Thursday, January 10, 2013

Update

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I have a mental checklist of all the things I want to be blogging about, but just haven't had the time!  Between the holidays, being sick, and playing taxi driver for my kids, blogging has been pretty low on my priority list.

When I last wrote, it was just after my colonoscopy. Which feels like SO long ago!  Feel free to re-read it again to refresh your memory!   I had my follow up appointment one week later.

My appointment was booked for 9am, which truly is a terrible time for me to book anything.  That particular morning was quite difficult, and my body simply wouldn't allow me to leave my house in time to be punctual for my scheduled slot.  I was only 10 minutes late, but was feeling a great deal of anxiety about this.  I pride myself on being punctual (and if you grew up in my family, where being incredibly -- disrespectfully -- late for everything was the norm, you would understand.  My brother is the same way!) and that is just one more way that this disease causes more stress for me.

So I'm run-walking through the hospital, trying to get to the office as fast as possible.  They call me in, and I go in the little room to wait for the Doctor.  While waiting, I run through all the possible worst-case scenarios in my mind, trying to work through all the possible emotions ahead of time.  After losing my composure at my last appointment and watching how uncomfortable this made the doctor, I was determined not to do it again.

The door opens, and in walks a perky, young, blonde lady who proceeds to sit down and open my chart.

I burst out laughing, I just couldn't help it.

Me: Oh man, did he send you in here because I cried last time?
Her: Huh?
Me:  The doctor.  I cried.  Poor man looked so uncomfortable!
Her: Uh?
Me:  It's ok, you can tell him that I won't cry this time, he can come back!
Her:  Oh.  He's uh, busy, right now...
Me: You sure?  I promise I won't cry.
Her:  Ok, but he's busy.

She went on to say that they did not yet have the report from the doctor who did my scope, and they did not yet have the results from my biopsies.  She asked me if I remembered what the doctor told me after the scope was done.  I told her that he said that the inflammation was 30cms in.  She noted that in the chart and said that she thought the doctor was at the clinic that morning so she would go check with him to see if he "remembered me".

Me: Well, I was the youngest one there by about 30 years, so tell him it was probably the nicest butt he saw that day!
Her: Uh, we don't really pay attention to that...

Then she ran out of the room.

Sheesh, you'd think that butt-doctors would have a bit of a sense of humour about what they do for a living!

She came back with my actual doctor.  He reiterated that they did not have the report, did not have the biopsies.  Then he wanted to talk meds.  He spoke about how up until now we have been trying to get the inflammation under control with topical anti-inflammatory meds.  And how this clearly hasn't been working.  How he's asked me to consider trying Prednisone and that I've declined (my husband has Lupus and has been taking Prednisone for a few years.  I have seen some of the side effects and don't want to go that route if I don't have to).  He concluded that he felt that we needed to move away from topical meds and try systemic meds.


This is very troubling to me.

The options presented were to continue trying to stop the inflammation using anti-inflammatory drugs, but that he felt this would be like "using a wet rag to put out a fire".  His preferred option was to move into an immuno-suppressant.

Then he asked me what I thought.

The tears welled up, but I took a breath and kept them in.

I explained that I really did not want to use the heavier drugs at this time.  That I would take the prescription for the anti-inflammatory, and try that for a couple of months.  I also let him know that I had a consult with a Naturopath in a couple days, and that I wanted to explore that option as well.

He sighed, wrote the prescription, and let me know that was fine.  He said that he felt that the Naturopath would likely have some good options for me, and that he felt that they could work together to treat my disease.  He warned that stress was a likely trigger and that I needed to figure out a way to reduce this in my life.

Overall, I left the appointment no further ahead, but no further behind.  No one has mentioned the "Colitis" word yet, but I'm pretty sure I now qualify.  And I now had high hopes for what would happen at the Naturopath! 

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