4 weeks later... still sick (long sorry!)

The day of my last post I decided to go to the ER that night. They sent me home after 10 mins which was a crock of crap. I went in with severe pain in my right upper quadrant of my stomach and 5x (sorry for the TMI) blood in my stool since 11 am. The doctor said I pulled a muscle coughing (I had the coughing stuffy nose crud week before) and a hemmorhoid and to follow up with my doctor a week later and prescribes me a LAXATIVE... no blood tests, no CT to look at stomach, nothing. Did this man not listen when I said I'd had FIVE that day??? Two days later I call my doctor's office because I can't get out of a ball the pain is so intense and the nurse (she's a total biotch on the phone and so nice to me in person because she recognizes me from the lab) says the doctor agrees with the ER report and to go to the walk in clinic or back to ER if it's "really that bad" in a snotty tone. This was at 3:45 in the afternoon and I called her at 8 am when they opened! How rude! So off to walk in clinic I go.

Dr. Reeves at walk in decides it's my gallbladder and orders a med 3x a day with food. I can't keep food in me at this point and it makes me feel like my stomach is going to explode. Orders pregnancy test, urine culture, and gives me a prescription. Tells me to hold out for Dr appt the following week and orders an ultrasound to take with me to doctor. Ultrasound comes back normal, just some granulomas in the spleen (sign of infection). My primary doctor cancels appt until after I get in for the ultrasound and because his office is so friggin busy it's yet another week before I can be seen there.

Next week I decide I can't wait, the pain is getting insane and go back to walk in because my doctor can't budge to get me in. I'm pissed off and frustrated because it's been 2 weeks of not eating and intense pain at this point and yet to see my own darn doctor. This is Dr. Porvaznik who says no it's not your gallbladder or you'd have a stone I think it's an ulcer. Has me drop the other meds and gives me new meds. Orders a CMP, Amylase, and CBC labs. The girl blew a vein because I'm so dehydrated and I'm normally an easy stick. I'll be seeing my doctor in a few days. I'm down 10 pounds. from appt week prior. Dairy is the worst thing to eat. I ate ice cream my boss brought me and spent 2 days in bed feeling like I could puke at any second.

I meet with my doctor and he says no he doesn't think it's an ulcer it sounds more like gallbladder based on pain and symptoms. Discontiues ulcer meds and orders a cholescintigraphy and EGD scope down the throat for last week while he's gone in case that's normal.

Fast forward to last Monday. I go for the cholescintigraphy. The guy can't get a vein anywhere other than palm side of my wrist and blows it. Test ends up coming back normal. I go to walk in clinic because on Sunday I noticed I have a lump pop up in my left upper abdomen. This makes me really start to panic. I had a friend who had metal rods like mine and he had random infections start popping up after battling sinuses and bronchitis for a month and his body had started fighting his rods... it was a mess. This doctor says it's my lymph nodes and I clearly have an infection somewhere (no fever, in fact i've been in the 97s most days) and orders a barium swallow CT for Friday. I go back on Tuesday because my hands and legs feel weak and shaky like when you first get out of the shower and I'm anxious and crying. I'm frustrated because I want answers and to know if I should keep going to work. Like am I getting sicker going to work and being around the germs? Am I putting patients/coworkers at jeopardy by being there? This doctor says she's not even sure why I'm there because they can't seem to help me and wants to send me back to ER... remember what happened a few weeks ago? No thanks and you already took my copayment biotch! This doctor says it's not my lymph nodes, she thinks it's just pockets of fat popping up since I'm losing so much weight (WTF lady????) and they hurt because I can't keep my hands off my stomach so I'm making them hurt. I'm an emotional wreck and scared to talk after this because she made me feel crazy :( Orders the EGD my primary doctor has pending for Thursday.

Thursday comes and I go to IMA Endoscopy for my scope. Dr. Selo performs it. He's really nice and actually listens and so did his nurses. He doesn't see any ulcers but takes biopsies for H Pylori tests and he also suspects Celiac's Disease. Why had anyone else not thought of this? Googling it I have 9/10 gastrointestinal symptoms, along with the shaky limbs, messed up menstral cycles, sudden lactose intolerance, etc. I'm still waiting to hear back on biopsies.

