Friday, June 27, 2008

The Plot Thickens

If any of you read the comments for my original post again, you'll find some interesting information from a blog friend of mine. (Donna, who also happens to be in my hospital support group) Apparently, she had a similar episode and was diagnosed with kidney stones from the ER as well, but it turned out being her gallbladder needing to be removed. I've decided to take her advice and see Dr. W before calling the urologist that I was referred to by the emergency doctor. There is a special scan that they can do to look at my gallbladder specifically and see if the problem in fact lies there.

I'm being worked in on Monday at 1:45 and it's actually a time when the doctor's office is actually closed... so they are going to have to ask permission for me to come in then when he gets back to the office on Monday. (Have I mentioned that I'm never allowing him vacation again!?) The nurse will call if I can't go in, but with this new problem and my ears still having no change or relief... I'm hopeful that he'll feel sorry for me and make the time to see me.

If nothing else - I've always been pretty happy with the specialists that he's sent me to - so I'll be more confident in the urologist if that is the route we need to take to get this figured out. I trust him completely and will do whatever we need to do on his advice.

I must be of the old school when it comes to medical problems because I tend to not look them up online or anything until we get a confirmed diagnosis... because I've been down that road before and been convinced that I had everything in the book... and even sometimes have found myself reading into things and finding symptoms that just really aren't connected or present at all. The only exception to this was with Weight Loss Surgery - where I researched it quite a bit before I went down that road. I don't know if it was because of it being considered an elective procedure or if it was just because I didn't know much about it at the beginning... but I'm choosing to not do too much research on gallbladders or kidney stones at this point.

I do know that gallbladders will act up with fatty foods, and the interesting thing is that the night that the pain was the most intense - I didn't eat anything that I'd consider to be all that bad. I had pork chops, mac & cheese and a few green peas.... nothing too terrible. I mean it would make total sense if I'd had a corn dog or something that evening... I guess I need to learn that my body is a complete anomaly and will always go in the opposite direction than the typical path.

The deal with my ears while being generally annoying... is a little troubling because with my newly rearranged plumbing in my digestive system... I wonder if the antibiotic pills are actually being absorbed at the moment... and if not -it's no wonder that there hasn't been any improvement in the condition - because I have the absolute worst immune system on the planet!

So it looks like a few more days of not doing much - I'm going to try to venture out to the store with John tomorrow for groceries, and go to church on Sunday... but I think that'll be about it for me. It's just not easy when I can't hear... I mean literally - half the time I sit here and the most I can hear is my heart beat swoosh... especially when it's quiet... and I spend a lot of time asking John what he just said or what happened on the television - so I hate the idea of being out in the world to much and not being able to hear!

1 comment:

  1. Tell ya what....I do Google alerts that are automatically sent to my inbox each day and the big news this week has been "Gastric Bypass
    Surgery linked to greater risk of kidney stones."

    Are you on any meds to protect your gallbladder? My surgeon has placed me on Ursodiol twice a day for that purpose, but I know that not all surgeons do this.

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