Friday, January 15, 2010

Maybe Things Don't Always Have To Be So Complicated?

It has been a killer week. But I survived! :-)

And I might even have a(nother) diagnosis for my latest problem ...

I had a CT scan on Wednesday morning, which was rather non-eventful other than the three pokes it took to get an IV into me. (Hey, I needed a little color from the bruises, didn't I?)

On Thursday, I saw my OB (finally!), who did the most painful pelvic exam I've ever had. She didn't see or feel anything out of the ordinary, and said the next step was to see my gastroenterologist to rule out something intestinal, and if Dr. GI can't figure it out, to come back and she'd take a look inside with a laproscope to see what she could find. 


Ellie was scheduled for her annual checkup on Thursday afternoon, but Scott got a call from Ellie's teacher about ten minutes before he was going to leave to pick her up to say Ellie's right ear hurt bad enough that she couldn't lay on that side. It was good timing at least! Sure enough, she had a raging ear infection on the right side, so we got prescriptions for antibiotics and numbing ear drops.

By the time that was all finished up, I was in no condition to go to the kindergarten readiness program I'd intended to go to that evening. Sigh.

Today, I called my internist to see if she'd gotten my CT results. She hadn't seen them yet but she was able to find the preliminary results in the computer system. The most notable thing in the report was that I have "stranding" in my intestine right in the area that I have pain. She says that's a sign of inflammation, and said the CT report said there was probable diverticulitis in that area. 


So it's antibiotics for me! Meanwhile, my respiratory infection seems like it rebounded again, and my wheeze and junky lungs are worse, so I'm on Avelox, an antibiotic that's designed for respiratory infections but is also a second choice line of treatment for diverticulitis. Gotta love it when you can kill two birds with one stone!


Meanwhile, after scheduling an appointment yesterday to see my GI doc in a few weeks, I got a call from his assistant that they had a cancellation and can fit me in on Tuesday. Which is quite good timing!


An interesting note is that my internist says that a colonoscopy is contraindicated with a diagnosis of diverticulitis because there's a higher likelihood of perforating the bowel if it's all swollen. So I apparently have that to look forward to eventually, but not for the next few months.




3 comments:

Herrad said...

Hi Aviva,
What a post hope your appointment on tuesday is useful.
Keep warm.
Love
Herrad

Jeanne said...

Aviva,

Wow. Where to start?

I am sorry to hear about your painful pelvic exam. There are a number of things that can cause that. I know because I have a handful of such illnesses. We should connect "off the blog".

If you reach a point where you do end up having a laparoscopy, I would suggest making sure you have a highly experienced surgeon. Since you don't have any way of knowing before going in for a lap if you might have endometriosis, I would suggest having a surgeon highly knowledgeable and trained on endo.

The trick is that just because a doctor talks like he/she knows endo doesn't, sadly, mean much. We can talk about this "off the blog" too if you like. The bottom line is that if you end up having a lap, you want the best surgeon you can find. How to go about finding such a surgeon is too complex for a blog comment but I'll be happy to connect with you offline.

Sorry to hear about Ellie's infection. Hope she's getting some relief.

I know the feeling of missing certain events. It stinks. I'm sorry. You're doing your best and that's all you can do.

I hope you get some relief soon!

I've had 4 colonoscopies and I had a foot of my colon removed. So, we can chat about that offline too. I blogged about my last colonoscopy (last April). I even posted the pictures the doc gave me. (So avoid that post if you're squeamish). I can give you the low-down on the various bowel preps docs have used through the ages. :)

Jeanne

Anonymous said...

Oh dear. Hope you're feeling better soon.