day 63/365: hospital :(

hospital. :(

carolyn’s great medical mysteries continue. in the ER for most of the day because i wasn’t able to walk. had crazy muscle weakness, dizziness, fatigue, etc. had a CT scan done of my abdomen (due to the ulcer and/or gallbladder illnesses) but it revealed nothing, so we’re back to the assumption that i either have an ulcer or my gallbladder is failing.

nobody had any clue why i felt so weak that i could barely walk since my vitals were okay, so i did some sleuthing on the internet and found that it’s a rare, but serious side effect of nexium (and the other PPI drugs they had me on). the ER brushed that off and actually increased my nexium dosage…soooo, i stopped taking it. i have had very serious drug allergies and sensitivities in the past and i was pretty sure that this was it. sure enough, i’ve stopped taking it and am slowly getting better. i’m able to walk and getting stronger by the day, but now my stomach hurts again.

they recommended an H2 blocker, but those pretty much do the same thing and have the same side effects as PPIs and i’m not really willing to risk it, so right now i’m doing the holistic thing until i can get in to see the GI doctor and have the recommended endoscopy during their soonest appointment – may 4th. ouch.

so what do you do when you can’t take the recommended drugs because of drug sensitivities, have doctors that don’t believe in your drug sensitivities, and can’t get in to actually figure out what’s wrong with you until may 4th? something is seriously wrong with this picture. :(

oh yeah, and none of my crazy procedures are covered under my health insurance until after i’ve passed the several thousand dollar deductible! thank you, health insurance!

hospital bracelet

why 365?

day 57/365: diagnosis.

ow.

so, for those of you interested in my medical history, i got pretty sick about a month ago. i’ll spare you the details, but i never really recovered. first i thought it was whatever virus i had lingering around. then we suspected that the milk we were drinking might’ve been bad. then we thought i was becoming lactose intolerant. (self-diagnosis is so much fun!)

then today i started experiencing the same stabbing stomach pains but now to the point where i was in super amounts of pain. at this point my self-diagnosis of intolerance to lactose was becoming suspicious…so i finally sucked it up and went to the doctor’s where i was diagnosed with a stomach ulcer.

BAD NEWS: i have a stomach ulcer. and it hurts.

GOOD NEWS: i can still eat all the cheese i want!

so apparently stomach ulcers aren’t really caused by stress or diet or anything and that was all kind of a myth somebody started at some point (although they can be worsened by stress and diet). i guess most of them are all pretty much to blame on viruses and bacteria now. whenever i got sick about a month ago, i either had a virus or some sort of bacteria that messed up my digestive system pretty good, causing my stomach acid to get all out of whack and now here i am…on a steady diet of aciphex.

my line-up for the next couple weeks:

aciphex

and while i’m in pain, it’s not all bad. i can still eat ice cream and this will resolve itself sooner or later. they can get pretty awful if left unchecked, but it seems i’m pretty good for now.

and the really good news? most stomach ulcers (including the type i have), feel better when you eat! so tonight i get to sit on the couch and totally pig out with all the diary i want. :)

why 365?