I've Had Enough!

Well as we all have learned by now, my lovely little body really doesn't like me too much. I was moving along at what I call the "status quo", no better, but no worse, so it was manageable. I had my system down and was trying to stay at that "status quo" until we could finally move on to the next step.

But as usual, my body had other plans. Last week I started with horrible waves of crampy pain, loss of appetite, severe nausea, lots of blood in the stool... the whole kit n' kaboodle. I was hoping it was just a fleeting thing, ah how wishful I can still be about these things. But as one of my fab friends pointed out, "Al, you should know better, your body doesn't just let things go, it's evil."

So, I though maybe it was pouchitis so I started taking Flagyl, an antibiotic I had on hand, this past Monday. By Wednesday, after I'd dry heaved a number of times and the neuropathy issues started kicking up, I decided it was time to call the dr. (I know, I know, I'm stubborn and still fight the inevitable.) They got me an appt for this morning with my GI.

I saw my very nice GI, first thing this morning. *Sidenote, I knew going into the appt that I was the second of the day. As I waited a full half hour in the waiting room, I pondered how it was possible to already be behind schedule after just one patient. Inquiring minds want to know!*

After going through all my symptoms with her. She said it was most likely pouchitis, but that I needed to stop the antibiotics because of the side effects and before we move forward she would need to do a flexible sigmoidoscopy! Yippee another butt photo shoot. In the meantime, I also need to do two sets of stool samples to rule out C-difficile (a bacteria in the intestines, which I had back in March 2007.)

As you can imagine, all of this is quite frustrating. I know it's cliche, but I'm seriously so sick and tired of being sick and tired. I mean, I have been content enough with the, "well I'm not worse" line and then to get kicked down again. GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!

Couple this with the fact that I still haven't heard about my authorization for the San Diego Dr and you have one very upset, yet totally exhausted and in pain Al. Not a good combo.

So that's it. I've had enough, I decided to call the SD doctor and just make the appt. We'll pay out of pocket for the consultation. Then in October, the hubs and I will switch to the PPO option with his insurance and this will go into effect in January. I need to get rid of this j-pouch and be done dealing with my broken sphinchter...my tipping point has been reached.

The plan goes like this:

• FlexSig, Tuesday July 28 (hopefully figure out what's going on in there and get me treated.)
• Appt with UCI colorectal surgeon, Wednesday August 12 (This is the last guy in-network and it can't hurt to hear what he has to say.)
• Appt with the SD colorectal surgeon who does the K-pouch, Tuesday, August 25 (hopefully get some answers and be able to make decisions on which type of ostomy is best for me.)
• Switch to PPO, October 2009 (will be in effect January 1, 2010)
• Schedule surgery first week in January and get this show on the road and over with (Being realistic, I've waited this long and most likely won't get any out-of-network surgery approved, so we'll have to wait to have the PPO to get it done. What's four more months when we've waited 2.5 years?!)

I feel empowered and good about my expectations and by having these dates and timelines in the calendar. I'll keep you all updated as things happen. Until then, I'm going to do everything I can to get back to the "status quo"!