to Fliss - my results - good news/bad news-very long

[Guest guest]

Fliss,

Thanks for your earlier note of confidence. I got through all the

tests, lab work, chest and abdominal X-rays, blood tests and

EKG.

I had my appointments Friday, Monday, Tuesday and

Wednesday with the GI stuff, and then a quick run to the dentist

on Tuesday afternoon for an emergency tooth extraction!

The results of all were okay with a few exceptions.

Friday's bone density test: I got a 5.8 reading on the hip bone

scan, which is just borderline osteoporosis. The lumbar is still

just osteopenia. They discussed putting me on Fosomax for the

osteoporosis.

Monday was the chest and abdonimal x-rays, both were clear

and fine. My EKG was fine, except for a slightly " slow " heartrate,

whatever that means. Getting them done was miserable. When

I went in to the room where they do the x-rays, the technician told

me that it would take a little longer because she was going to be

training on of the new girls. She had me undress and put on

one of those flimsy cotton hospital gowns with the ties on the

back. The temperature in the room was about 50

degrees....really!! I was freezing, but I waited, and waited. They

did the chest xray standing and the abdominal with me lying on

the table. It took an extra 15 minutes with her having to explain

everything she was doing to the new girl. Then they asked me to

wait in the room while the room for the EKG was free.

After about 10 minutes of waiting, I was frozen, naked under the

lightweight gown, my toes in my exposed sandals were turning

white under my tan. So I went down the hall to the rest room,

only because I knew it was warmer. After waiting around there

for a few minutes, I went back down the cold hall to the EKG

room, which was across the hall from the x-ray room and as cold

as a tomb! I poked my head in there and it was empty, so I went

back out in the hall toward the rest room where it was warmer. If

you can picture this, me standing there shivering in the hall,

naked under my hospital gown, clutching my dress and purse.

There was a stack of boxes in the hall, and one was sitting there

at chair height, so I sat down on that to wait. A few minutes later,

one of the other attendents came by with a woman patient in tow,

and she said, " Mrs. Griffeth, why are you sitting there, go back to

the room and wait " . I told her no, there was no way I was going

to sit in that room freezing, half an hour had passed and the

woman who was supposed to do the EKG had disappeared. I

could hear her talking on the phone somewhere down the hall,

she apparently had forgotten me and gotten involved in

something else. The patient was laughing and the nurse was

sympathizing with me, knowing how cold that section of the

building was, since apparently they'd had some problems with

the a/c for that section.

So by the time the other nurse came and got me on the table to

do the EKG I was really beyond the point of being a polite and

happy patient. They had to have the gown open from the front to

expose the chest to attach all the " thingies " , and I was still

shivering. The result of the EKG was fine, except that the P.A.

said it showed a " slow " heartbeat, whatever that means. She did

say that it could have been that way because of the coldness in

the room. I won't really have a good interpretation of this until I

talk with my GI next week.

My labs showed a lipase of 17, and an amylase of 42....what did

they expect? The P.A. was confused by those being so low...I

told her my pancreas had burned out and that accounted for the

low enzyme levels. I told her they were even that low during an

acute attack, trying to educate her. She said she couldn't

understand that, because they were supposed to be elevated

during an attack. Being new to pancreatitis (I think), she still

believes what she's been taught in medical school, that those

enzymes HAD to be elevated. So I told her that she needed to

read up on it some more and talk to the doctor....he'd verify it for

her, since he's already treated me during an attack and knows

that mine don't go up.

The only other negative finding was a LDL of 128. As a diabetic,

they don't want my LDL over 100. My HDL was 54, which is

fantastic, but now they're trying to figure out how to treat the

cholesterol problem, since I already am a low fat eater and do

get good exercise. The only other way they can bring it down is

with medication. Zocor is out, because it does list pancreatitis

as a possible side effect. I think they'll start me out on Crestor.

My blood pressure is 110/62, so no complaints with that. It's

always been low.

On Tuesday my appointment with the Pain Management doctor

brought bad news. He's moving to Virginia in 11 weeks, and

now I don't have a PM doctor to write all my scripts for narcotics.

This could be scary, since the PM tech said that my doctor won't

write any scripts for class II narcotics for any of his patients, and

that now he sends them all to the PM doctor. I told them that he

did write the scripts for my duragesic patches and breakthrough

meds before, so maybe he still would. But they seemed

doubtful. That's one more thing that we need to discuss at next

week's appointment.

The physical the next day was fine. Everything checks out okay.

As a result of my driving back and forth those four days, with lots

of traffic and car maneuvering with the steering wheel, my carpel

tunnel problems are fierce today... I can't bend my right thumb,

and both hands are sore and cramped. I've figured out a way to

type on the keyboard by using my long nails only, and resting the

edges of both hands on the keyboard. This is probably

something that carpel tunnel people have figured out a long time

ago, but it was a new discovery for me. Today I still can't hold a

pen in my right hand, but can type.

As for my emergency tooth extraction, one upper molar was

hurting so bad that I stopped at my dentist's and told him to just

knock me up with the novocaine and get it out. He said it was

beginning to get infected and there was a lot of pus. It only took

him about two minutes, and then I was walking out the door!

I'm pretty exhausted from such a busy week, and hope I can just

take it easy for a couple days. I hope you can get your tests out

of the way soon. Some times the wait is worse than anything

else, I hate to wait for thing like that because my imagination

always makes a mountain out of it. I hope you do better.

With love, hope and prayers,

Heidi

Heidi H. Griffeth

South Carolina

SC & SE Regional Rep., PAI

Note: All comments or advice are based on personal experience

or opinion only, and should not be substituted for consultation

with a medical professional.