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Another health update
Apr. 26th, 2011 06:14 pmThis one's about me, not my MIL.
I saw the GI doc last Monday. I told her my entire history, detailing the stuff that happened (hysterectomy, followed six months later by two shunt revisions) seven years ago. It seemed like a perfectly reasonable hypothesis to me that my weight gain might have something to do with a small bowel blockage, or something similar, possibly caused by an overgrowth/infiltration of scar tissue from those surgeries. So it was a little jarring when she looked me right in the eye and asked "So...why are you here? What is it you think I can do for you?"
I think more in an effort to humor me than anything else, she ordered a pelvic and abdominal ultrasound. I had those procedures done early this afternoon. The tech who did my procedure had a trainee tech "shadowing" her while she scanned me. I noticed the senior tech had a rather concerned expression on her face, and she seemed to take longer than I would have expected to do the scan. I asked her if she saw anything interesting, and she told me that I have "interesting anatomy...things are either not where they're supposed to be, or they've somehow been pushed up higher than where I would have expected them to be found."
Then she told me she saw what she termed as "a fluid-filled sac" in my abdomen. Legally she really couldn't go any further than that: I'll have to wait to see what the GI doc has to say.
This is almost identical to the events of seven years ago. While they were waiting to decide whether to pursue the neurological or gynecological avenue, one of the points the doctors raised is that it's not uncommon for female hydrocephalus patients to develop "pseudocysts" in their abdomen. I had xrays, CTs, shunt function tests, the whole nine yards, and they ultimately decided my shunt was not the issue, so they referred me to my current gyno for the hysterectomy. She had to drain fifteen liters of fluid from my belly before she could even start the surgery. The day before my surgery I was 162 lbs, the day after my surgery I was back down to 134. I've maintained that weight until recent events, it was the sudden weight gain which got this whole thing started. Beginning around December of last year, by my birthday (late Jan) I'd put on 35 lbs. As I write this, I weigh 172 lbs, which is ten pounds *more* than what I weighed *before* my hysterectomy.
And the icing on the cake, as if what I've just described isn't bad enough, is that the Paternal Unit has just been found to have a "small tumor" on one of his kidneys, which they found when he was having radiation for his recently diagnosed prostate cancer.
And they're keeping my MIL in the hospital for yet another day.
When does it stop?
I saw the GI doc last Monday. I told her my entire history, detailing the stuff that happened (hysterectomy, followed six months later by two shunt revisions) seven years ago. It seemed like a perfectly reasonable hypothesis to me that my weight gain might have something to do with a small bowel blockage, or something similar, possibly caused by an overgrowth/infiltration of scar tissue from those surgeries. So it was a little jarring when she looked me right in the eye and asked "So...why are you here? What is it you think I can do for you?"
I think more in an effort to humor me than anything else, she ordered a pelvic and abdominal ultrasound. I had those procedures done early this afternoon. The tech who did my procedure had a trainee tech "shadowing" her while she scanned me. I noticed the senior tech had a rather concerned expression on her face, and she seemed to take longer than I would have expected to do the scan. I asked her if she saw anything interesting, and she told me that I have "interesting anatomy...things are either not where they're supposed to be, or they've somehow been pushed up higher than where I would have expected them to be found."
Then she told me she saw what she termed as "a fluid-filled sac" in my abdomen. Legally she really couldn't go any further than that: I'll have to wait to see what the GI doc has to say.
This is almost identical to the events of seven years ago. While they were waiting to decide whether to pursue the neurological or gynecological avenue, one of the points the doctors raised is that it's not uncommon for female hydrocephalus patients to develop "pseudocysts" in their abdomen. I had xrays, CTs, shunt function tests, the whole nine yards, and they ultimately decided my shunt was not the issue, so they referred me to my current gyno for the hysterectomy. She had to drain fifteen liters of fluid from my belly before she could even start the surgery. The day before my surgery I was 162 lbs, the day after my surgery I was back down to 134. I've maintained that weight until recent events, it was the sudden weight gain which got this whole thing started. Beginning around December of last year, by my birthday (late Jan) I'd put on 35 lbs. As I write this, I weigh 172 lbs, which is ten pounds *more* than what I weighed *before* my hysterectomy.
And the icing on the cake, as if what I've just described isn't bad enough, is that the Paternal Unit has just been found to have a "small tumor" on one of his kidneys, which they found when he was having radiation for his recently diagnosed prostate cancer.
And they're keeping my MIL in the hospital for yet another day.
When does it stop?
