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. 🙂

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 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.

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