So today was lovely, just kidding it wasn't. This morning I had super duper green poop, mom called the doctor. I went to work, almost threw up/pooped my pants. Came home an hour later. Pooped all day. All green. The nurse called me back, I explained once more what was going on, she had to talk to the doctor. She finally called me back at 4:50. 10 whole minutes before they close, I had almost lost hope. But then they called! And now I'm on more medication!! I'm now taking Flagyl 250mg 3 times a day for 10 days to help with the weird poop/icky feeling stuff. If I felt better I'd be laughing because I have had green polka dotted poop today, and honestly that's really funny.
Tuesday, July 29, 2014
Thursday, July 24, 2014
I don't know about you but I don't have to avoid very many foods! And most of the time, the ones I do have to "avoid" I can eat small amounts before they will even come close to having repercussions. Though there are some foods that I have to avoid all together, okay like one...
1. Super greasy foods (avoid all together)
2. Fast food
3. Raw fruits, especially acidic ones (i.e. oranges, though I can eat like 1 fruit per day without any repercussions)
4. Spicy foods
I'm pretty lucky I don't have any problems with dairy or meat for the most part. What foods do you have to avoid, or can only eat small amounts of?
1. Super greasy foods (avoid all together)
2. Fast food
3. Raw fruits, especially acidic ones (i.e. oranges, though I can eat like 1 fruit per day without any repercussions)
4. Spicy foods
I'm pretty lucky I don't have any problems with dairy or meat for the most part. What foods do you have to avoid, or can only eat small amounts of?
Wednesday, July 23, 2014
I don't know about you but I get extremely exhausted during the day, whether I'm at work or just hanging out at home. Like so tired I can barely keep my eyes open. And then.......they shut for a little bit, 10 minutes, 20 minutes, an hour? That's not even the worst part because those little naps make it nearly impossible for me to fall asleep before 2 am. Normally I'm out by 11 pm! All I really think about now a days is sleep and ya know other stuff but mostly sleep. I feel that my sleep obsession is almost as bad as the inflammation in my ileum. (just kidding...mostly). I know you're all thinking "well don't lie down! Duh!" Truth be told I can fall asleep almost anywhere and while sitting (I haven't fallen asleep standing yet). So it doesn't even matter if I don't lie down!
Monday, July 21, 2014
I haven't officially been diagnosed with anything as of 7/20/14, but I am highly suspicious of Crohn's disease, as my Gastrointestinal doctor and CNP say. But like any good tale I should start at the beginning, specifically February 11th at around 11:00 pm. That was the first time I had pain in my upper mid right quadrant of my abdomen, which is fancy talk for the middle between the end of my rib cage and the top of my hip bone. I merely attributed the pain to eating something weird, shrugged it off and went to bed.
2/12/14
The next morning I felt fine and dandy, but around noon I started having some pain again and nausea, I took some pain relievers and went to work. Though by a couple hours in, it was clear the pain relievers weren't working. The pain continued off and on, very sporadically, it felt like someone punching and holding their fist right in that one spot. It was tender if you touched it, looked at it, breathed at it (hahaha). I am exaggerating a little bit as it was only if you touched it or put pressure on it. I thought it was my appendix, so I went to acute care. There we ruled out my appendix and moved onto my gallbladder! But like always, there is always blood work. So I had some blood drawn and my WBC count was significantly higher than normal, I was then sent to the ER. While there I had an ultrasound and everything looked fine and dandy, they gave me a pain killer shortly after I was admitted, so they sent me home. After we scheduled a HIDA scan.
The next week
The entire next week I literally laid around while my mom tried to deal with the current family physician I saw who was only at the clinic like twice a week. Finally they gave me some pain killers (which I hated taking - they didn't work!) and Zofran (ondansetron) for nausea.
Some day in February?
I don't remember what day I had my HIDA scan, just that I puked that morning. So I laid still for 2 hours, drank the nasty shake, and I was done. I was told they'd call eventually. Well eventually they called and guess what!? Everything looked normal! My ejection fraction was perfect and so on. So I was scheduled for a CT scan. They told me in the mean time keep taking the pain killer.
CT scan went fine, I was told that everything was fine. So they sent me to a GI doctor. During the time after my CT scan and the GI appointment we switched hospitals, because the first hospital kept twiddling their thumbs and the CNP I kept seeing was a snot face. She talked to me like I was stupid and a hypochondriac.
