dirtycopper's Blog - page 28

Well, my wife is finally on the road to full recovery, I think. Friday she had her second iron infusion within a week.

I got her to a hematologist who agreed that a lot of her symptoms, low memory, low energy, lack of concentration, slurring speech, etc. were most likely caused by low iron.

After some extensive blood test he said her b12 level was low also, and recommended a serious of injections for that.

Now, she's actually making sense when she talks, and is up and about most of the day.

She still hasn't returned to work, and is taking a 30 medical leave at the recommendation of the doctor.

But, she's TONS better than she was two weeks ago. YEAH!!!

BUT, I'm working sixty plus hours a week right now...

this is the busiest time of the year for us, and most of the part time help we have through the summer (high school and college kids) have went back to school....

So it's lots of mandatory overtime right now.

My life consist of work, eat, sleep....and do it all over again the next day.

With a little time to visit here now and then...gotta perv you know.

LOL

This morning my wife woke up feeling MUCH better....sometime over night she must have passed the stone.

Anyway, when I got off work and stopped by the hospital the doctor was there and said he was discharging her.

So, she's home, and doing well....

sitting up in bed and bossing our son and I around, LOL.

(It seems our housekeeping skills aren't up to her standards) LOL.

Anyway, thanks for all the support guys and gals...

I'm eternally grateful. XXXXOOOO

My wife is doing better, and may come home in a few days. She still hasn't passed either of the two stones the doctor noticed when he removed the one that was causing the blockage, and is still running a low grade fever.

Her kidneys are functioning fine, but she does still have an infection in one or both they think, so they are going to keep her a few more days for observation.

She's still in some pain, but not too bad. She asked them today to take her off the morphine and put her on something else as she has gotten addicted to painkillers in the past, and doesn't want that to happen again.

Thanks for all the kind thoughts and prayers.

I just got home from the hospital. My wife is resting ok, ....actually, she's in la-la land from the morphine for the pain. The doctors still aren't totally sure what is going on.

For some reason, she's still running a fever, but her white blood cell count is normal, which is usually high if you have an infection.

Her potassium level, which was near critically low yesterday has risen to within the normal range as they have had her on a potassium drip. She's still experiencing pain in the kidney area and in her lower abdomen, but they aren't sure what is causing it.

Of course, it is a small hospital, and the weekend, so I believe they are just keeping her comfortable until the rest of the staff returns on Monday to begin really trying to find out what is happening.

I spoke to the doctor on the phone today, but he didn't even come in to see her. The ER doc, a long time friend, did come up to see her, and he was worried about her low urine output. He seems to think she still has some kind of blockage, but as she is under the care of a urologist now, its more or less out of his hands.

He did assure me that nothing he saw indicated she was in any immediate danger, and promised to keep an eye on her for me, which made me feel a lot better.

Additionally the urologist said that when he put the stint in, he noticed several more stones, two or three, up high in her left kidney. It is possible that one of them has now dropped and she is in the process of passing it. He said that if her temp did not stabilize by tomorrow he would check her again, to see if she had developed any new blockage.

I have to work tomorrow, and it is frustrating to know I can't be there for her. Her mother an father, and my parents, as well as her grandparents, will be taking turns sitting with her, so I know she will be well looked after....

I just wish I could be there to do it myself.

But, I've got bills to pay, so I guess I will just have to go ahead and work tomorrow.

Friday the thirteenth was not a lucky day for us. At around noon my wife started running a fever that spiked quickly to 105.1 F. I gave her some ibuprofen to bring it down and rushed her to the ER.

After a few test, including a CT scan, we were informed she had a kidney stone stuck in the tube from the kidney to the bladder, and a severe urinary track infection.

Deja Vu all over again.

Also, her potassium level had dropped to 2.8 (2.5 being critically low at which all kinds of bad things can happen).

So, she was admitted and put on IV antibiotics and potassium and we were told that a urologist would be called in to remove the kidney stone and put a sting in the ureter that was blocked, as she's had problems before on that particular side.

This was at 4pm.

My wife is told she cannot eat, or drink, anything as she will soon be in surgery to have the stone which is too large to pass on her own removed.

At 11:30PM the urologist finally puts in an appearance, at which point I'm about ready to tell him to fuck off and have her transported from our small town hospital to somewhere else....anywhere else.

But, she's in a LOT of pain, and wants it taken care of soonest, so we wait while he looks the CT scan over and finally comes into the room to speak with us.

After a brief physical exam, and a lot of inane questions, he announces he doesn't think she even has a kidney stone...although the radiologist reading the CT scan said she did, and that he isn't sure what is causing her fever, pain, etc.

But since she was no longer running a fever, he didn't think it was necessary to go in and remove, or check for, a stone. As he is speaking with us I put my hand against my wife's cheek...

and she is burning up.

So I point this out, and he calls a nurse in with a thermometer, and sure enough, she's back up to 101.5.

So, they take her down to surgery, go in and remove the stone he said probably wasn't there, and now she's resting in a room....

and I'm going to bed.

It's 4am and I'm fuking tired.

The doctor called this afternoon and said that the biopsy showed no evidence of cancer!!!!!!!

YEEHAW!!

She's still going to have surgery to remove the mass, as it is pressing against her esophagus, but at least it isn't cancerous.

))

So, we've found another doctor, one who was recommended by several family members and friends.

He's looking over all my wife's previous test results, and has her scheduled for a "needle biopsy" Thursday morning.

He hasn't even seen her yet, just her test results, but his nurse called this afternoon to tell us he'd forwarded the sonogram pictures to an oncologist, and they were both, he and the oncologist, of the opinion that the growth is most likely a non cancerous cyst, based on it's appearance, etc.

I'm already impressed with the man and I haven't even met him yet. Anyway, hopefully he and the cancer doc are right. We'll find out later in the week.

