"What the hell kind of answer is this" written by Paul on estrip.org

Category: health

12/19/07 12:19 - 35ºF - ID#42581

What the hell kind of answer is this

Well good news is they didn't say it was cancer but it is IBS

or irritable bowel syndrome. What the fuck does that really mean. We don't know what is causing it but you bowel is irritated. No fucking surprise considering I have been complaining about that for about a month straight.

My favorite part of the wiki article

Misdiagnosis
Anecdotal accounts exist of poor patient outcomes due to treatable causes of diarrhea being mis-diagnosed as IBS. Common examples include infectious diseases, celiac disease,[5] and lactose intolerance.[6]

None of which I have been tested for. Still no stool sample, no bloodwork, no lactose intolelrance test, no test for celliac.

I guess I will go on one of those crazy nothing but rice and vegetable diets and adds stuff back into my diet to see if it help. Right now basically everything I eat goes right through me after getting a little bit bloody somewhere. Ya, gross I know. There is no consistency to anything I eat and everything makes my stomach ache.

I seriously am going to go crazy. And the lack of sufficient bathroom facilities at my work make it way worse.

I am thinking it is time to switch to a natural doctor for a bit and see how that goes. At this point I am willing to try anything to make it stop.

The molson ice hot water 40oz
Last night I made a hot water bottle for my stomach out of a molson 40oz beer bottle. It really helped. Maybe I should market them with little beer cozies?

paul writes at 11:50:35 12/20/07 - Comment #29493: I talked to the secretary again today and she affirmed IBD.

paul writes at 06:57:30 12/19/07 - Comment #29468: Seriously, it is not in my head. There is blood in the frickin diahrea that I have like 5+ times a day and everything hurts from my kidneys to my intestines. Pretty much all the time.

paul writes at 06:54:04 12/19/07 - Comment #29467: Its weird on our first conversation she said IBS but then she said IBD later and then said the medication was for ulcerative colitis. So who the fuck knows, I gues sthat is what I get for never getting to talk to a real doctor.

jenks writes at 06:30:56 12/19/07 - Comment #29465: wait, IBS, or IBD?
IBD - inflammatory bowel disease (i.e. crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis).
asacol is for IBD.

IBS, on the other hand, is (in my book) like fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome. I.e. more psych than anything else.
(I know that statement offends people, I'm sorry.)

If they said IBS, it probably just means all their tests have been negative. That's what it is. A diagnosis of exclusion. "you're having a problem but we can't find anything wrong with you."

I would have thought they'd send you to a GI guy before a colorectal guy...

I'm sorry for the way you're getting strung along. I hope they get to the bottom of it.

paul writes at 02:37:46 12/19/07 - Comment #29457: I have told them, every freakin' time and no one does it. During this whole thing I only saw a real doctor for about 5 minutes 3 weeks ago. Since then it has all been assistants and secretaries.

imk2 writes at 02:17:45 12/19/07 - Comment #29455: so you were passing blood in your stool? you should change doctors. my family doctor, sadiqa karim, is very good and will do all of the necessary tests to get your stuff diagnosed properly. you should tell the doctor that you feel they should do more like stool samples, blood tests, etc. often times they will listen to you. you have to advocate for yourself when you feel they are not doing their job.

seriously though, i would totally recommend that you go see her. she is on transit, has a tiny office, so the wait is not long. she works by herself, so you'll never see a nurse practitioner or another doctor instead. she'll sit down and talk to you and she'll definitely order tests. she loves doing those. her number is 683-5600.

paul writes at 01:31:57 12/19/07 - Comment #29454: Seriously, I don't drink, I thought I ate pretty healthy - I guess I have stress but not an inordinate amount. I seriously would at least like to talk with the doctor instead of his secretary before taking medicine.

drew writes at 01:13:22 12/19/07 - Comment #29453: Sorry this is so frustrating. Thanks for the reason to keep a 40 in the house though!

hodown writes at 12:59:11 12/19/07 - Comment #29451: They said I had that in college.

lilho writes at 12:24:19 12/19/07 - Comment #29450: wow, thanx to terry for that 40!

