Oh My Terribly Aching Back & Belly!

 This past Tuesday morning 0415, I was awakened by severe back pain across the bottom of my rib cage. Took two Alleve and two Oxycodone thinking it was muscular. In about 45 minutes I had chest pains across my chest from one side to the other, about 5 minutes later at most, I had a gripping pain in the center of my abdomen just under my sternum. The pain was excruciating, a seven or eight out of ten sort of a thing and the pain pills did nothing. I headed to the local ER. After several hours there and at least a few tests like an EKG, the ER staff told me they only test for "important things" and then assured me they had done all the "importing testing". The woman then told me to see my regular doctor for further testing because the staff in the ER could not find anything wrong. I was in agony although I do think they gave me a pain medication Toradol or something along those lines and maybe a shot of morphine. They sent me on my way.

 

On Wednesday the pain was still there but had subsided much. I had a previous appointment to see my regular doc that day. I went in and explained to her nurse what took place the day  before. The doc asked me again what was up, then she asked did they do a CT scan while I was at the ER. Maybe they had done one on somebody else but most certainly not on me! She had one done at the clinic in which she works. The result was that she had her nurse wheel me right back to the ER (her office and the ER are in adjacent buildings). I was there quite a while before they ran an Ultra Sound on my abdomen. The result was negative! Yet, the bottom line of one paragraph said they suspected the same disease as noted in the CT scan (cannot think of the name in essence an infected gall bladder). The ER staff said I needed an MRI but it was too late to do one so they would do it on Thursday morning. I was admitted to the hospital. Next day they did and MRI, it agreed with the CT scan my doc had ordered. I was told I needed emergency surgery, then after more hours of waiting in pain, they told me surgery would be on Friday, two days after admission. On Friday, I was none too sure they would operate that day but they said they would at ten AM. They got me to surgery after 1030 AM.

 

All of the rest of Friday, I was in agony. The surgeon spoke to me and told me my gall bladder was "really messy" and quite deteriorated. They gave me repeated pain killers, both Morphine and hydrocodone. The pain meds did a little to alleviate the pain. They had told me chances were I'd be in surgery and on my way home hours later. That did not happen; my white blood cell count was very high and my bilirubin level was also high among other abnormal readings. Saturday was not much better, had a good amount of pain all day and night but it was getting better. By Sunday morning, I had been passing wind and that relieved lots of the pain, apparently caused by air they had pumped into my abdomen to keep it spread wide for the surgery as I understand it. I was feeling miserable but a doc told me my levels were pretty normal so I could go home, where I am right now.

 

During my whole stay and at the ER, I told several medical personnel that I had recently been diagnosed with a low level of diabetes and that I was being treated with fluconozole for a gastrointestinal fungal infection. In addition, I informed several medical personnel of the medicines I take regularly. They refused to give me Synthroid until less than an hour before they brought me to the operating room, then they gave me 25 mcg. less than normal. They never gave me Irebesartan, one of my BP meds but only gave me three of the four BP meds that I take regularly, and I guess that is the reason many if not most of my BP readings were high while in hospital. They also refused to give my fluconozole which I was taking for a gastric fungal infection. Of course, they said it was next to impossible for the fungal infection to be the cause of my gall bladder issues; my gastroenterologist had told me it was outright "impossible" that was a week or to ago. I'd love to see the results if they culture the slop that was my gall bladder. Hopefully benign as for cancer but wondering if it as due to the fungus Candida glabrata. When I told a nurse today that I had diabetes, she said there was nothing in my record about that and all along they had me on a regular diet. Luckily they told me most of my blood sugar readings were normal or close to it.

 

For well over a year now, more likely two years, as best I can recall; I have been complaining of abdominal pain, back pain, yellow or yellowish poops, an huge increase from virtually zero to lots of reflux (that a gastroenterologist recently had agreed with me was probably bile reflux). Damn these doctors. When I had told the surgeon how long I suspected I had gall bladder problems, he told me he believed that was quite likely my gall bladder was infected or otherwise deteriorating for that long due to how bad it as when he took it out. Both the surgeon and another doc told me irritation from it had started to spread to other organs.

Feeling much better now but still pretty miserable. Still have pain at two of three incision sites, one of those apparently right through or next to a hiatel hernia I have and that one hurts a lot.Very hard to fall asleep, having hot flashes or long periods of feeling heated, then cold sweats but not feverish. Also feel very restless, and cannot get to sleep although I am exhausted. Feel sort of nervous or anxious as well. I wonder if I have become addicted to the pain meds after only a few days; I hope not but I am not taking any more as the Vicodin made me hallucinate some or so the doc said that is what did it while I was in hospital last night and early today.

