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!

Ultrasounds

Next step after seeing the gastroenterologist was to get an ultrasound. 

Ultrasounds aren't all they are made out to be.  I guess they are cool if you are pregnant and finding out about fun stuff like babies but just in general, they suck. 

So I showed up with a FULL bladder - much  harder than it sounds.  Actually it wasn't that bad, I just started chugging water on the way to Raleigh.  Only took 2 bottles of water and a straw.  I was set.  Didn't have to wait that long but the pushing on the full bladder was NO fun. 

Anyway, the only thing that the technician saw on the ultrasound was a normal-ish sized cyst on my ovary.  Now I'm waiting for the GI Dr to call, give me that result and tell me what to do next.

So still waiting for that call....

Thirsty!

As I stated in the post below, I was really thirsty after sitting in the ER all day.  Every time I asked for something to drink I got the "we have to wait and see what's going on before you have anything" line.  So on the way home, Ronnie got me some tea!

We originally stopped at Wendy's on Capital Blvd for a Large tea and some French Fries.  (I have to eat before I can take my meds)  By the time we got to Durant I had almost finished it.  So the 2nd stop was at McDonald's in Wake Forest.  $1 Large Sweet Tea lasted me until I got home and took my meds.  I drained that big cup with the last Keppra I took. 

I could have had another but at this point I was tired and sleepy and about to P my pants! 

Seeing the GI doc tomorrow morning early.  Hopefully he'll figure something out.  Oh yeah, I'm still drinking sweet tea.

Slacker!

Yes, I know I've been a slacker about posting. I think about what I'm going to post tomorrow every night as I'm going to sleep. I don't think about it again until the next night when I'm going to sleep. That happens with a lot of things actually. So if I haven't called or emailed, I do think about but then don't remember :(

Yesterday was interesting. Starting Sunday I've had pain in my right side, nausea, lost appetite and just not wanting to move. If I get in the right position I'm "OK" but if I get up and move I'd get sick on my stomach and start hurting again. Hey it's hurting sitting here now and I'm sick on my stomach. Well, I can take care of the nausea because I've got good meds from the chemo, so no puking. But all that other stuff I couldn't do anything about. So I did the right thing or so I thought. I headed to the Rex Urgent Care Center yesterday morning. That's the closest to my house.

The Doctor was very nice and did the check pushing on my stomach and it was horrible. It hurt really bad. My symptoms were not YES it's appendicitis or Kidney problems but it was very possible one of them. He asked that I go the hospital and told me I'd probably be admitted.

Since I've had all my stuff done at Wake Med I asked if I could take myself over there instead of REX. He said no problem and they called ahead. Of course I got there and they were clueless. I waited 5 hours in the ER before being seen. I get back there and do all the same pushing and decided the same thing. Could be Kidney or appendix. So they ordered a CT Scan. I get to drink the stuff. Actually they got new constrast stuff and it's just like water and since they hadn't let me have anything all day, I chugged it down.

It takes about about an hour and half for the stuff to get into your system and then you can have the CT. Well about two and hour hours later I get the 5 minute CT. About another hour later we get the results ... it's all clear, no problems!

We talk to the surgeon and he's talked to the radiologist, the ER Dr and his boss. They all agree there is nothing they can do at this point. They refer me to a gastroenterologist and send me home with good pain and nausea meds. So after 12 or 13 hours in the ER they have no idea what's going on.

So here I sit, side still hurting, sick on my stomach waiting for the Doctor to call me back.

And you wonder why I don't update more often :)