Saturday, January 30, 2010

Just What I Wanted For My Birthday!

I've been off sulking for a few days since it seems like I only get a diagnosis to lose it when I fail to follow the proper pattern.

So the GI docs no longer think I have diverticulitis. Because, the theory goes, if it were diverticulitis, I'd have responded to the antibiotics by now. (I finished the Cipro today, and have a few more days of the Alinia.)

Meanwhile, my blood count came back Thursday within normal ranges. (I'm still waiting to get a copy of it so I can compare it to my normals.) So my GI doc decided a colonoscopy wasn't as urgently required as the one I saw on Tuesday thought. Since there's danger of perforating the colon in doing one when inflammation is present, the 'scope got pushed back until March 3. Which, for those who don't know, is my birthday. Happy birthday to me, right? (Could be worse -- if I were doing it on March 4, I'd have to be on a liquid diet on my birthday. At least this way I can eat birthday cake that night!)

I understand that things that are scary and urgent to a patient like me are not always (not usually!) true emergencies from a medical professional's viewpoint. But it just seems like ongoing bleeding from an area that's not supposed to bleed should be considered urgent even by doctors. Shouldn't it?

And I hate that it will be two months from onset until they do the test that may be able to tell me what caused all this. Of course, with my luck, even a colonoscopy won't be able to definitively diagnose the pain in my gut and the cause of my bloody diarrhea.

I think what I find most scary, though, is that if it's not diverticulitis, the odds increase that whatever it is will be yet another chronic condition. If I'm lucky, it will help my doctors figure out what my overall mystery illness is. (What I liked about the idea of diverticulitis was that it's fairly easily treated and rarely recurs.) If not, then whatever this is will go on my long, long list if secondary diagnoses. :-(

Can you tell I'm a bit depressed about all this?

My guess (and remember, I'm not a doctor or medical professional) is that based on my symptoms, I'm going to end up with some kind of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) diagnosis, most likely ulcerative colitis.

2 comments:

queenofoptimism said...

Our medical lives really do end up intersecting!! Many, many hugs!!! What's strange for me is I had a lot of bleeding and very strange other symptoms. They have gone away. My suggestion - if things continue or get worse, push for it sooner. BTW, I have yet to post my What to expect Colonoscopy but I have some really great tips from my last one! I wish we lived closer so we could sulk together. Sending lots of care and hugs your way.

Aviva said...

I know -- isn't it weird the synchronicity we have sometimes? :-)

I'm glad those symptoms have gone away for you, and I really hope they don't come back!

I'm so excited for you getting into that new neuro, and hoping he's The One. And hoping the new rheumy I see next week turns out to be The One for me, too! :-) *hughughug*