Side Effects?

One friend suggested I check the side effects of my medications to find out if any caused kidney stones.  I had not even thought about that.  Cause if they did, this would just be the start! 

So I get on the net and start looking stuff up.  Guess what I found ?  Everything causes WEIGHT GAIN!  Seriously, weight gain. 

And here I was wondering why I wasn't losing weight.  UGH!!!!!


Oh yeah, didn't find anything on kidney stones.

Kidney Stone?

I sort of  missed an update.  Everyone is still asking about what happened with the right side/flank pain? 

Well, I'm pretty sure I passed a kidney stone.  I had a really bad, painful day and that's when it happened.  Let's just say I had all the signs/symptoms and I've not had any pain since.

So there, one less thing to worry about!

ADHD anyone?

Wednesday is the Therapist and/or Psychiatrist day.  I see the Psychiatrist for drugs and the Therapist for talking and working out issues. 

The typical trip to the Psychiatrist is a little chatting and finding out how my drugs are doing.  This time he told me wanted to add another drug to the mix - adderall.  I had heard about it but didn't know much about it.  He explained that it would help me with both my energy level and my focus.  Hey, I'm all about that!

So I got the prescription and off to the pharmacy I go.

I walked back the drop off area and waited a few minutes.  Went ahead and put my Date of Birth on it because they always ask for it.  The lady walks over and starts putting everything in the computer finds me, and I'm out of there.  But she stops me, tells me to hold on for a few minutes.  She's still typing and looking around.

I notice a little girl walking by me.  She's about 10 and looks like she's wearing Pajama pants and a teeshirt.  But these were not just any PJ pants these were MONKEY PANTS!!!!!!  Purple monkey pants to be exact with yellow bananas.

The lady looks up at me and I say:  

ME: "Hey, she's wearing monkey pants!" 
Her:  "Huh?"   
Me:  "She's wearing monkey pants!"
Her:  "What?"
Me:  "The little girl, she's wearing PJ pants with Monkeys and bananas on them"
Her:  "Oh, okay"

I decided at that point it was pointless to explain that I was wearing Monkey socks.

Anyway, I'm still waiting and she finally tells me that Medco requires confirmation from my Doctor as to why I need this medication.  They will have to fax a form to the Dr and he will need to fax it back to Medco.  Once that is done Medco will approve the medication and I can pick it up.

I looked at her and said "lady, I have brain cancer.  I just randomly talked about some little girls monkey pants.  I think I need some ADHD medication"

She starting laughing so hard I thought she'd wet her pants.

I asked if there was anything I needed to do and she told me no.  Just to call back in a day to two to see if had been approved.

Guess what? It was approved the next day!  They said it was the quickest they've ever seen one approved.

Can you read a MRI?

I had my 4 month MRI last Thursday.  MRI day isn't so bad now that I'm taking drugs.  Actually it's kind of fun because I really don't care, I'm relaxed and would like to take a nap.  If the darn machine wasn't so loud I would go to sleep.  Anyway I had the test on Thursday and went back to Duke on Monday.

I have the MRIs at Wake Med so that all the files are in the same location.  That means I get a prescription for the test, schedule it and then show up with the prescription.  The prescription details how they want the information to be returned to the Doctor.  Mostly in CD form which means I know have a copy of every MRI I've had!

This doesn't sound to interesting until you realize there is also a program on the CD so that you can view the pictures from the MRI.  I've become very adept at reading those disc.  It's not too hard.  You can tell all the details, eyes, ears, nose and BRAIN.  You can see where the big freaking whole is where the tumor used to be.  It's easy to spot the portions that are "highlighted" where cells remain.

All that means is that you can look at the MRI from last time and compare to the one from this time and literally see that there have been no changes.  Totally cool.

So when I'm sitting in the office waiting for Dr. Friedman to come up and talk to me after reviewing the MRI, I'm not totally freaking out because I know there hasn't been any changes.

Mom drove me this trip so I had to call Ronnie when I got out.  He wanted to know if I'd Dr. Friedman that I'll already read the MRI and knew I was all good.  I figured he was the expert and let him do the official report!

Frustration Mounts!

The frustration is building because no one can seem to figure out what's going on with me/where this pain is coming from.

I've not heard back from the Dr on the IVP so I went by the hospital and picked up a copy of the report. The final verdict was that I have scoliosis and everything else was normal.

I dropped by the GYN office and he wants to take the wait and see approach. He doesn't think it's cancer or the cyst. It might be endometriosis (which he did a laproscopy on me for years ago and found nothing). He told me if I started puking and running a high temp to call him back. He offered to write me a prescription for pain pills.

So what the hell is this? Not the appendix, gall bladder already removed, Kidneys seem clear, as far as I know all the blood work is clear, no fever, no vomiting, clear CAT scan and Ultrasound other than ovarian cyst, no blood in urine or poop.

What do we have? Pain in the right side/flank/back and nausea/lack of appetite. They can push on my belly and tell I have pain but can't seem to figure out what it is.

I'm just frustrated! I don't want to just take pain pills to cover up the problem.  So I'm stuck in the loop of taking test after test and hoping maybe someone will stumble upon something!