Goodish News But No Answers Still

Well, I saw the surgeon yesterday and it’s taken me a while to digest what he had to say. Really I wasn’t sure how I felt about it.

The surgeon told me that he’s not going to do the surgery; he’s not convinced that it will relieve my symptoms. Yes, I have gallstones and they are indeed all sitting in there hanging about, but there’s no proof that they are menacing me in any way, he said. Apparently, he thinks my symptoms are from “something else”.

You know, that mysterious ellusive “something else” that has been haunting and taunting and traumatizing me for 20 years or so.

So…

He is recommending to my GP that I see a Gastroenterologist as he thinks I might have Irritable Bowel Syndrome, bringing me full circle. I guess he saw the look of frustration on my face.

O.K. Let’s face it. IBS is what they tell people they have when doctors basically don’t know what else is wrong and have no idea what else to try. The next thing you know, you’re on muscle relaxants and some special diet that’s either super low-fiber or super-high fiber and they just toy with that until you give up and stop going to see them and pretend you can live with it.

And my last Gastroenterologist was a complete quack. I really have little faith in the specialty. I didn’t care for him or his partners. After my upper GI, I had to page one of his partners due to a discomfort I felt after hours and the partner on call was quite rude and condescending.

Mind you, that was down in New Orleans and all of the doctors I’ve encountered here in Maine have been wonderful, but I’m still a bit wary.

But the surgeon must have seen my discomfort. He started on a spiel about how a lot has changed in the last 10 years or so in the field and how they’ve discovered a lot about IBS and how to treat it and how it’s no longer treated by fiddling with a person’s fiber in their diet.

Anyway, he did say that if I see the GI and the GI says it’s the gallstones that are the problem, he’ll do the surgery, but I guess he wants the second opinion. It makes sense.

So for now I get to keep all of my body parts.

Still, I feel very frustrated. It feels like a huge step backward for me. Like I was so close to finding a solution and the answer slipped through my fingertips like sand. I so want to know what it’s like for other people. How do they go through their day? What’s it like not to have to worry about where the bathrooms are or whether or not you’ll even go today? What’s it like to feel like your body isn’t betraying you?

tags: wellness, gastroenterologist, gallbladder surgery, gallstones, IBS

One comment

1. on August 5, 2006 at 9:37 am

   Lara said:

   Awh hon - that sucks.
   I don’t have anything to add about “dealing” unfortunately, but I wanted to offer up some sympathy at least.

   I will say this, don’t be discouraged at the thought of a 2nd opinion. You should be getting those on your own anyway. I went through that when they found the pre-cancerous cells on my cervix - and am now hearing that while I chose to go through with the surgery (and no, I don’t really regret it) that it was entirely possible that they could’ve gone away on their own. It was one scary thing to hear, and my family wanted me to get a 2nd opinion, but I just wanted them gone and gone “now”, so I just did it. Yes, my cervix is now weaker, and yes, there’s a greater potential for premature births and miscarriages. But I don’t have cancer. It didn’t get that far because I had the surgery, you know?

   My thoughts are with you, chica… and we’ll get rolling on our project once everything’s tied up on your end (and mine!).

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