Thanks for all your support.

Thanks you for your encouraging comments Ty, HP, and moisha. I really do appreciate it.

Now, the Rant starts here, LOL

Well, we just got back from the doctor's office, and to say the least I wasn't impressed with the man AT ALL.

He enters the room, tells us that all the testing looked fine and there was nothing to be concerned about. We asked about my wife's disorientation, fatigue, and the other issues she was having and he THEN took a moment to look over her blood test results a little closer and discovered one of her thyroid indicators was high.

"But, it can be high from time to time, and we need to do it again, to make sure it wasn't just a anomaly." Ok, we can live with that, a needle stick for a little more blood and we wait, again.

So, I ask about the sonogram results. He picks up a report, glances at it, and tells us that her thyroid is just enlarged on one side, no big deal.

UH, wait a minute doc, I SAW a growth on the screen when the tech was doing the sonogram. Granted, I'm not a doctor, but I could tell there was something not right, especially when she put the two sides up on the screen, one showing the normal side, and the other with the growth.

Oh, he says, let me check. He THEN takes the time to read the whole report, and wonder of wonders, there IS a growth. DUHH!!!

So, now he wants to do a needle biopsy. Okay. He wants to do it right then and there. He tells us since there is no indication of fluid, ie, the growth is a solid mass, he can do it by feel, since he can feel the knot in her neck he just told us wasn't there.

At this point I'm ready to walk out of there, but I bite my tongue on the smart ass remark that was trying to get out, and mildly ask him why the mass had an area that was a lighter shade in it than the rest of the growth (when viewed on the sonogram).

It did? he asked, totally surprised. Let me look he says, and leaves the room to view the sonogram which he hadn't even looked at prior to meeting with us.

You're right he says when he comes back in the room, and instead of doing the needle biopsy here, by feel, I'm sending you to the hospital to have a sonogram guided one done, so they don't accidentally stick the wrong part of the mass.

At this point I've made up my mind we are going to change doctors. We went ahead and told him to schedule the needle biopsy, since HE won't be doing it, but we're already looking for another specialist.

Also, I asked for copies of her test results, and again, I'm no doctor, but when I looked them over, I noticed her hemoglobin was low (the sheet has her results and the norms printed side by side).

Now, from her having trouble with low iron/hemoglobin in the past, I know this can cause some of the symptoms she having, and on a recent visit with our family doctor, we specifically asked if her iron level was ok. That doc told us it was fine.

But, since the same lab did that test, and the most recent test, when I asked for her blood test results, they gave me the last 30 days worth, which was three different times, and viola...her iron was low ALL three times.

SO....I'm fucking fed up with incompetence. Someone should have caught this, low iron level is one of the FIRST things that a competent doc would have noticed when a patient is complaining of low energy levels, etc.

So, to sum it all up, we didn't learn a damned thing about the growth in her thyroid that we didn't know prior to today, AND we found out that she may have hyperthyroidism and that her iron level is low.

So, since everyone is a specialist anymore, and you can't find a doctor that is willing to invade another specialist territory....

How do we find out what the hell is going on for sure?
The mass, well, we're just going to have to wait on the results of the biopsy, which won't be until next week now.

But what about the other issues?
Is it, as I suspect, a mild case of hyperthyroidism combined with low iron levels?
Or is one driving the other, can one trigger the other, or is the mass triggering the hyperthyroidism?

The doctor today "couldn't say with any degree of certainty, but it's possible".

Well, no shit doc, anything is "possible".

He recommended we see a endocrinologist in regards to the hyperthyroidism and a hematologist for the iron deficiency.

So, now that's two more "specialist" to see, and none of them will be able/willing to look at the overall picture...

So, whose job is that, the family doctor, who missed the low iron level to begin with?

Like I said, I'm fed up!!!!!!

Okay, deep breath, rant over....for now.

So, long story short, the last month has been hell on my wife physically. She passed two kidney stones in two weeks, and to top it all off, a persistent "frog" in her throat and difficulty swallowing was diagnosed as a "nodule" in her thyroid gland.

So, the doctor found the nodule on a cat scan, and then had a sonogram done. Now, my wife and I can see the screen, and we can see this large (looked like a baseball and had us freaked until the tech explained it was actually only an inch or so in diameter) round spot that doesn't look right.

But, the tech, who has been doing sonograms for ten years, wasn't allowed to explain what we were seeing, and couldn't even answer many of our questions, as it was against policy.

See, the "film" from the report has to go to a radiologist, who then writes up a report and forwards it to the doctor, who then reads the report and looks at the "film", and then HOPEFULLY, tells us what's going on and what treatment options there are.

She has an apt. tomorrow, and hopefully we'll learn something. The did the sonogram and drew several vials of blood to check her thyroid levels.

All I know for sure is that over the last month, she's been getting worse. Not just the problems swallowing, but she's having trouble putting together coherent sentences, her vision is shit at times, her hands shake, and she often forgets what she was talking about.

I've done some research on the web, and those are all symptoms of thyroid problems, so hopefully that's all it is, and it can be controlled with meds. Unfortunately, even if the "nodule" is non cancerous, they will most likely have to remove it, as it is causing her difficulty in swallowing.

But...in the back of my mind there's this little voice telling me all kind of horror stories. Both her grandparents on her dad's side died from cancer. They went in to the hospital for something minor it seemed, and never came home.

Her mother, aunt, grandmother, great grandmother, and great aunt have all battled breast cancer. All are survivors, except her great grandmother, who is gone now.

SOOOO.....I'm hoping, and worried at the same time. What if it's the big C?

What if it isn't her thyroid, I mean, it's like she's on drugs or something, and I KNOW she isn't. But she's....loopy, I don't know how else to describe it.

I've got my fingers crossed.