Tests & Doctors
The last few weeks have been difficult both emotionally and physically for a number of reasons, but only a few I will get into here for your interest and time.
Emotionally I will set a little background. Early April and late march are full of “anniversaries” for me that while they don’t effect me as profoundly as they once did, still do have some effect, and we just try to get through them without spending too much time dwelling on it. 3 dates to be exact. March 27th: dad’s birthday, April 2nd: mom & dad’s anniversary, and April 7th: anniversary of mom’s death. So yeah. In a three week period, there is kind of a lot just generally buzzing around in my mind.
As you may or may not know, I have been able to get into this program in San Mateo County where I can see a doctor for free! Hooray! It took a bit to get there, but we did it. And that was the first step to trying to figure out what is going on with my body… which still has not been solved.
I found it entertaining that the first two times I went to the clinic they almost were surprised and thankful (literally) that I spoke English. Let’s just say I stuck out a bit.
I did see a regular doctor, which while I was very grateful for I was worried about. Simply because I was worried it would be some 70 year old retired old school white male who would just give me pills and nothing else. Sadly that is what happened. I don’t mean to stereotype… but well yeah. He thankfully did send to have some blood work done, which ironically I had paid to get done myself the week before so I knew what all the results were gonna be. But it’s fine. He does not know me. Plus he is judging me based on the fact that I told him I have to take vicodin for my cramps. Because they are so painful. Did he focus on that, the pain? No, just on the fact that I have vicodin and where did I get it.
I casually asked about PCOS and if I could get some blood work done to find out if I had it, He said there wasn’t any to be done. Which annoyed me because I knew there was, but I was polite and didn’t push it to annoyance. I was just raised not to that, plus I was getting to see a doctor for free. What killed me really the most was the fact that he focused more on my heartburn than on my abdominal pain. I thought “doesn’t that abdominal pain seem more serious to you?” but it just didn’t. I got some pills for heartburn (which I will admit I have not taken a 1 of) and sent me on my way.
I got into my car and almost completely lost it. I had worked so hard to get to this point and that was it? Are you freakin kidding me? Heartburn pills I have taken before in the past and that didn’t fix my problem? I had another appointment with him in a month, and he set me up with an appointment for the breast clinic.
I go to the breast clinic which was far more helpful. It was an older woman (thank goodness, it’s strange enough to be lying down with someone examining every inch of your breast; it would be much more awkward if it had been a man.) She felt around and found something funny in one of my breasts and sent me to get a mammogram. She thought I might have a cyst, but nothing to get too worried about. But she helped me to get an appointment with a Gyn and a dermatologist (for the horrible thing on my neck). So seeing her made me feel better, even if it did mean I had to get a mammogram.
So I went to the women’s clinic in mills peninsula in San Mateo. I am very grateful I got to go to there and not the one down the street from my home. Of course the other is convenient, but it has a LOT of memories that I would rather not visit while dealing with my own health issues. The reason is because this one is an outpatient center, the other is not. Let’s hope I only need to go to this one.
The receptionist was very friendly and kind. And I was greeted 3 times with a “you’re pretty young for this aren’t you?” thankfully again, all by women. (No offense guys, I just feel more comfortable being prodded and poked by girls with the same parts as me.) Everything was fine though. They didn’t even see a cyst. I must say though, my chest was sore after the whole excursion.
Then the gyn. She was very sweet. And I was entertained by her and the breast examiner asking me what type of birth control I use with my response of “not having sex?” with the final comment from me to the Gyn being “I find it works pretty well”. They both seemed a little surprised, but entertained by my response. I don’t think they hear that often from someone my age. She was great though and was willing to send me to get the PCOS blood work done! (HOORAY!) That costs like $400! So I was pretty happy to get that done for free. Plus I could have the hospital (which I had been doing with all the other stuff) send the results to my ND as well. Now I was making some headway.
While I have not been getting the pains that wake me up in the middle of the night to the extreme as much lately (I have not had one since Valentines Day) I still get some abdominal pain from time to time. It always seems to feel like my intestines are trying to push themselves out. It really feels like I have been working out and those muscles are sore. That really is the best way I can describe it. But it is painful and difficult to deal with. Accompany that with heartburn and it’s like a torso pain extravaganza. Honestly I think I need to see a gastroenterologist about it all, but I doubt they will have one of those at the clinic.
