Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Hallelujah we have an answer!!!

So, this morning I went to see the general surgeon. She looked through all my tests and has finally found an answer for me. Apparently my gallbladder is only functioning at 43% (something that was shown in a test I had done in APRIL, but no one paid any attention to because apparently if your gallbladder is working at 35% then it’s ok. Does that sound ok to anyone else??? Good grief!!!) and some of my symptoms also seem to be appendix related. SOOO, on Oct. 18th, I will be having surgery to have both my gallbladder and my appendix removed. The hope is that once both are removed that the majority of my symptoms will go away! I’m so excited to finally have an answer that I can hardly stand it.

For the surgery itself, I’ll be staying in the hospital overnight and then there is about a week of recovery time at home. But hopefully, after that, I’ll be getting back to normal. I don’t know if I even remember what normal is, but I look forward to finding out.

Thank you all for your prayers and support. God is good. All the time!!!

Sunday, September 26, 2010

A Weekend With My Brother…

Wow! What a fun weekend it’s been. My brother, Rick, came out here to do some concerts for us and what a great time we had. I think this is the first time we’ve ever spent the weekend together where it was just the two of us. We are about polar opposites on just about everything. If I’m hot, he’s cold…in fact, he says my apartment is freezing. I’ll give him that one though because everyone tells me that. My friend, Erica, says I live in an igloo. Oh well…polar opposites or not, I love him lots and I was so excited that he was coming out here that I could hardly stand it.

Rick came in on Friday and we had a great time at Colton’s Restaurant with some folks from church. Then we got to spend all day Saturday just going around Jefferson City and checking out the toy/comic/music type shops. We also checked out a couple museums. Rick had sushi from a restaurant in town called “LOVE SUSHI.” I, however, did not. Not enough money in the world to make me eat sushi. YUCK. I don’t enjoy fish all that much when it’s cooked regular. Anyway, we had a great time. Rick found my “Lois and Clark” Seasons so we watched those when we were at my apartment. We used to watch that show back in High School. Was fun to watch them again.

Then Saturday night, Sunday morning, and Sunday night Rick held concerts for our church and it was amazing. I know that I’m probably bias, but I was at all three concerts and I thought they were fantastic. The Spirit was moving and Rick has such an amazing talent for reaching those listening to him. God really worked through Rick this weekend and it was a blessing to be there listening. If you’ve never heard Rick’s music, you should check out his website. There is a link on this page.

Sadly, he is leaving early in the morning, but it’s been such a pleasure to have him here. I hope he can come again soon. I’m blessed with family that I adore. What could be better than that? Not a thing! :-)

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Medical Update: The Search Continues...

Well, since so many people were telling me that a hysterectomy was quite drastic, and I quite agreed, I decided to see my general practitioner and see what she had to say. Needless to say, she agreed with everyone else. I got the report from my ultrasound (where the fibroid tumor was first found) and it didn’t recommend surgery at all. It recommended that I have an MRI to get more information because there were several things that had not been visible or not clearly visible on the ultrasound. SOOO, my general practitioner set up and appointment for me to have the MRI as well as a second opinion from another OB/GYN.

I had the MRI this past Friday and it went fine. However, it didn’t give any more information on the tumor. One funny thing (well, I thought it was funny), there were about 4 techs in the room for the MRI. One of which seemed to be in training. They were all very kind and helpful. Halfway through the test, they needed to inject some sort of contrast stuff into me. And who would be the one to give me the injection??? Yep, the new guy. The person training him gave him some instructions and all seemed to be fine. I finished the test and went on about my day. Later on, I couldn’t figure out why my arm was sore. When I took off the band aid, I found out why. YIKES!!! I had the biggest, ugliest, bruise I’ve ever had on my arm from a shot. No wonder I was sore. I guess he has to practice on someone. Might as well be me. Oh well, this too shall pass. Ha ha!