I have half a mind to contact a lawyer who can subpoena my medical records and then possibly file a lawsuit over my repeated and numerous complaints of the same symptoms for so long with no one discovering the problem but I hate dealing with lawyers, even ones on my side.,

 

Oh well, at least they got the diseased blob out of me and life goes on for now. Hope to feel better sooner than later. Have never felt this bad after surgery before and have had several in the past. 

That is all.

All  the best,

Glenn B

 

 

Hmm, Maybe It Was Work - Maybe Not...

...but just two days of work and I am feeling under the weather so much so today that I had to call in sick. Nothing serious I hope, bit of intestinal discomfort, nausea, a lot of aches and pains and fatigue; all in all enough to make me not feel up to work though. I now suppose though that the bouts of nausea I felt on Monday and yesterday may have been the start of some sort of a bug because it is bad enough today to make me just want to crawl back into bed; and I further suppose it was not just the thought of returning to work that made me feel that way on Monday. Oh joy.

More blogging later if I feel up to it.

All the best,
Glenn B

Wow, I Have Not Written Anything Since Friday

I had planned to do a lot of things this weekend, like work on getting the job of laying the floor in my son's room finished, doing some shopping for a new gun (got some spare cash for Christmas), taking care of my critters (they all need a cage cleaning), and writing my blog - among other things. When I woke up yesterday, I think it was already, late morning or early afternoon. I was aching all over, and felt like crap in general. Regardless it was off to Home depot to pick up a Blind Nailer (nail gun for flooring), and then to another Home depot when the first told me all of theirs were broken. Then to yet a third when the second store told me they did not have a tool rental section. Finally got the nail gun, but never used it yesterday, because I felt even worse when I got home. So it was back to bed for me.

Somewhere in there my wife had taken our small Dachshund - Hexi - to the vet. She was having trouble walking on her back legs a bit the night before. From the vet she vet to an emergency veterinary clinic where they do surgeries. Hexi was getting really bad, really fast. They shot her up with cortisone, and by the time they had done so she had apparently lost all sensation in her rear legs. They said if she got sensation back, they would put her out, do an MRI, and do surgery if it was a slipped or exploded disc as they suspected.

Today dawned, and I still felt miserable, but I went to see our vet along with my wife, son and his girlfriend. She explained a lot about what could be ailing Hexi, and she called the emergency clinic for an update. The news was not good. She never got any sensation back. Her back legs are pretty much lifeless. So she is still in the emergency clinic under observation; a Neurosurgeon will see her tomorrow. We visited her today and she looked pitiful. Both our regular vet, and a vet on duty at the clinic told us there is little hope an operation will work regardless of what is the problem now that she has had no feeling for over a day, and because the problem progressed so rapidly. They are almost positive it is a disc but kind of made it clear the surgeon would know better so we left her there until tomorrow. They also agreed that unless Hexi gets some feeling back on her own - there is almost no point in operating on her, and little point in doing an MRI. We are hopeful they can diagnose her tomorrow, or at least rule some things out when the surgeon is on duty. We also are hoping it is not a tumor. If it is a bad disc they said she can use a dog wheelchair/cart to get around. If it is a tumor, well that could/would be much worse than a disc problem.

After that it was off to BJ's Club for some shopping. My wife joined recently, and I can tell you it seems strange to say we went shopping at a place called BJ's club. What can I say! After that, once we were home, I started some work on the flooring. I guess I was up there hammering away for about 4 1/2 or 5 hours. Why so long, well the rented nail gun was a piece of junk and did not work, and the nails for it were paper thin and bent each time I tried to get one out of the gun into the wood. When one did go part way in, it split the floorboard. So it was back to a regular hammer for me. With that, I got a whole 8 rows of floorboards put in. Not very much, but man oh man is that oak hard to hammer nails into even though I am pre-drilling nail holes. I can tell you that in those 4 1/2 or 5 hours my knees went through hell. I am betting I'll be hardly able to walk tomorrow; although I have to admit that when I started doing the work I felt like I was about 80 years old, and by the time I had finished I felt like I was only about 60 or 65 years old. I guess maybe I have a cold or something, and adding that to my having just started to work out again (I ran/walked 5 miles on Wednesday and 5 1/2 on Friday), the aches and pains of a middle aged fat guy overdoing it have had me really out of it. I can hardly wait wait until the morn when I awake stiffer and even more achy because of the work I did on the floor. Thanks to aspirin, I may actually make it to work tomorrow.