Anyhow, got to talk to my ND about the results (from all these tests) and most of my blood work looks good. There was only one of the hormones that might be in question, but it’s hard to know for sure since my cycle is so out of wack. (Has been most of my life really. For the clinic I had to give them a little chart of when my periods were last year and I had been marking them on my calendar….. Yeah, I had 4 last year.). But regardless my naturopath said you can get diagnosed with it (PCOS) even without the blood work or sonogram. So she plans on moving forward aggressively like I do have it. So that’s the current step.
The dermatologist looked at the awesome blight on my neck and decided it was scar tissue and put a needle in my neck with cortisone shot in it. Woo…. He said it should go down in 2 weeks, and if not, we will see what we need to do after that. I’m in hopes no more steps will be necessary.
So that is where we currently stand. I still have no answers to my gut pains, but at least I have a lot more answers of what it isn’t. Which is good as well. I have my suspicions, like I think I might be allergic to dairy (and by dairy I think I mean cream. Because things like cheese seem to cause problems as well as whipped cream) and possibly soy. And I need to be even more cautious around processed sugars. It’s not fun, but hey, it’s way more not fun being sick a lot of the time too. It could be ulcers too, or IBS… who knows right now.
I have not figured it all out yet. I have had some other issues arise but I knew they were based more on emotion than anything else and were very problematic, effecting my stomach and heartburn. It would be nice if my emotions were not so connected to my tummy.
I’m just starting to figure out some kind of work out almost every day (signed up for a bikram yoga class and wanted to be more prepared for it by working out some one my own before I got there). I know I need to because I think I have started to plateau, and I’m not at my goal yet. Inches wise or weight wise. (I have lost somewhere between 17 - 20 pounds since the start of this year though) I would be thrilled if I could get there by my birthday, but I’m not exactly holding my breath.
All this does make it difficult to eat out however, (many time just eat period) and not have some kind of intestine / heartburn / stomach issue every single day. I’m just trying to figure out how to live with it day to day. I mean, along with my other PCOS symptoms I deal with all the time as well. And there are days I don’t feel like fighting it all anymore. Because it is a fight. It feels like a war is going on in my body and I can’t figure out how to help the good guys. I just know that general weight loss will help me get on the path to where I need to be. We just gotta figure out the details while we do that.
On average right now I’m seeing 2 different doctors a week, and some kind of test being done once a week.
Anyhow, that’s pretty much the rundown. I actually currently am having a bought of heartburn and discomfort (intestines), but hopefully I will be able to sleep it off and hit the re-boot button on my body and start tomorrow off with a new day of trying everything out.
Emotionally I will set a little background. Early April and late march are full of “anniversaries” for me that while they don’t effect me as profoundly as they once did, still do have some effect, and we just try to get through them without spending too much time dwelling on it. 3 dates to be exact. March 27th: dad’s birthday, April 2nd: mom & dad’s anniversary, and April 7th: anniversary of mom’s death. So yeah. In a three week period, there is kind of a lot just generally buzzing around in my mind.
As you may or may not know, I have been able to get into this program in San Mateo County where I can see a doctor for free! Hooray! It took a bit to get there, but we did it. And that was the first step to trying to figure out what is going on with my body… which still has not been solved.
I found it entertaining that the first two times I went to the clinic they almost were surprised and thankful (literally) that I spoke English. Let’s just say I stuck out a bit.
I did see a regular doctor, which while I was very grateful for I was worried about. Simply because I was worried it would be some 70 year old retired old school white male who would just give me pills and nothing else. Sadly that is what happened. I don’t mean to stereotype… but well yeah. He thankfully did send to have some blood work done, which ironically I had paid to get done myself the week before so I knew what all the results were gonna be. But it’s fine. He does not know me. Plus he is judging me based on the fact that I told him I have to take vicodin for my cramps. Because they are so painful. Did he focus on that, the pain? No, just on the fact that I have vicodin and where did I get it.
I casually asked about PCOS and if I could get some blood work done to find out if I had it, He said there wasn’t any to be done. Which annoyed me because I knew there was, but I was polite and didn’t push it to annoyance. I was just raised not to that, plus I was getting to see a doctor for free. What killed me really the most was the fact that he focused more on my heartburn than on my abdominal pain. I thought “doesn’t that abdominal pain seem more serious to you?” but it just didn’t. I got some pills for heartburn (which I will admit I have not taken a 1 of) and sent me on my way.
I got into my car and almost completely lost it. I had worked so hard to get to this point and that was it? Are you freakin kidding me? Heartburn pills I have taken before in the past and that didn’t fix my problem? I had another appointment with him in a month, and he set me up with an appointment for the breast clinic.