Permalink: What_the_hell_kind_of_answer_is_this.html
Words: 271
Location: Buffalo, NY

Category: healthcare

12/18/07 01:37 - 31ºF - ID#42570

Barium Cocktail

I can believe I am drinking Barium Sulfite - and out of a styrofoam cup. It is some weird fruity and spicy flavor. I had to drink two jars of it.

leetee writes at 08:29:26 12/19/07 - Comment #29475: he did indeed, (e:Imk2) ... gotta love the Canadian health care system... come here for "free" slow medical care from people who think of patients as burgers needing flipping.

imk2 writes at 02:21:29 12/19/07 - Comment #29456: seriously lee? he told you to shut the fuck up!?

leetee writes at 08:35:10 12/19/07 - Comment #29444: How'd it go, Paul? I hope they find out what it is and it is simple and easy to fix!!

I had to drink that shit once. When i told the tech i was going to barf up the icky pink stuff, he told me to shut the fuck up and lay still. So, i made sure i puked on his nice white jacket. Passive agressive? Who? Me?

paul writes at 06:28:35 12/19/07 - Comment #29442: Please jenks, access it from anywhere. I would love for you to look at it.

pyrcedgrrl writes at 03:20:11 12/19/07 - Comment #29441: Guh! I finally got around to signing in (working swing shift and finishing up a semester is not fun), and read about all the problems you've been having!! I hope your CAT scan goes well and they find out what's going on in the tummy!
I had tummy issues a couple of Christmases ago that ended up being a common bile duct stone. I wasn't even able to keep water down for 4 days and was sent home each day by St. Mary's Hospital in Lewiston. I finally went to sisters and they admitted me immediately. I had jaundice so bad that my eyes were yellow. Apparently that is not enough of a sign for St. Mary's. lol!
Anyway, I hope all goes well! Good luck and feel better soon!

jenks writes at 11:32:00 12/18/07 - Comment #29439: yeah really.... you'd think they could flavor it a little better.

hey! I wonder if I can access it from home...

but i won't.

without your permission.

joshua writes at 09:55:23 12/18/07 - Comment #29430: There is a Lake Success, NY? Obviously this is not upstate... ba doom *crash*

paul writes at 04:05:45 12/18/07 - Comment #29421: From the way I feel about the medical systems right now I would assume probably next June.

jim writes at 03:52:02 12/18/07 - Comment #29419: How long do you have to wait for results?

drew writes at 03:14:28 12/18/07 - Comment #29415: better down than up!

mrdeadlier writes at 03:05:12 12/18/07 - Comment #29413: mrmike, that's exactly what i thought

jim writes at 02:52:08 12/18/07 - Comment #29412: Good luck, Paul!

james writes at 02:21:56 12/18/07 - Comment #29409: a drink? A DRINK?

kids today have it so easy

mrmike writes at 01:52:48 12/18/07 - Comment #29407: Love the illustration on the bottle. Like we didn't know the point was to be Drano for Humans

Permalink: Barium_Cocktail.html
Words: 37
Location: Buffalo, NY

Category: health

12/18/07 11:04 - 25ºF - ID#42566

The CT scan

So at 3PM I get the CT scan at Buffalo general. I have to go there at 1PM though. I am so excited on one hand about finding anything out and so scared on the other hand about finding anything out and so scared on yet another hand about the radiation.

Permalink: The_CT_scan.html
Words: 51
Location: Buffalo, NY

Category: health

12/18/07 09:51 - 24ºF - ID#42565

I am so angry/sick

So my abdominal area just keeps getting worse and I am really sick to my stomach. It is not normal to have to go to the bathroom like 5 times during the night.

I got up at 8:45 to schedule the abdominal CT, as at this point I would do anything to find out what is wrong. They told me they had two locations. Buffalo General and one in Wiliamville. I told her Buffalo general was better and she said she would call me back when she schedules. At 9:20 I still had n word so I called the doctors office back and said I would gladly drive to Williamsville if it was faster,easier I could get in sooner because my stomach is killing. She said she would call me back. Here we are one hour later, still no freakin' word.

I seriously, cannot believe how this is going for. In the mean time i don't know if I should try and eat anything or not because what if you need to have an empty stomach for it and it is today and then I have to reschedule. I wish it would render me unconscious at this point.

And then there is some unreasonable deadline at work that I am working against which normally is fun for me, but this time it is making me crazy because I am sick.

Now what I really want is a test for celiac disease just to rule that out in case and what about the blood and stool tests. Why none of them yet? Looks like for me they are going to skip to step 5.