Friday I do Barium CT (wouldn't recommend it ugh) and I hear back yesterday that I have a 1 cm lesion in my liver. I have to do a repeat in a month to track it.

So here I am, no official diagnosis. I've had to drop a class because I was missing a test last Thursday and going to have to take a 0/100 on both lab and lecture tests. He would only let me make it up this Monday and I had Federal Jury Duty so he recommended I withdraw. 11 weeks of class down the drain. I'm down a pants size and still want to do nothing but sleep and hug a pillow. Yesterday was 4 weeks. So I guess we'll see if I'll be living a gluten free life after these final biopsies come back.

So I failed...

Sorry about that. Let's see I'm sick currently. Last week I had the city come to inspect the hell hole we pay $700 a month to rent to try and fight our landlord to fix it. Now we just play the waiting game. I'm going to be honest, I've never been happy to hear someone is getting divorced, but I cannot wait until my landlords' is final and someone decides to do something to help their tenants not the pocketbook they are fighting each other for. Plus they have 4 kids who are constantly stuck in the middle and that's not cool at all. Here's a 3 picture teaser (there's over 40 pics and a complete notice to the Landlord on facebook if you're interested).

The awesome yellow stains that cover ALL my linoleum on the ground floor. Former tenants' had 3 dogs and were 3 single young men... I can only guess what I'm stepping on.

We're pretty sure a small child died in our living room... we were told to put our couch over it.. no thanks!

We have two doors like this... It's awesome NOT!

Courtney asked about weight loss. It's sort of plateaued. Once I switched to night shifts I've started living on chocolate and caffeine, but I only seem to eat a meal a day. I ordered my dress and can only lose 10 lbs or I'll need alterations. I'm weening myself off regular Mt. Dew slowly but surely and will get back on track. I just want to look good in honeymoon pics and not feel like a whale. I've lost more size wise than on the scale. I'm starting to realize that I'll never be happy with what the 3 little digital numbers say, I never have been and just need to feel happy with what I see. My "girls" however seem to have picked up all that was lost in the waist area so I had to order a bigger dress no matter what. Call me a late bloomer I suppose!

Shane has started his new job at For Bare Feet in Helmsburg. We'll be part of the Brown County scene now and hope to run into Mrs. Clowers soon! I'm over at BC HS for anatomy classes twice a week. He's a Network Administrator and gets to wear jeans to work, I think that's a favorite part! Well besides mandatory week off between Christmas and New Year's. That's an amazing feature for any employer to do and impossible to see these days. Everyone I've met over in Brown County talks about what a wonderful company it is and how much they care about their workers and so far so good. I get a discount on super cool socks and am now considered a "local" discount when shopping over there, I love it :)

I work Tues-Sat 10:30p-7a in Medical Records at Bloomington Hospital now. It's been an adjustment to say the least. I feel myself learning more medical concepts though and was proud of myself recognizing cholesterol clusters in a photo last week ha! I get to wear scrubs so I'm always comfy. I hated to leave my job in the lab. I absolutely loved that job, but wanted full-time benefits. I feel like I never get to do anything fun though because I sleep during the day and am stuck there at night on the weekends. I knew this going into it and was willing to make the sacrifice. It'll get better once all the other new people are trained and can cover alone so I can ask off. I'll be working on Halloween AND Thanksgiving this year. Probably the night of Christmas too.

And just because everyone loves pics of kids, I'll finish with my sisters!

3 months... oops

I really didn't mean to let 3 months slip by sorry folks. We've just had so much going on that perhaps I'll promise to do a topic a day and journal over the next week. I'll go ahead and give you a list of the highlights so you can see what's coming in the days ahead.

• We moved
• I've been dress shopping a few times
• Shane got a promotion
• School started for the both of us
• I switched departments at the hospital and now work full-time
• I've created a wedding website, still working on it.