I go to the breast clinic which was far more helpful. It was an older woman (thank goodness, it’s strange enough to be lying down with someone examining every inch of your breast; it would be much more awkward if it had been a man.) She felt around and found something funny in one of my breasts and sent me to get a mammogram. She thought I might have a cyst, but nothing to get too worried about. But she helped me to get an appointment with a Gyn and a dermatologist (for the horrible thing on my neck). So seeing her made me feel better, even if it did mean I had to get a mammogram.
So I went to the women’s clinic in mills peninsula in San Mateo. I am very grateful I got to go to there and not the one down the street from my home. Of course the other is convenient, but it has a LOT of memories that I would rather not visit while dealing with my own health issues. The reason is because this one is an outpatient center, the other is not. Let’s hope I only need to go to this one.
The receptionist was very friendly and kind. And I was greeted 3 times with a “you’re pretty young for this aren’t you?” thankfully again, all by women. (No offense guys, I just feel more comfortable being prodded and poked by girls with the same parts as me.) Everything was fine though. They didn’t even see a cyst. I must say though, my chest was sore after the whole excursion.
Then the gyn. She was very sweet. And I was entertained by her and the breast examiner asking me what type of birth control I use with my response of “not having sex?” with the final comment from me to the Gyn being “I find it works pretty well”. They both seemed a little surprised, but entertained by my response. I don’t think they hear that often from someone my age. She was great though and was willing to send me to get the PCOS blood work done! (HOORAY!) That costs like $400! So I was pretty happy to get that done for free. Plus I could have the hospital (which I had been doing with all the other stuff) send the results to my ND as well. Now I was making some headway.
While I have not been getting the pains that wake me up in the middle of the night to the extreme as much lately (I have not had one since Valentines Day) I still get some abdominal pain from time to time. It always seems to feel like my intestines are trying to push themselves out. It really feels like I have been working out and those muscles are sore. That really is the best way I can describe it. But it is painful and difficult to deal with. Accompany that with heartburn and it’s like a torso pain extravaganza. Honestly I think I need to see a gastroenterologist about it all, but I doubt they will have one of those at the clinic.
Anyhow, got to talk to my ND about the results (from all these tests) and most of my blood work looks good. There was only one of the hormones that might be in question, but it’s hard to know for sure since my cycle is so out of wack. (Has been most of my life really. For the clinic I had to give them a little chart of when my periods were last year and I had been marking them on my calendar….. Yeah, I had 4 last year.). But regardless my naturopath said you can get diagnosed with it (PCOS) even without the blood work or sonogram. So she plans on moving forward aggressively like I do have it. So that’s the current step.
The dermatologist looked at the awesome blight on my neck and decided it was scar tissue and put a needle in my neck with cortisone shot in it. Woo…. He said it should go down in 2 weeks, and if not, we will see what we need to do after that. I’m in hopes no more steps will be necessary.
So that is where we currently stand. I still have no answers to my gut pains, but at least I have a lot more answers of what it isn’t. Which is good as well. I have my suspicions, like I think I might be allergic to dairy (and by dairy I think I mean cream. Because things like cheese seem to cause problems as well as whipped cream) and possibly soy. And I need to be even more cautious around processed sugars. It’s not fun, but hey, it’s way more not fun being sick a lot of the time too. It could be ulcers too, or IBS… who knows right now.
I have not figured it all out yet. I have had some other issues arise but I knew they were based more on emotion than anything else and were very problematic, effecting my stomach and heartburn. It would be nice if my emotions were not so connected to my tummy.
I’m just starting to figure out some kind of work out almost every day (signed up for a bikram yoga class and wanted to be more prepared for it by working out some one my own before I got there). I know I need to because I think I have started to plateau, and I’m not at my goal yet. Inches wise or weight wise. (I have lost somewhere between 17 - 20 pounds since the start of this year though) I would be thrilled if I could get there by my birthday, but I’m not exactly holding my breath.
All this does make it difficult to eat out however, (many time just eat period) and not have some kind of intestine / heartburn / stomach issue every single day. I’m just trying to figure out how to live with it day to day. I mean, along with my other PCOS symptoms I deal with all the time as well. And there are days I don’t feel like fighting it all anymore. Because it is a fight. It feels like a war is going on in my body and I can’t figure out how to help the good guys. I just know that general weight loss will help me get on the path to where I need to be. We just gotta figure out the details while we do that.
On average right now I’m seeing 2 different doctors a week, and some kind of test being done once a week.
Anyhow, that’s pretty much the rundown. I actually currently am having a bought of heartburn and discomfort (intestines), but hopefully I will be able to sleep it off and hit the re-boot button on my body and start tomorrow off with a new day of trying everything out.