This morning I had the second opinion from the OB/GYN. She was wonderful and listened to all I had to say as well as looked at all my test results. She totally disagreed with my first OB/GYN and didn’t recommend surgery at all. She did think that there was a possibility of endometriosis and wanted to start treatment for that until she realized that the majority of my pain is actually in the middle of my stomach, on my right side and my back. She said that while, I don’t have all the indicators of it being my appendix or gallbladder, I do have some (like fever and pain) and that it was still possible that one of those was the problem. Now, I’ve had tests to check those organs, but she said that sometimes it doesn’t show up easily and you don’t know if there is a problem until you actually look at the organs. So, before we start treatment for the possible endometriosis, we are going to rule out the appendix for sure (since pain is on my right side) and possibly the gallbladder.

So, I now have an appointment with a general surgeon to get her feedback on the situation. That appointment is for a week from today. Until then I have pain meds to help me when the pain is bad.

So, the Saga continues. Praise God that I don’t have to have a hysterectomy at this point. God is good. Hopefully, the general surgeon will have an answer. I’ll post again when I have more news. Thank you so much for your continued prayers. I appreciate them more than I can say.

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Welcome to Confusion: Population Me

About a year and a half ago, I started not feeling well. The doctor in California said that it was probably stress and pretty much ignored my symptoms. At the time, I was under a lot of stress, so I accepted what he told me because most of my symptoms could be stress related…except for the fact that I was running a semi-constant low grade fever that just wouldn’t go away. As far as I know, stress does not cause a fever. However, the symptoms eventually went away for the most part after a couple months.

Then in March of this year, all the craziness began again but this time, it didn’t go away. I started going to the doctor out here in Missouri and that began an array of tests. The problem was that all the tests they ran came back clear, but I was still running a fever (low grade, but still 1-3 degrees higher than my normal), was having pain in my stomach, and a few other symptoms that would come and go. The fever was the only absolute constant. The second most constant was the stomach pain. Talk about infuriating. I thought I was going to lose my mind. Fortunately one of my doctors was very encouraging in that he agreed with me that something was definitely wrong, we just hadn’t found it yet. So, the search continued.

A week ago, I was told that I have a fibroid tumor on the top of my uterus. It is 3.5 x 2.8 x 3.3cm. It’s not cancer, but surgery was an option! I was so excited because I thought this was the answer to all the problems. I wasn’t all that excited about being cut on, but hey, if it would solve the issue, bring on the knife!

So, today I went to see my OB/GYN to talk about surgery options. She gave me two. Option one: Keep the fibroid…it’s degenerating so it might not cause more problems. However, one you start to get fibroids, you will probably continue to do so.

This didn’t seem like a good option because I’d have to keep all the symptoms that I’ve been dealing with. So, on to option two….

Option two: Hysterectomy.

WHAT???? Seriously…those were the only options I was given. I was heartbroken. But at the moment, I knew nothing else to do. I’ve had an Abdominal Ultrasound, Hyda-scan, Pelvic Ultrasound, Upper GI, Colonoscopy, more bloodwork than I can remember and another test that I can’t remember the name of (but it made me sick) and EVERY test came back clear. I have my regular doctor, a gastroenterologist and now an OB/GYN on the case and this was the only abnormality that had been found at all. So, I told them to schedule the surgery. However, the earliest spot available is Sept. 24th. I told them I would let them know next week if that would work.

I talked to an OB/GYN who used to attend our church and he gave me some very wise counsel and advice. At his suggestion, before I make any decision, I’m going to talk to my general practitioner and ask her to relook at all of the test results and see if she can find a reason that has perhaps been missed. And if not, what the next step should be in her opinion. It’s too late to make an appointment today, so I’ll call about one for tomorrow or Friday.

I had planned to have some answers to put into this blog tonight, but I only have more questions. I appreciate your prayers as we continue to search for whatever this mystery illness is. You are a blessing to me. Thank you so much for your support.