By this point I've had so much blood work done and everything was coming back normal. I was also extremely (tmi) constipated from the pain killer they had given me, which was causing additional pain.
3/20/14
Finally I met with the GI doctor, he was kind of old and didn't talk much. He had me try Dexilant which is an ulcer medication, even though I had no symptoms or any indications of having an ulcer. I was on it for 10 days and if by the end of those 10 days it hadn't helped, I was supposed to call and we would set up an Upper GI scan.
Sometime in March
My upper GI scan went perfect, everything looked normal. I was told by the GI doctor to wait 3-4 weeks and if I was still having pain, to come back in. Well my mom decided that this was crap. We went to the new physician I was seeing and he recommended seeing a Gynecologist. He also discovered I had a systolic heart murmur. It is very minor and you have to listen super duper close to hear it (didn't find this out til a couple of days after the appointment in the appointment summary).
April
Between that last Dr.s appointment and the OBGYN appointment I made a trip to the ER at around midnight on a Sunday. I went in because I was having chest pain which had started the day after my doctors appointment. No worries, my heart is fine aside from the murmur. It wasn't my heart like I had thought it was, nope it was a rather bad case of acid reflux. So I was put on zantac and prilosec
I went and saw the Gyno, everything looked normal in terms of that. She spent a lot of time reading over my records. While she was doing that she found that on that first CT scan way back in February there had been some inflammation in my ileum. She informed us that it was possible that I had ileitis, and recommended us to a different GI doctor at the current hospital we switched to, and that I had a small hemangioma on my liver. The OBGYN doctor had the GI doctor get me in within the week. A WEEK! After having to wait over a month to get in with the first GI doctor!!!!
Went in and saw the new GI doctor and she was/is amazing. Within that same week I was scheduled for a colonoscopy and an endoscopy.
May
The Colonoscopy and endoscopy happened like May 2nd. I don't remember much from that day, other than I was extremely confused. They took biopsy's of my colon, ileum, the rest of my small intestine, and my stomach (because in the Upper GI scan after 10+ hours of not eating there was still food residue in my stomach, suggesting a slow stomach aka gastroparesis). The biopsy's all came back good. I cried. I was put on a trial of Metronidazole (Flagyl), which seemed to help. I was on that for 2 or 3 weeks. But 3-4 days after I stopped taking it, all the pain came back. So back in to the GI we went, except this time we saw the CNP for the GI dr. I had some blood work done, the ASCA/ANCA, which came back positive for Crohn's. I was then put on Prilosec 2 a day for 6 weeks.
June
I had my CTE scan, for this I had to drink an absurd amount of barium. I couldn't get all of it down for fear of puking. BUT I got most of it down. Everything looked fine aside from the inflammation in my small intestine. After this I was scheduled for the swallowing of a video capsule the first week of July.
July
I was told the prep was not as bad as the prep for a colonoscopy. That is a lie. Its over two days, taking 6 days worth of laxatives each day. The second day liquid diet alongside the laxatives. The results came back as no ulcers, stricture, or lesions - only inflammation. I was then put on Pentasa (mesalamine) 3,000 mg per day. It seems to be helping with the pain from the inflammation but the side effects aren't pleasant (i.e. headaches, nausea, etc). I go back in the 21st of August to determine the next step. I have not been officially diagnosed of anything because of the darn biopsy! Though I am considered highly suspicious of Crohn's.
*Side note, I was also tested for celiacs, but given the location of the inflammation and the fact that there was no correlation between pain and food (specifically gluten) it was dismissed rather early in the game.
2/12/14
The next morning I felt fine and dandy, but around noon I started having some pain again and nausea, I took some pain relievers and went to work. Though by a couple hours in, it was clear the pain relievers weren't working. The pain continued off and on, very sporadically, it felt like someone punching and holding their fist right in that one spot. It was tender if you touched it, looked at it, breathed at it (hahaha). I am exaggerating a little bit as it was only if you touched it or put pressure on it. I thought it was my appendix, so I went to acute care. There we ruled out my appendix and moved onto my gallbladder! But like always, there is always blood work. So I had some blood drawn and my WBC count was significantly higher than normal, I was then sent to the ER. While there I had an ultrasound and everything looked fine and dandy, they gave me a pain killer shortly after I was admitted, so they sent me home. After we scheduled a HIDA scan.