Diagnostic Tests for Crohn's disease

Test for Crohn's disease

* Physical examination
* Complete blood count - for anemia and white blood cell counts
* Stool sample analysis
* Upper GI series - barium X-rays
* Lower GI series - barium X-rays

Permalink: I_am_so_angry_sick.html
Words: 307
Location: Buffalo, NY

Category: shopping

12/17/07 11:11 - 24ºF - ID#42562

Hot Water Bottle

As (e:tinypliny) suggested I ordered a hot water bottle for my stomach aches. Sounds like a great idea as warm really makes it feel better. I searched around this time to find one that supposedly does not smell. You all know how I feel about things that smell like rubber or plastic.

If anyone else is looking for one, I order it from fashionhot.com

They were in good housekeeping and accept paypal.

Permalink: Hot_Water_Bottle.html
Words: 80
Location: Buffalo, NY

Category: photos

12/17/07 10:28 - 24ºF - ID#42561

Media from other stuff, like snow

So besides my debilitating intestinal issues I managed to take some pics.

Yesterday, I thought eating lamb and potatoes with banana would make my stomach feel better. It was delicious but I was sick as ever. The way I made it. Soak lamb legs in wine, rosemary and garlic with oil, salt and pepper for about 3 hours. I am obsessed with bone marrow. I know you veggies are thinking that is the most disgusting thing ever.

Then bake in the oven at 350 for a couple hours.

Not so sure what is up with the amount of garbage the church produces. This is seriously a typical weeks garbage for them.

There was so much snow this morning. You can see just how much on this table in the backyard.

Luckily, the church plows our driveway but we still had to shovel the car ou

This citrus fruit looks so damn yummy. I wish that I could eat it.

The windshield was so icy. It took forever to chip it all off the car.

Here is (e:terry) trying to chip it. I ended up finishing it once the car heated up.

::Download Flash Video::

Permalink: Media_from_other_stuff_like_snow.html
Words: 204
Location: Buffalo, NY

Category: life

12/17/07 06:32 - 25ºF - ID#42558

The void of my life before 2003

It is killing me that there is this massive void in my life before 2003. So much interesting stuff happened and I wrote nothing down, took almost no pictures and can barely remember most of it. Like for example I know that I got a CAT scan but I can't even remember when or why. That seems insane.

An who has that data? Not when it was, but the actual data. I have no freakin' idea even who the doctor was? If I get this one I should ask to get a copy. Do you think that is possible?

Permalink: The_void_of_my_life_before_2003.html
Words: 98
Location: Buffalo, NY

Category: health

12/17/07 04:55 - 26ºF - ID#42557

Appendicitis?

Holy crap. So I was having all this pain in my lower right side today and it was really sharp. So I decided to look up those symptoms and realized I have like almost every symptom of appendicitis.

Maybe that is what the CT scan (e:paul,42555) is to check for, but really I would almost rather just have it out.

What Are the Symptoms of Appendicitis?

The classic symptoms of appendicitis include:

* Dull pain near the navel or the upper abdomen that becomes sharp as it moves to the lower right abdomen. This is usually the first sign.
* Loss of appetite
* Nausea and/or vomiting soon after abdominal pain begins <-- I have been really nauseas although I haven't thrown up - I seriously never throw up though, even when drunk or with the flu
* Abdominal swelling
* Fever of 99° F to 102° F <-- this is the only one I don't have, I should check when I get home
* Inability to pass gas
* Painful urination
* Severe cramps
* Constipation or diarrhea with gas
* Dull or sharp pain anywhere in the upper or lower abdomen, back or rectum

I ate beef burgundy at work tonight and baked lamb legs with potatoes for dinner last night.

paul writes at 12:44:17 10/05/11 - Comment #65338: omfg, why would no one believe me at the time. Looking back on it is it so obvious, just a few months down the road they would be removing a gangrenous appendix out of me just as it was bursting. After that appendix came out my soon to be diagnosed "crohns" instead of appendicitis went away.

jenks writes at 11:23:57 12/18/07 - Comment #29438: ok paul there are newer journals than this so you've probably figured it out by now and i just need to catch up, or you've had your appendix out, BUT-
well first off, I sent mike a huge post about appendicitis a while ago- he might still have it.

But bottom line-
although fever is very non-specific - I would go as far as to say that if you don't have a fever, you don't have a appendicitis.

And as my chairman likes to say, appendicitis is a 72hr disease. You would know.

paul writes at 09:07:09 12/17/07 - Comment #29382: Then again, maybe it is lactose intolerance. I guess there is a test for that. Maybe I should start there first.

paul writes at 07:48:08 12/17/07 - Comment #29374: God, right now it feels a little better - what the fuck.

paul writes at 05:49:06 12/17/07 - Comment #29368: I am so torn between going and getting random Dr. or waiting and letting a doctor I trust take a look with the CT scan. This is seriously such a huge decision for me as I hate getting xrayed and this is getting super xrayed. Like I don't even get the dental xrays. I am so torn.

