Priceless

Miles Driven Today in the Quest for Answers to My Health Woes: 200

Medical Offices Visited: 4

Radioactive Ingestions: 2 (IV and directly into K-pouch)

Procedures/Appts Scheduled for the next few weeks: 5

Altercations with Rude Office Staff: 1

Naps: 2 (one for me, one for the man)

People who looked at me with the Perplexed Head Tilt: 6

Possible Ailments: 4+

Number of Ensure (Calorie Supplements) I need to drink a day to help my weight: 2-3 (I'm going with 2, hubs says 3 -- YUCK!)

Definite Answers to What the Heck is Wrong with Me: 0

Spending the Whole Day Spinning Our Wheels: Priceless

See I told you not to hold your breath!

In reality it wasn't all bad. The CT showed that the infection is definitely less than before surgery (but better answer would have been gone all together.) We also found out that apparently about 10 cm of small intestine was resected during surgery because another fistula had developed from abscess to small intestine, not that it matters now, but it was interesting thing to learn -- the hubs pointed out that I was a lot sicker than we thought. There is still some inflammation/infection around the connection where they did the resection. But nothing major showed on the CT now so that's good.

British Surgeon Dude was again perplexed by my constant nausea and loss of appetite, not really so much listening to some of my other things. But he wanted me to call my GI and see if she could help figure this puzzle out. Luckily she had a cancellation this afternoon and even luckier because after this week she's out on vacation the month of August, so good timing!

Saw my awesome GI this afternoon. Here's the synopsis of our visit: Perplexed look, not happy about my weight loss in the last month since I last saw her, working hard to try and narrow things down. She said it could be gallbladder disease/stones, pancreatitis, a possible stomach issue, or still infection. The first two are very common in people with UC or Crohn's.

So we start with blood work when I'm in the throws of pain, a chest X-ray and an ultrasound of my gallbladder, pancreas, spleen, etc next Monday. Follow up appt with her PA on Aug 9. If nothing yields from that, upper endoscopy will be scheduled and possible referral to an infectious disease doctor.

There you have it. For now I'll be hanging onto Mr. Nausea and unfortunately my relationship with food may stay on the rocks. Hopefully something will come out of all this. Again, at this point I'd rather them find something, since we all agree that something is not right, so we can address and get on with it.

Our heads are still a bit spinny. The hubs and I agree that we just really don't know what to think of all this. I'll keep you posted...

Total Mental Instability: Also Priceless!