Musings of a Medical Zebra

Archive for March, 2009

Taking a break — hopefully a short one

Wow…it has been ten days since I last posted. The right side of my rib cage is out of place. My osteopath/internist tried to fix it for me today, but it didn’t work. I’m having severe back pain. My sinus infection is acting up too. I’m on Levaquin for three weeks. I’ve been on it for a week now and the infection isn’t much better. I’m supposed to call my ENT doctor and see what he wants to do about it. The other problem right now is my hands. I have tendonditis in both hands. As a result of this, and my other issues right now, I’m going to take a break from typing for a little while. I hope to be back here soon.

“Neighborhood Watch”

I’m going to file this one under The Squatter Saga, even though it’s not about The Squatter. This post is about our ex-neighbor. I’ll call him Doug. I was checking my e-mail one morning when I decided to open the window in the office. As I was opening it, I happened to look at neighbor’s house and noticed something interesting — a security camera. It was pointed at the driveway we shared. In my mind, this confirmed my suspicion — there was drug related activity going on in the house. Since I didn’t have a job, I was home most of the time. I’d see cars coming and going a lot over there.  It was a different car each time and they’d stay for 10 minutes or so.  Doug also acquired a pit bull around that time, which we also thought was odd.

I was most alarmed by the security camera. We had a good relationship with Doug, so I decided to ask him what the camera was for one day while we were talking to him outside. He said, “Neighborhood watch.” He also said he could not only see everything that was going on in the driveway we shared, but he could also hear it. Nice…

I figured we might as well have some fun with it. When we’d arrive home from grocery shoppping or whatever, I’d get out of the car, wave at the camera, and say” Hi, Doug.”  Several times he appeared at the door and waved back. Creepy…

E Day

Today I had an upper endoscopy. If you’ve read some of my previous posts, you already know that I have stomach problems.  I’m nauseous most of the time. I vomit off an on, for hours at a time, and my stomach hurts more often than not. My gastroenterologist decided to do another endoscopy. The last one I had was three years ago.

Today’s endoscopy yielded similar results.  My sliding hernia is still there, and my lower esophageal sphincter was still too floppy. The only thing different was the color of my stomach lining. This time it was red. My doctor took several biopsies of my stomach. He did that last time too. This time he biopsied my small intestine as well. The results of that stuff will come back in a few weeks. He expects everything to be fine. I seen him again on the 30th to discuss what to do next. He thinks the problem could be neurological, but said he might recommend another pH test — one that would tell him if I’m having reflux that’s not coming from my stomach (bile reflux). I see my internist on the 23rd to discuss my stomach as well. I suppose I’ll have more news at a later date.  For now, my stomach is unhappy about accepting food and I’m fairly nauesous, but otherwise okay.

The Nature Preserve

The thing that I admired about The Squatter was that he mowed the lawn. I also admired his dedication to getting the job done. After all, it wasn’t unusual for him to spend at least a couple hours outside with the mower on a weekly basis. Notice I  used the words “with the mower” and not “mowing the lawn.” This is because much of  his time was spent with his hands on the mower, but the mower wasn’t actually turned on.

I observed that on several occasions. I’d happen to look outside and see him in the front yard with the mower.  He’d stand there for several minutes with his hands on the mower, just staring off into space. Then he’d go inside, come back out to the mower, and do the same thing. Other times, he’d turn the mower on, but he’d just stand in one place with it running. After awhile, he’d actually start moving. It never lasted very long, though.  From start to finish, it would take him about two hours to mow what should have taken about 20-30 minutes. For whatever reason, he’d always leave a 5 x 10 foot patch of the back yard unmowed. It was the same area each time. We referred to it as The Nature Preserve.

The Arrival of The Squatter

Those of you expecting a health related post today might be disappointed (or relieved). Today’s post has nothing to do with my health; it’s about a situation that occurred a couple years ago.

Before we moved here, we rented a small house in a town of about 15,000 people. Our neighbor also rented his house, and we shared a landlord. One day our neighbor abruptly moved out of his house. Soon after he moved out, another guy moved in. We recognized him as one of our ex-neighbor’s friends. Unlike our ex-neighbor, the new guy moved in without the permission of the landlord. For this reason, we called him The Squatter.

The Decision

I have an important decision to make. A decision I’d like to make today. Better yet, I’d like to have someone else to make it for me — someone that knows the right answer. Unfortunately, neither of those things are going to happen. If you’ve spoken with me recently, you probably realize the decision to which I am referring. For those of you that don’t, I’m talking about my future — what I’m going to do with it.

I attended career counseling last year. It confirmed what I already knew — that I have a lot of interests. One of the possible careers we came up with — that I’m interested in and can physically do — is dietetics.

A lot has happened since my  career counseling sessions. My health has declined a bit since then. As it stands right now, it would be impossible for me to get to class each day.  My health status also tends to change for the worse very quickly. Perhaps I’ll be feeling well enough to attend classes when August rolls around. By October, a new ailment could pop up requiring that I leave school. Those reasons make me wonder if school is even worth attempting.

I have four months to decide, since it’s March right now. I started filling out my FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) today. I plan to go through all the other motions as if I were starting in the fall — signing up for classes, etc. My hope is that the next few months will bring some positive health related changes. That would make the right decision more obvious — well, it would be helpful anyway. If things don’t improve, I’ll have to decide if I should start school anyway, postpone it, or forget the idea entirely.

I still wish I knew the answer now, or someone could make the decision for me. It looks like I’m just going to have to be patient and see what the next few months bring. I suppose I can do that. If there is one thing that EDS has taught/is teaching me, it’s how to be patient.