Catching up...

I do not have gallstones.  This is a good thing, but leaves us in the position of not knowing what's causing the intermittent nausea and vomiting.  I'm a little fed up with my doctor at this point, because every time I call to give an update on how I'm feeling, it's duly noted and I'm told to call back in 10 days.   The husband did not pass the medical office coder certification test (he came very, very close, but close only counts with horseshoes and hand grenades).  He has been diligently searching, but still does not have a job.  The temporary services will probably be next.   We had a parent/teacher conference for the boy today.  It's been scheduled for several weeks... perhaps my nerves leading up to this are what caused the latest round of vomiting?  It went better than I expected, honestly.  He's still somewhat immature compared to some of the other kids, but that's typical in boys, and not surprising considering we've never had him in daycare (ie. not a lot of exposure to other kids until preschool).  His fine motor skills are behind, but we knew that.  We're making a concentrated effort now (FINALLY) to sit down with him in the evenings to work on this, to reinforce what they do at school.  The husband and I have done the boy a great disservice in not concentrating on this sooner.  We've let ourselves get caught up with the stress of other things going on, which is inexcusable.  The school has people from the Easter Seals organization come in every year to evaluate all the kids, which will determine if we just haven't worked hard enough on the motor skills, or if it's some kind of actual developmental delay, so that will be helpful.   And so it goes in our little corner of the world...

I suppose I should confess (if I haven't already) that the total pounds lost number to the right includes 3 pounds that I lost during the elliptical debacle of the summer of 2007...  but hey, it's weight that I've lost and kept off, so I'm counting it. 

I go in an hour and a half for the ultrasound that will show the doctor whether or not I have gall bladder issues.  I won't get the results today, of course, because the imaging center I'm going to will forward the, well, images, to my doctor's office for him to read and interpret.  The doctor's office said they'd call once they have the test results, probably in a day or two, to set up an appointment.

Hurry up and wait.

The doctor feels the other possible causes for my stomach woes are (best-case scenario) gastritis, or (worst-case scenario) something called gastroparesis.  The ultrasound for the gall bladder is the easiest test to start with, though.  To diagnose gastritis they do an endoscopy.  I gag brushing my teeth, so the thought of them sticking a camera on a tube down my throat is particularly troubling.  All in the name of health, though, right?

I'll keep you posted...

This is not shaping up to be a good week...

When it rains, it pours, right?

This past Thursday, I found myself, for the second time in a month, stricken with stomach cramps, nausea, dizziness...  I won't go into further gory details.  Let's just say it wasn't pretty.  Recall that I also came down with the same symptoms the weekend of my friend's wedding to the redneck truck driver.  I have only just in the last week felt as if my appetite was coming back, and I'm down again.  It doesn't help, either, that I've been hearing and reading things lately about one of my diabetes medicines possibly causing pancreatitis; how can you not be concerned when you hear something like that?

I yakked twice at work, then left...  yakked twice more at home, and spent the rest of the day in bed.  I also called the doctor's office, concerned about the fact that there seems to be something seriously wrong with my digestive system.  The doctor didn't seem too worried about it, though, and told me to check back in today (read he was taking a 1/2 day off Thursday and all day Friday, and wouldn't be back into the office until today).

Understandably, I didn't eat much over the weekend.  I had a good workout Saturday, but skipped Sunday.  I went for my usual workout this morning, and decided as I was leaving that I just couldn't face going into the office this morning...  not to mention the fact that I might have to leave early if the doctor decided he wanted me to come in.  Working from home is why they give us laptops, right?  I came straight home, and left a message for my boss that I was still down, working from home, blah, blah, blah.  I'm sure she won't have a problem with this, but I really don't care.  I'm exhausted by and fed up with working at/for the Casa de Insurance, but that's a topic for another post.

The doctor did have me come in this morning, and after talking for 10 - 15 minutes about what I've been experiencing, he said...

... that he would like me to go this week for an ultrasound to determine if I've developed GALLSTONES!!  Apparently, when you've lost 'a lot' of weight (and he didn't define 'a lot', but I have lost 48 pounds, yay me!), it's not uncommon to develop GALLSTONES.  I'll spare you the icky details he gave me on why they speculate this happens.  If, in fact, I have developed GALLSTONES, I'll likely have to have my GALL BLADDER removed. 

Lovely.

At least this is an outpatient procedure, and probably would require nothing more than a long weekend off work.

On the other hand, the flexible spending account for our healthcare needs for this years is used up, and it's only October.  Guess that's what I guess for buying the warehouse-club sized bottle of Advil...  and Zyrtec...  if it turns out that I do need to have my gall bladder removed, I may ask him if it can wait until after the beginning of next year (ie. once the spending account is replenished).

If it's not gallstones, then we'll go to the next likely cause of my digestive woes.  I go Wednesday for the ultrasound.

Fun times...

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