The next week
The entire next week I literally laid around while my mom tried to deal with the current family physician I saw who was only at the clinic like twice a week. Finally they gave me some pain killers (which I hated taking - they didn't work!) and Zofran (ondansetron) for nausea.
Some day in February?
I don't remember what day I had my HIDA scan, just that I puked that morning. So I laid still for 2 hours, drank the nasty shake, and I was done. I was told they'd call eventually. Well eventually they called and guess what!? Everything looked normal! My ejection fraction was perfect and so on. So I was scheduled for a CT scan. They told me in the mean time keep taking the pain killer.
CT scan went fine, I was told that everything was fine. So they sent me to a GI doctor. During the time after my CT scan and the GI appointment we switched hospitals, because the first hospital kept twiddling their thumbs and the CNP I kept seeing was a snot face. She talked to me like I was stupid and a hypochondriac.
By this point I've had so much blood work done and everything was coming back normal. I was also extremely (tmi) constipated from the pain killer they had given me, which was causing additional pain.
3/20/14
Finally I met with the GI doctor, he was kind of old and didn't talk much. He had me try Dexilant which is an ulcer medication, even though I had no symptoms or any indications of having an ulcer. I was on it for 10 days and if by the end of those 10 days it hadn't helped, I was supposed to call and we would set up an Upper GI scan.
Sometime in March
My upper GI scan went perfect, everything looked normal. I was told by the GI doctor to wait 3-4 weeks and if I was still having pain, to come back in. Well my mom decided that this was crap. We went to the new physician I was seeing and he recommended seeing a Gynecologist. He also discovered I had a systolic heart murmur. It is very minor and you have to listen super duper close to hear it (didn't find this out til a couple of days after the appointment in the appointment summary).
April
Between that last Dr.s appointment and the OBGYN appointment I made a trip to the ER at around midnight on a Sunday. I went in because I was having chest pain which had started the day after my doctors appointment. No worries, my heart is fine aside from the murmur. It wasn't my heart like I had thought it was, nope it was a rather bad case of acid reflux. So I was put on zantac and prilosec
I went and saw the Gyno, everything looked normal in terms of that. She spent a lot of time reading over my records. While she was doing that she found that on that first CT scan way back in February there had been some inflammation in my ileum. She informed us that it was possible that I had ileitis, and recommended us to a different GI doctor at the current hospital we switched to, and that I had a small hemangioma on my liver. The OBGYN doctor had the GI doctor get me in within the week. A WEEK! After having to wait over a month to get in with the first GI doctor!!!!
Went in and saw the new GI doctor and she was/is amazing. Within that same week I was scheduled for a colonoscopy and an endoscopy.
May
The Colonoscopy and endoscopy happened like May 2nd. I don't remember much from that day, other than I was extremely confused. They took biopsy's of my colon, ileum, the rest of my small intestine, and my stomach (because in the Upper GI scan after 10+ hours of not eating there was still food residue in my stomach, suggesting a slow stomach aka gastroparesis). The biopsy's all came back good. I cried. I was put on a trial of Metronidazole (Flagyl), which seemed to help. I was on that for 2 or 3 weeks. But 3-4 days after I stopped taking it, all the pain came back. So back in to the GI we went, except this time we saw the CNP for the GI dr. I had some blood work done, the ASCA/ANCA, which came back positive for Crohn's. I was then put on Prilosec 2 a day for 6 weeks.
June
I had my CTE scan, for this I had to drink an absurd amount of barium. I couldn't get all of it down for fear of puking. BUT I got most of it down. Everything looked fine aside from the inflammation in my small intestine. After this I was scheduled for the swallowing of a video capsule the first week of July.
July
I was told the prep was not as bad as the prep for a colonoscopy. That is a lie. Its over two days, taking 6 days worth of laxatives each day. The second day liquid diet alongside the laxatives. The results came back as no ulcers, stricture, or lesions - only inflammation. I was then put on Pentasa (mesalamine) 3,000 mg per day. It seems to be helping with the pain from the inflammation but the side effects aren't pleasant (i.e. headaches, nausea, etc). I go back in the 21st of August to determine the next step. I have not been officially diagnosed of anything because of the darn biopsy! Though I am considered highly suspicious of Crohn's.
*Side note, I was also tested for celiacs, but given the location of the inflammation and the fact that there was no correlation between pain and food (specifically gluten) it was dismissed rather early in the game.