes through to the chest cavity. I do have some acid reflux which is most likely caused from the hernia. The crazy thing is that hiatal hernias are "fairly common in 25% of people 55 or older, and is more common in women and people who are overweight." (according to the research I've done). I also had to have my gallbladder taken out the first year John and I were married at age 22, which is pretty young to have that problem. I guess my body parts think I'm old or something! :)

I'm still having some pain. My appointment with Dr. Woodford is today at 2:00---they worked me in and John's gonna take me since i'm still loopy from the medicine from the procedure.

I'll post again when I find out more.....

Gotta Have that EGD test done

I had another sick spell with bad abdominal pain again last night and was up all night. The medicine is not working as we had hoped it would. I called my regular medical doctor and talked to his nurse and she said they could get me in with a gastrointestinal specialist in 3 weeks and then I could schedule that EGD test with that doctor. I was about to cry on the phone and I told her I could not wait that long. I told her something had to be done now because something is going on with my stomach and it could not wait. So, I had to get her to refer me back to the surgeon that took my gallbladder out 4 years ago b/c he could possibly get the test done quicker. I had to make a few phone calls this morning while exhausted from being up all night just to try to find a doctor who could get some tests run immediately. I have never in my life been so frustrated with the health care system. We're paying $900 every 2 months for health insurance and my doctor won't order the test because a gastro-whatever doctor has to read it so he sends you to the gastro-whatever doctor first. But then you have to wait almost a month before you get any help? I never realized how things worked until today. You have to go higher on the totem pole to get anything done around here. I really think I may change medical doctors even though I have loved mine up until now. I think after the third episode my doctor would realize the seriousness of how much pain I've been in. I just want to feel taken care of by my doctor. John said, "What? Do they just want to see well people?" Anyway, John took me to the surgeon and he said I needed to have the EGD test done soon and we scheduled it for this Monday morning. I'm dreading it but I know it's the first step we need to take to find out what's going on. Dr. Bailey said they'd give me some medicine that would make me not even care if they chopped my head off so that's good. I'm just freaked out knowing that they'll put a tube down my throat while I'm still awake. Please pray that they'll find out what's going on and that it won't be anything serious. The doctor said I could have some bacteria in there and that can be treated with antibiotics. Let's all pray for the best...Thanks

Thank God I'm not Diabetic!

I just got a call from my regular doctor's nurse and she said my blood work was totally normal for my blood sugar. One of the tests they did checks my blood sugar average from the past 3 months (don't know how it does that but that is pretty cool). Everything was right on target, so no diabetes to worry about. I'm taking 2 different medicines for 7-10 days and if the stomach pain/acid reflux pains don't go away, I'll go in for an EGD (Esophagogastroduodenoscopy)test where they put a tube down your throat. I hope I won't have to do that. If the symptoms go away, that means the medicine is working to heal the ulcer and I'll continue taking one of them for 8 weeks. Hopefully by then things will be much better. I will have to change my diet for a while--maybe for a long while, cutting out fried, high fat and spicy foods, caffeine, chocolate, etc. That's gonna be hard, but I've been drinking nothing but water for the past 2 days and I feel more hydrated than I've been in a while. What a good way to get healthy and lose weight!

The Longest Story and Title Ever (the equivalent to how long I spent in the ER) aka My Trips (yes, plural) to the Emergency Room

This week has been pretty eventful for me. John had diarrhea last weekend (I'm sure he wants everybody in the blogging world to know about that) and Bonnie threw up twice last Saturday, so on Tuesday night when I started to feel sick, I suspected a virus too. I was in such a great mood for Bunco and had such a good time eating Chinese food with the girls , but about 30 minutes before it was time to leave, my stomach started hurting. It got progressively worse by the time I got home and I thought if I threw up I would feel better, so I tried to throw up. That didn't work well, so I drank two sips of Alka-Seltzer and that REALLY made me throw up but the pain was continuing to worsen. (and no I'm not pregnant, for those of you who are thinking that's the direction this is going) After 3 1/2 hours of pain, I decided I needed to go to the emergency room. John's dad took me b/c John now has a cold and he'd taken Nyquil and I didn't think he needed to drive, so anyways, we got there and stayed there for a total of 6 hours. I thought I was gonna die before the doctor saw me. They were SO slow! A really nice nurse came in with an strong African/Jamaican dialect (very much like Dorian Flynn's)and gave me Phenergan for nausea. I told the nurse that I wasn't really that nauseated but I had made myself throw up at home b/c I thought that would make me feel better. She looked at me with confusion and concern and with that accent, she said, "You MADE yoself throw up???" I said, "I didn't MAKE myself..I'm not bulemic, I just thought about it really hard and tried to tell myself to throw up so that I would and I thought that would make me feel better." I don't know if she understood at all or not. They had taken a urine sample earlier and the doctor FINALLY came in and told me that there was sugar in my urine. Okay, I thought..what does that mean? The doctor said either I ate --and yes these were his exact words-- a "butt-load" of sugar or I'm diabetic. Well, I didn't eat a "butt-load" of sugar--just a mini ice cream sundae at Gena's with extra chocolate syrup but that wasn't THAT much sugar. I started to freak out a little b/c I started thinking.....what am I gonna do if I'm diabetic? I'm gonna die. I'm just gonna die from diabetes and my arms and legs are gonna fall off and my kidneys are gonna shut down. I just wasn't prepared for the doctor to say that. Well, they took my blood and my blood sugar was 196 (double than normal). Being that sick can raise your sugar but it shouldn't have raised it THAT high. I found out that when there's sugar in your urine, it's called "spill out" and that means that your body has so much sugar running through your body and eventually it can't handle it all, so it "spills out" into your urine, which is a bad sign. The doctor, whose real name was Dr. Marlon Florida told me to see my regular medical doctor today or tomorrow and if he couldn't see me, I should come back to the ER and not wait around. He was pretty concerned about the sugar thing. The stomach pain he determined was probably just viral. He gave me a Darvocet at 6 that morning right before I left to go home and I slept all day Wednesday. My stomach wasn't hurting at all on Friday. So, I went to the doctor yesterday and had blood work done and I find out on Monday what my blood work says. My doctor mentioned something about an ulcer but he was in such a hurry, I didn't have time to discuss my previous stomach pain with him that much.