Now I don't have it as bad as Hexi, nor as bad as my mom. She also went into the hospital yesterday - some old age problem of one sort or another. She is better now and hopefully will get out tomorrow. I guess when it rains, and it is raining here, it truly pours. As for me, I am sure I will get over my cold soon, or imagine I will. I guess my aches and pains will also go away with time and a load of aspirin, though earlier today nothing worked. I must admit that the work on the floor loosened up some things and got rid of some aches, I am just expecting others to take their place by the morning. Oh well, enough complaining from me; whatever happens, I plan to have a good New Year's Eve at home with my wife, and a bottle of fine red wine, and a bottle of even better champagne; and I am hopeful Hexi will be with us. Hope you are felling better than us and not suffering from the blues or anything worse.

All the best,
Glenn B

I am Thinking About A Doctor...

...getting a new doctor that is because mine have still not figured out what ails me. I have been sick so often lately, I actually miss going to work. Still waiting for the results of a CT scan though, maybe that will make the difference in my diagnosis. One can only hope, but if not, then maybe you want to consider buying stock in Scott Paper Products, because we sure have been spending a lot on joy rolls lately.

The darnedest thing is I start to feel better, then wham I am sick again big time. Saturday during the day, I felt much better, not 100% but at least 80%; then Saturday night I was on the throne more times than I could count. I just don't get it; but I sure hope the docs will figure it out soon.

One other thing: Sorry there was no blogging from me yesterday; I may do some tomorrow, but not likely today. Just too out of it, and I have to try to rest to be able to attend traffic court later for some parking tickets.

All the best,
Glenn B

Another bout...

...of whatever was ailing me a week and a half ago and turning me into a marathon runner, hit me hard again this weekend; therefore the lack of blogging Sunday. I was feeling somewhat crappy (no pun intended) on Saturday, and really got bad Sunday night with a fever added into the mix.

Even as early as Thursday night I realized I was getting worse (having never really gotten over whatever it was that made me ill the week before). So, I called my doc who told me to go ahead an fill a prescription he had given me for Vancomycin. I dropped it off on Friday and went to pick it up on Saturday. I had about $50 or $60 bucks with me and figured that would be enough, but when the pharmacist told me I owed her $195.00 I almost fell over. I asked he to check and make sure that was after my insurance, and she told me that the price of this drug without insurance in my dosage was over $1,000.00. This is an antibiotic, this was for something ailing me that caused the squirts, and for something that my doctors had not even diagnosed except for a guess since the tests came back negative. I declined but asked them to hold it. I figured I would make it until Monday and check with my doc as to whether or not I take something else. Well Saturday night things got real bad, so on Sunday I went to the pharmacy and picked up the script; I guess I can thank VISA for that for now.

On Sunday afternoon I took the first pill. Four hours later I was super sick, and was running more than I had in a week, truly a sprinter over and over again. Then a fever hit me. I was baffled - was this caused by the antibiotic. Nah couldn't be. I sort of reluctantly took another at its appointed hour. Come Monday morning I was so sick I slept right through my doctor's appointment at 0900. I called an made another appointment for today. My doctor called me later on to check on me, and he told me if still feeling as bad this morning, that I should head to the emergency room for admission to the hospital. Yikes, that scared me some. Must have scared the sh.. out of me too because when I got up this morning, I felt somewhat better. I did not have to sprint all night once I had fallen asleep. Now granted I am still feeling ill, and far from 100 percent, but I feel an awful lot better than I have since Saturday night. I guess the miracle/expensive drug is kicking in.

The irony of this all is that this stuff, the antibiotic was discovered somewhere in a jungle in the soil. I seem to remember my parents telling me how sick I could get playing in the dirt when I was younger, but this stuff offers hope of a cure for what ails you (or at least what ails me). So maybe I should get out into the garden more often. It sure isn't dirt cheap either now is it, but it seems to be doing its job of cleaning out my system of the little nasties that have afflicted me, and that is a good thing. Cheap as dirt, nah, no way - but certainly worth every penny if it gets me well again.

While it maybe expensive, and while I could afford it because of my job and medical plan; my bet is that this drug is not kept from those who need it and cannot afford it thanks to our system of medical care. They who can afford it are required to have health insurance or pay out of their pockets for care, and those who cannot are helped out when in need. I wonder though, if we were under a system of socialized medicine, how long would I have had to wait before they would have even seen me at the doctor let alone doled this stuff out to me. I'd probably be dead before they would have thought - oh well we should have tried that one.

One really good thing about our system of medical care, it makes you strive to better yourself, to get a better job, to make more money, to pay for your own health insurance. I just cannot see socialized medicine doing anything like that for you - but I can see a socialist government forcing you to work at whatever they choose for you and then treating you like shit by giving you substandard medical care, among other substandard things, even though you slaved for the cause.

All the best,
Glenn B