Thursday, June 3, 2010

tummy upchu, uh, date.

  I can't tell you how much I appreciate the concern about my tummy, guys.  Very seriously.  And, you're all correct, it was way past time to do something.

  It means a lot when people yell at you.  :-)

  As it turned out, I didn't even need Crunchy's dulcet coo of "dumbass!" to get me motivated.

  All I needed was the emergency room.

  Ha, I hear you crow, "told you so!"

  Yes, you did.  :-)  and yes, you were right.

  I'll keep this as short as I can; other fish to fry; but, Sat evening, the nausea got uncontrollable and the vomiting rate was up.  So it's time for urgent care.  Saturday night is our standard choice for emergency room visits.

  I lucked out and got my old family doctor who knows me intimately, and is sharp as they come.  Just to prove everything, not that I had to, I threw up for him.

  He's been friend as well as doctor for decades; he checked everything; liver function, etc etc, blood, urine, barium swallow/injected vascular visualizer CAT scan.

  And.  Nothing.  very slight elevated white count, tiny bit of protein in urine- and nothing.  Definitely no cancer, etc.

  SEE!?  Told ya.

  This is my life story.  "yup, you're sick- but we can't find it."

  Then, for more fun (I LOVE artificially berry flavored barium) - one day later; Smidgen started throwing up, at 7PM.  Spice started at 9 PM.  Smidgen stopped around 4 AM, Spice about 6.

  Pretty clearly, my urgent visit was not an escalation of the chronic problem; but a case of "stomach flu" (aka food poisoning) grafted on top of it.

  Got the CAT done for the chronic thing, anyway.

  We're all still recovering from the food poisoning; gripy stomachs; and it looks like square 1 for the chronic.

  Who knows, maybe the food poisoning will knock out the chronic, right?

7 comments:

Sharlene T. said...

But it's better to PAY for a diagnosis, right? Glad you got it figured out and we'll be able to keep reading your blog...

YD said...

Greenpa, do you have an acupuncturist in your neck of the woods? I deal with problems like this all the time, both the chronic and the acute. Best if you can see somebody live, but if you can't, contact me through the buzzard, and we will see if we can't get you fixed up. If you are needle phobic there are alternative alternatives.

Crunchy Chicken said...

Yeah, but did they do a stool sample?

Shadow said...

GreenPa - have you been checked for Giardia? I'm a big fan of self-diagnosis as well, and that's what I came up with after a trip to Asia last year. It sounded a lot like your symptoms (intermittent nausea, diarrhea, fatigue, bloating, and just generally feeling like total garbage). Typically it only lasts about 6 weeks - but that's only if you don't get reinfected.

I hope you feel better soon. It is so frustrating to have a chronic, intermittent thing like this sideline your plans.

kai said...

I love self-diagnosis. My thinking is that you keep getting reinfected with something. Giardia sounds possible, or something in your food supply somehow (but if its mostly only you...probably not). Maybe the first time you got sick w/ a flu, and now you're just vulnerable to reinfection with some sort of food-borne or water-born illness that might not otherwise wouldn't bother a 'healthy' person because your immune system has been working overtime and can't fight stuff off? I dunno. Good Luck & hope you feel better soon.

Anonymous said...

porphyria?

Greenpa said...

Anon - porphyria is not an impossible diagnosis; hasn't come up with the docs yet. I'll raise the topic. :-)