This brings me to the second portion of the story: The 2nd trip to the E.R.

Since I was feeling better, John and I went to Applebees for lunch after my Dr.'s appt. and I got the Roasted Turkey and Bacon Ciabatta sandwich with tomato basil soup--my newest favorite lunch. Right afterwards, my stomach started hurting and I had diarrhea. I guessed that I just wasn't over the virus or something or my stomach just wasn't ready for the food I ate. At 5:00 my stomach pain returned and it felt like my chest was slightly burning and it hurt to talk or breathe. I drank Alka-Seltzer, took Pepto-Bismol and Gas-X, took a hot bath--nothing helped. By 7:00 I was really hurting and crying hysterically and I told John to go upstairs and get his mom to get me a Fleet enema (never done one of those but I thought maybe I needed one to cure my stomach pain)Something had to be wrong for me to be hurting that badly. She'd thrown all of the enema's away, so I cried some more and finally decided to go back to the emergency room. We got in quicker this time and my nurse just so happened to be one of my sister's friends from high school. I looked as ugly as homemade sin and was kind of embarassed but I was hurting so badly that I decided it didn't really matter. The doctor came in almost immediately and saw my chart from the other night and noticed that my white count was up and he pressed on my stomach and said he thinks I have an ulcer based on where and how I was hurting. He also mentioned something about GERD which I think is the same thing as acid reflux which can cause an ulcer to form. He said he was gonna give me some IV pain medication and Phenergan and he was gonna treat it like an ulcer. That pain medicine made me not even be able to hold my head up but once it went through my IV the pain literally disappeared. I have to say, it worked quicker than my epidural did! The doctor also said I needed to reduce my stress. Stress doesn't CAUSE an ulcer, but it contributes to it if you already have one. How I'm gonna do that I'm not sure. So that's the longest story ever. I'll let y'all know what my test results are about my sugar. I find out Monday about that. Please pray that I am healed soon and that they figure out exactly what all's going on.

Oh, and not that I am a believer in fortune cookies being right and all, but I'm pretty sure God was trying to send me a message that Tuesday night at Bunco---through the fortune cookie. I wish I had saved it, but it said something like "Be patient. Look for heeds and signs" You see, John and I were gonna start trying to get pregnant this month and he had been sick but he was feeling some better so we were gonna start trying that night after Bunco because that day of all days was the day I'd be ovulating. (Sorry if I'm giving TMI...we're all adults here) I was gonna rush home after Bunco but I ended up having to rush home for a different reason--my own sickness. I guess God CAN talk to you through a fortune cookie. I'm convinced I didn't just grab that one out of the pile by accident! I'm gonna have to be patient with the whole baby thing. I think I got my "signs" that this month was just NOT the right time!

Marley's gone....

I guess some of you already know this but our dog Marley has been missing for a week and a day now. We're pretty sure he's gone for good. He evidentally ran off because of the storm last weekend and we haven't seen him since. We've had him for about 7 years. We've put an add in the Courier and in the Times Daily for a week and have had a few calls but none of the people had found our dog. I'm sad.....I just want to know where he is. Not that want somebody else to have him and just be keeping him, but I'd rather that be than him off hurt or worse somewhere. I know he's just a dog but he was my first real pet ever, so it's hard for me to completely stop thinking about it all. If you see him out wandering around Florence, let me know, but I'm pretty convinced we won't see him again because it's been so long. :(