That's all I can think of for now. We also had a little wedding party drama, but I don't think I need to write about that :( For the record, I've been logging in and keeping up on everyone else's lives though!

Whoops!

So I'm went missing sorry. I'm back I promise!

First off before you get bored and leave, I'm giving all you ladies a challenge in my weight loss journal. www.whatsmyweightagain.blogspot.com if you've not checked it out. I've also been slacking on there too.

Second, why I've been slacking. We've been everywhere looking at wedding venues and I'm pretty sure we've found the one. I just need to meet with the banquet coordinator. Shane's mom went into the hospital last week. She had to have a pacemaker put in, but is home and doing well. Probably bored not driving, but doing well! Thanks for all the prayers and thoughts, they were appreciated. I've also been working extra hours at the hospital and CB so I really just have no free time sometimes. I swear I'm reading everyone's stories though, just not having anything to say myself!

Third, I dropped my summer class. It was going to be awkward going to class on Monday & Wednesday 2-5 to where I couldn't pick up more work at either job. Plus trying to schedule appointments to plan the wedding, and hit the gym. I'm just going to take it in the fall.

Ok I think that's it. Told you all I'm boring!!! In all seriousness, I'm going to be doing this challenge even if I'm alone so please check it out!

So sorry for the hiatus...

I've been so busy it's crazy. I thought I was suppose to enjoy my time between classes but apparently not. I'm still not sure where I want my wedding to be. I have two places I like, but it's not like when you find a dress or something and say oh that's the one and just know it. In the end I think it'll be a lot of DIY stuff to make it how I want it to look or feel. Anyone want to volunteer to make lots of tissue paper decorations lol?

Lauren had her 3rd dance recital. I forgot my camera in the other car. Mom's camera wouldn't work (that happens when you drop it!) and my cell phone pics were crappy so I'll post a pic from her professional ones when they are back. The outfits were flipping adorable! Black and hot pink whick I love together! She tapped to Zippidy Doo Da! and was the tallest in the back row of her class just like her old sister ha!

I've been considering for awhile applying for overnight jobs at the hospital just to either get more hours or get more money. Plus I've been told you can do homework at most of them. I use to be more of a night owl than I've become (could be 7:30 work helping that) and I'm still struggling to want to get out of bed that early. I don't know. I guess that leads me to my next and final point since I'm starting to ramble....

Does anyone else ever feel like something is missing? I don't neccessarily feel unhappy because I like where I'm heading. I've been doing the jazzercise and weight watchers for the weight. I've cut and highlighted my hair recently. I've bought a few summer outfits that are a lil more dressy in an attempt to dress up a bit more. I just feel like something isn't there that I need to be but I can't figure out what it is that I'm searching for or what I think I need to feel. But in all seriousness it's not that I'm unhappy so I can't figure out what my deal is. Am I just a weirdo?

Summer Vacation?!?!

In the words of Shane, this isn't a vacation at all! He took 3 days off this week so we could go to Evansville and all we've done is go, go, & go! Joni Jetta is racking up the miles this week! We went to Indy and up to Ft. Wayne for a wedding Saturday. Wednesday we headed to a concert in Evansville and back up through Washington to see Amber & the kids in Plainville yesterday. Today we're heading down to Lake Monroe and over to Brown County to look at wedding venues and then back to Bloomington for dinner with both our families. Tomorrow we have his mother's graduation in Ft. Wayne at 11a.m. and I'm leaving from there to come down for the Relay for Life benefit for Team Andrea in Washington.

Oh and if you haven't looked on facebook, I chopped all my hair off and put some subtle highlights. I figure I have this summer to be carefree and then I'll grow it out starting in the fall. Lord knows this thick mop will grow back in a month or two easily!

Weight Watchers...

I'm starting a Weight Watchers blog if anyone is interested in following it. It probably won't be that exciting until later. Being as I'm on week 1 and not to my 2nd weigh in yet, I cannot promise you'll be waiting on a twitter update anytime soon!