Well ladies and gents, my medical mystery continues and I can't say that I'm pleased. I've officially been sick for two months and counting and still no doctor can really tell me what is wrong. I went in for a PIPIDA scan the day after my last entry and I had no idea what to expect. I made the mistake of googling the procedure right before the nurse came to get me. I discovered that I would be injected with radioactive material that would make my liver and gallbladder glow in the dark (kind of) and these injections involved an IV. The nurse dug around in each of my arms for awhile until she was able to get the needle in my vein. I still have a bruise from this. I laid on a table for an hour and half while a machine hovered above me and took picture of my glowing liver and gallbladder. After the radioactive stuff had worked its way out of my system I was injected with a natural enzyme that would cause my gallbladder to go into action. I spent some more time laying on the incredibly uncomfortable table while more pictures were taken and then was told to head back to work (I have a pretty cool temp job right now but I'll discuss this later) I sat up from the table and immediately felt nauseated and spent the rest of my day trying focus and not barf all over my desk. A few days after the scan I got a call from the nurse telling me that my gallbladder isn't functioning properly and the doctor would call me to discuss the next step. The next step involved an upper endoscopy to see if it was just my gallbladder that was causing issues.
Yesterday was the day of the endoscopy and I was rather terrified of what was going to go on. I knew that the procedure involved needles and a sedative and that alone scared the crap out of me. I was also scared of what the doctor might find lurking around my stomach. Before the procedure the nurse asked me the usually health questions and hooked me up to some machine to monitor my vitals. I found out that I'm slightly allergic to medical tape and now I have some red welts were the monitors were placed on my chest and abdomen. After the medical questions the nurse talked to me about the sedative that they would be using. She told me that Michael Jackson made this sedative (propofol) famous because he died from overdosing on it and also mixing it with other drugs. She then started talking about all the things that could go wrong while I was under the influence and made me sign a waiver saying that it was ok for all of these things to go wrong while I was knocked out. The nurse reassured me that it was a rare occasion that anything bad would happen during the endoscopy but I, being the extreme hypochondriac that I am, was convinced that I was not only allergic to propofol but also somehow something would go terribly wrong while I was asleep... and then I started to cry. Not knowing exactly what she had done, the nurse apologized and then stuck me with the IV needle which made me cry more. Cody was able to come sit with me before I went in to the endoscopy room. I saw him and then started crying more. From the amount of tears that I shed you would have assumed I was going in for some major surgery and had a possibly of not waking up. Luckily, Cody was able to calm me down a little and before I knew I was being rolled away. I was so terrified of the propofol that once it was injected into my veins my blood pressure increased drastically and almost made me have a panic attack but I was knocked out before anything major happened. The next thing I knew I was waking up as I was being rolled into the recovery room. I was asleep for such a short period of time that I was convinced I had awakened before the doctor was finished. I saw the anesthesiologist next to me and said, rather forcefully " I'm awake, you guys can't carry on with the procedure until I'm asleep again!". He looked down at me and said " We're already done". I responded with a sheepish "oh" and then fell back asleep.
I woke up to Cody sitting next to me and another nurse offering me a bottle of juice. I accepted graciously because I hadn't been able to have anything to drink since the day prior. The doctor came into the recovery room and talked about what he found. He said that everything looked good. There are a few faint spots on my stomach that he took a biopsy of. He said that the spots were pretty normal but he wanted to make sure that it wasn't anything major. Then he gave me a printout of the picture that had been taken of my insides and sent me on my way. The pictures are currently hanging on our fridge. :) He also said that he didn't think I needed my gallbladder out right now. So basically, I wait and see what else happens with my symptoms and proceed from there. I'm delighted that nothing was found during the endoscopy but I am so flippin frustrated because I am still sick and no one knows what is wrong. My muscles are weak, I have heart palpatations, my heartburn is still a little out of control, I've been kinda twitchy and above all of these symptoms I have been stressed...which is probably causing things to be a lot worse. I guess it's a good thing that I'm going to let things sit for awhile since I'm not insured. Cody and I have spent over $3000 trying to figure out what is wrong with me and that hasn't been fun. I'm looking into getting health insurance through the temp agency.
The temp job that I have right now is at National American Savings Bank. I am a loan closing assistant. Although I know nothing about loans I am in charge of auditing files and making sure that everything is in working order so that the loans can get disbursed. It gets a little monotonous but my co workers are really nice and complimentary and there has been talk about hiring me on as a full time employee. We'll see what happens.
Cody is off having a manly fishing weekend with his dad, brother and cousin so the Fez and I are hanging alone for the next few days. I plan on cleaning a bit and probably going shopping for some new clothes at some point tomorrow. I've been a bit spoiled these last two weeks because Cody has been working from home. It's weird not to have him here this evening.I'm sure that I will have a nice weekend alone watching chick flicks and painting my toenails.
Well... I guess that it is time to end this novel of an entry. Have a lovely weekend, dear blog readers! Happy Mother's day to all of the wonderful mothers out there...including my fantastic mama, Andrea Johnson!