Like, I figure the chances of me dying are about zero and I am never more than one or two blocks from the hospital considering work and home are both a block away so I am just going to brave it I think? But it appears that braving it means the CT scan which would see more if it is something else.

jim writes at 05:17:50 12/17/07 - Comment #29367: Sounds like you should go to the hospital and camp out in the ER.

Permalink: Appendicitis_.html
Words: 205
Location: Buffalo, NY

Category: health

12/17/07 03:05 - 26ºF - ID#42555

CAT scan

The abdominal CAT scan. So the doctors office called to say he wanted me to go get an abdominal CAT scan. Hm, I know I am probably just be a crazy but are they safe? I mean it seems like a lot of radiation. I know I had one before when I was about 17ish and I have had about 3 chest Xrays in my life. So should I worry about this? There are so many sites that make it seem really dangerous. On the other hand I am tired of my stomach hurting?

here is a quote from CBS news. Now I realize that I am not getting a full body CT just an abdominal one but --

It's not a huge risk, especially for someone with symptoms of a dangerous condition. But when used to screen healthy people for hidden evidence of disease, the risk may outweigh the benefit. And if a healthy person gets repeated full-body scans, cancer risks multiply, Brenner and colleague Carl D. Elliston report in the September issue of Radiology.

"The risks from a single full-body CT scan are not large: If 1,200 45-year-old people got one, you might expect one to die from radiation-induced cancer," Brenner tells WebMD. "But if you are thinking of doing this on a regular basis, as a routine screening modality, then the radiation doses start to add up and the risks then start to get quite high."

One abdominal CT, says the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), exposes a patient to 500 times more radiation than a conventional chest x-ray.

Permalink: CAT_scan.html
Words: 280
Location: Buffalo, NY

Category: stuff

12/14/07 10:48 - 21ºF - ID#42520

Blogging About It

Let's see:

Yesterday
The estrip dinner party last night was fantastic. Thanks (e:jim) for organizing and to everyone who came and brought delicious dinner and desserts along with copious amounts of wine.

It was nice to see (e:jason)! Hope you come out again for another event and bring (e:joshua) with you.

I can't wait to see (e:metalpeter)'s pictures that he took with his new camera. Spent a lot of quality time with (e:imk2) and (e:tinypliny). Sorry if there was anyone I missed at the party, its hard to be a host sometimes because I always get stuck talking to a few people for a long time instead of everyone for 30 seconds each.

Today
Didn't get killed contrary to popular belief - a subject I cannot talk about but want to remember back to when I revisit this in the future.

Lots of working. I finally got the native oracle PDO extension working with PHP, yeah for prepared statements and boring things no one cares about but are exciting to me!

Had a meeting about Disney running your hospital.

Got a new style 2008 electronic rubics cube as a gift from work. It ame with battries included - that is rare. The unix guy at work took his apart to see how it ticks within the first few minutes.

The new bed
I hate it. It makes me fucking sick. I can't stand the taste that the outgassing chemicals make in my mouth. I don't ever want to go back in the bedroom. If they don't agree to get rid of it, I am going to replace them with new chemically sensitive boyfriends that want to sleep in an organic bed with me. The smell is so strong to me that I can identify items that touched the bed even if I didn't see them in there.

I spent the last several nights sleeping on the floor in the other room.

lilho writes at 11:18:07 12/16/07 - Comment #29314: who would kill you? surely not me! all i have to give you is love.

imk2 writes at 10:24:02 12/15/07 - Comment #29308: i had a great time, thanks for having us (e:pmt).

i still don't understand how matt can think that that bed is more comfortable than a pillow top mattress. that bed is neither soft, or pillowy, nor comfortable. and the fact that you cant have good sex on it makes it even worse. i say give it back, and just get a super soft mattress you can all agree on.

carolinian writes at 04:21:11 12/15/07 - Comment #29294: Oracle, eh? Are you moving on to greener pastures from MySQL?

jim writes at 03:08:03 12/15/07 - Comment #29292: Had a great time, thanks everyone :)

tinypliny writes at 02:13:55 12/15/07 - Comment #29289: Have you ever considered sleeping on quilts? I sleep on a quilt on the floor and really I never felt better! I have no backache, I wake up happy and it is very warm because the warm the quilts before sleeping. There is no foam or filling or chemicals

paul writes at 01:55:05 12/15/07 - Comment #29287: Or not - so we went back to the store where they have a scented candle to overpowert the disgusting new matress smell. I looked at the natural latex ones and they smelled worse to me. Matthew described them as smelling something like a nerf ball.

