On the Road to Recovery

Wow, have I been through the mill in the past 6 weeks. It was exhausting, expensive, scary, and frustrating. On the bright side I lost 15 pounds and have meet some of the most compassionate health care providers in the Cincinnati area.

It all started with a skin rash around my eyes, looked very raccoon like. First stop, was the dermatologist - well $100 in creams later - no change. (Mind you I have very good health insurance coverage - so that equaled about 7 different types of creams.)

Next stop Allergist. After 100 different types of testing for allergies - it showed very low level reaction to ginger and barley. So he put me on a gluten free diet of just chicken, rice, carrots, grapes, and water to see if it would clear it up.
It did look a little better so he asked me to continue with the diet, but add in pork and lettuce.

A few days later I became so sick. I thought I had a virus. Very nauseated and diarrhea. (sorry but it is important to know the facts.) When this didn't go away after a few days I went to my family doctor. She ordered blood work and stool samples. Everything came back okay.

I was getting sicker by the day. I was now at the point where I could barely eat and if i did have a bite of toast or jello. I was in the bathroom within minutes.
Friends started bringing me smart water, ensure, activa, anything that would keep hydrated. I now had lost about 7 pounds and was exhausted all the time.

The next week I was at the Dr. three times as my symptoms kept getting worse. I had a gallbladder ultrasound and a gallbladder MRI (Hida Scan). The ultrasound was normal but the Hida Scan should some abnormalities. So we aren't sure it is the problem but now need to get into a specialist. The soonest they could get me in was 6 weeks. I told them I would be dead by then because I couldn't keep hydrated and I wasn't eating. After alot of juggling they got me in 9 days. Okay, I will take it as it beat the alternative.

I had also called a gastroenterolgy doctor to try and get in since the gallbladder diagnosis wasn't definitive. That was worse 2 months for an appointment. After pleading my case - they talked with the Dr. (who I am a patient) could get me in 14 days. I took that as well.

The night before I was to go to the Gallbladder surgeon -I was so sick I asked my son and husband to take me to the Emergency Room. I was now running a fever and vomiting as well as all the other problems. We drove 45 minutes vs going to a hospital that was 10 minutes away - because if they admitted me I wanted to be sure the doctors I wanted to perform any procedures were on staff. That was the best decision we made.

The ER doctor was very good. He did an ECG, ran extensive blood work, ordered a CT scan of my abdomen and did anther stool sample. On the stool sample he ran extensive testing. He did not believe it was gallbladder and did not want me to have unnecessary surgery out of desperation. Which is where I was.

The good news but surprising to the ER Doc was my abdomen, intestines etc came back looking great! No ulcers or blockages. They stabilized my fluids and had to send me home. (even though I begged them to keep me). He told me stick with the two doctor appointments I had and when they get the stool sample results he would contact me. If I get worse again - come back in do not wait and get dehydrated as this can easily cause death.

By the way at this point I have lost 15 pounds in about 3 weeks. This was at least 10% of my body weight.

After going to Dr. David Ward, the surgeon the next day - he said it was not definitive I should go to the gastroenterolgy doctor, Dr. Stephen Ionna and they would confer on Tuesday after my appointment (4 days later was my next appointment) to try and come up with a game plan. I appreciated that he didn't push surgery since he wasn't sure - however, at that point if he had I probably would have gone along with it - hoping it helped. I have alot of respect for him and his values.

After my appointment with Dr. Ward I went home, fell into bed and was sleeping when my son came running up the steps and said Mom, wake up it is the doctor from the Er last night, Dr. Gary Gries. My results of my stool sample showed a parasite called Giardiasis. He would call in a medication immediately to resolve the problem. Within 24 hours I feel like a new person. It is quite contagious and I need to be on the antibiotics for at 48 hours to be safe not to contaminate my family. (although they have been living with me for 3 weeks - keep your fingers crossed they don't get it).

I am not sure where I picked this up - however, the important information for all is - WASH YOUR HANDS after using the bathroom. Someone somewhere didn't do this and I picked it up.

I hope to be back on track with blogging. Thanks for your patience.

Live Your Best!
Stay tuned...
Steph