The woman insisted her matress like ours stopped smelling in two days and we should open the window for two days to air it out. She was clearly a smoker so I doubt her ability to smell. Then another manager came in and said he had one, but honestly it took about a month and half to two months for the smell to go away.

So they said we should wait and see as we have 90 days to return it. I went and smelled the floor model of the same bed and it didn't smell very bad . So the other manager told us he is going to look and see if they have a king size floor model we could trade it in for that has already been aired out. I freakin' hope so.

Right now we unwrapped it, moved it into the blue room which is generally our chemical toxic waste dump. That is also where the server lives.

I really hate this. Even if the smell does go away after a month, is it safe? I am sure I just want a flammable bed made of natural substances that I am familiar with.

paul writes at 11:55:11 12/15/07 - Comment #29285: Believe it or not, we are going to go buy a new matress!

paul writes at 11:50:09 12/15/07 - Comment #29283: I will ask (e:matthew) about it. I am so sensitive to formaldehyde. I can smell it when most other people can't. I was telling (e:enknot) the other day I could be a formaldehyde seeking police "dog." Like at work there is this new life sciences building and the moment I went in their I could sense the fetal pig smell, as I call it. I asked and they said there was no formaldehyde being used but then I realized it was a new building and they probably used it somewhere in the construction.

As for the mattress I just don't want it. It is beyond sickening to me. I don't even like to go near the room. The type of mattress it is, is made of all these little cells of chemical whatnot. When you move around on it, they all outgas even more. I just don't see the need for a sleeping material made completely out of chemicals. It just sounds like the new asbestos to me. I think they just can't tell because they smoke so much and most of the time they are drunk by the time they are sleeping so they probably couldn't care.

Also, the real problem is that (e:matthew) finds the foam so comfortable and I couldn't even be a room where there was a twin size one that had that foam.

I think I am going to invest in a twin size cotton and wool organic stuffed mattress for myself and just resign the fact that I will never sleep with anyone again and live in my office downstairs - considering we 24/7 house guests, sleeping anywhere else becomes problematic and I am a little too freaked out by fire to sleep in one of the attic bedrooms.

dragonlady7 writes at 10:29:57 12/15/07 - Comment #29279: New mattresses are horrible outgassers of formaldehyde. The good news is that outgassing like that typically only lasts a week or two. You're so sensitive I'd give it more like a month.
That sucks.

VENTILATE the room-- that will help. When nobody's there, close the door and open the window and position a fan to blow across the bed out the window. It'll speed up the offgassing and keep the fumes out of the house.

I hear a lot about this stuff at work, as I was saying in earlier entries. Our machines do remove some formaldehyde from the air-- we've got one kind especially that's designed for it, and that's usually the chemical that's most at fault in chemical sensitivities. If you want to try one I could get you one cheap, or loan you mine (even though it's not the special chemical one). It really might help. I don't know if it will

I emailed Matthew about this, actually-- my company wants new product photos and he's a good photographer, but he never got back to me so I'm not sure I used the right email for him. But they'd of course prefer to pay him in product-- nobody ever wants to exchange real money. Let me know if he'd be interested in that.

metalpeter writes at 09:42:02 12/15/07 - Comment #29275: Some of the pictures are great and some are ok, I do have one big problem though. My camera won't read the memory card out of nowhare and walgreens wasn't able to get the pictures either. So I'm going to try to do something different at rite aid and maybe I'll be able to get the pictures. I think I may just try buying a new memory card, cause to take more pictures I have to format this one and I would lose all the pictures. The part I can't figure out is how the card get messed up all the pictures where fine. I wonder if something happened at the walgreens machine . Hopefully I'll find a way to get the pictures.

james writes at 11:35:41 12/14/07 - Comment #29272: I have bought a new futon twice in my life (both times the worst investment I have ever made) and it had such a powerful bed-stink I would cough for a week. Hopefully your bed-stink will pass as well.

or at least fumigate your intestinal parasites.

Permalink: Blogging_About_It.html
Words: 325
Location: Buffalo, NY