Fortuitous Turn…Kind Of

Well, it turns out that postponing my surgery might have been an extremely fortuitous turn of events though I was bullied into it by my co-workers who wanted to make sure I did my share of the work while they went on vacation.  Heh.

I’ve been seeing a GI Specialist, you know, and he happened to notice that no one followed up on one particular piece of blood work after my visit to the ER in December when I had my Gallstone attack.  Something about some liver enzyme level or something being high.  Anyway, this could apparently be a sign that I didn’t actually pass all the Gallstones that have come out of my Gallbladder.  One of them could just be loose in the duct, which could explain why I’ve been having painful mini-episodes and twitches that the other doctors and my parents have basically written off as some sort of ghost pangs or spasms.

What’s worse is that if the surgeon goes and takes my Gallbladder out before they do something about the renegade gallstone then it could get lodged in one of the passageways to one of my other organs like my pancreas and cause a major infection.  Apparently right now, the Gallbladder is providing bile or something to help keep it from being really problematic.

That is, if there’s a renegade gallstone.  The truth is that no one knows for sure.

Last week I had my liver enzyme level or whatever checked again and it’s still elevated so I’m off next week to have an MRI of my duct to see if there’s a gallstone hanging out in there playing hookie or something.  If there is, then I have to have yet another procedure where they’ll go in and take it out before they operate on me to remove my gallbladder.

My mother always told me growing up that I always had to do everything the hard way.

Anyway, if I hadn’t postponed my surgery, which had been scheduled for last Friday, I could be finding out the really hard way that I have a loose gallstone, so it could be worse I guess.

Tags: gallbladder, gallstone, MRI, surgery, wellness, health

Norovirus Victim

Yup, that’s me.

I’d been feeling unwell since last Sunday, as you know, but Thursday, the diarrhea and vomiting hit me in the afternoon.  Well, my stomach started feeling really unwell in that way you know it’s going to be “upset” right before lunch.

Anyway, the low-grade fever, the stomach cramps, headaches, dizziness, nausea,  diarrhea, and vomiting that they’ve been reporting on the news — all true.  Two days of misery — true.  And if you think you get to sleep between “episodes”, you’re wrong.  You get to stare at the wall and the ceiling.  You try to avoid the quick moving scenes on a television.  Oh, and you’re suddenly more aware of all the food commercials that are shown on television, which now will really make you never want to eat that food again.

Some things I found out from the doctor:

• Do call your doctor’s office.
• Try not to go to a doctor’s office or ER where you will infect other people without being told to do so by your doctor’s office.
• For those first 48 hours, do not take a diarrhea-suppression medication.  This is a virus that needs to run through your system and taking such meds will only slow down the process, which you do not want to do with this — fortunately I was too sick to listen to my mother when she advised me to do this Thursday night.
• Do not eat or drink anything for 2 hours after vomiting.  Then try sipping a clear liquid every 20 minutes for an hour. If that works, then attempt every 15 minutes for an hour; then every 10 minutes, then every 5 minutes.  Then you can attempt a plain carb like dry toast or crackers.
• If you find yourself becoming seriously dehydrated or your symptoms worsen or do not get better after 48 hours, call your doctor’s office again.

What I learned in my bathroom:

• When I clean the bathroom, I need to pay more attention to the dust around the toilet.  This is something more evident when you are hugging your toilet before or after vomiting.
• You can throw up and poop involuntarily at the same time.  It’s best to take the vomit bucket with you even when you’re just going to the bathroom.
• No one ever believes me when I say that you can carry around 6-8 lbs of poop in your body every day. I can now verify that book-read fact.

Tags: Norovirus, wellness

Discombobulated Thoughts — January 16, 2007

• Wow, halfway through January already?
• I’m feeling slightly better, just some residual pain in my back and right side but not feeling like I’m splitting in half anymore.
• Pugly is acting very odd lately. I’ve been having to carry him to the car every morning to go to doggy daycare and sometimes I have to catch him to put the leash on him to go outside. Then there’s the weird matter of him not wanting to jump down from the car when we get home. Very strange little dog.
• I’ve been watching HBO’s Rome and I just love love love it. I love the two guys who always seem to be in the right or wrong place and inadvertently cause history to happen.
• I’m reluctantly switching from bottled water to Brita filtered water to save money at home. As long as it’s not tap water, right?
  

  It’s a jungle out there
  Poison in the very air we breathe
  Do you know what’s in the water that you drink?
  Well I do, and it’s amazing
  – “It’s a Jungle Out There”, Monk Theme Song lyrics

• I bought Seventh Generation dish soap, which I think is supposed to be biodegradable. At the very least it’s better for the environment that Joy, which is what I was using. I also bought an organic green tea hair conditioner. I couldn’t find the reusable grocery bags, but I’m thinking about making my own.
• I’ve been trying to find a sample Square Foot Veggie garden online for one adult that I could modify to my own liking. I just like seeing examples of what other people have done.
• I guess I’m going to have to create a gardening category.
• I knitted all day on Saturday on a dishcloth but I have nothing to show for it because I pulled it all out. No matter how careful I counted or what I did, by the time I got to the 12th row, I had an extra stitch and couldn’t figure out where it happened. So I pulled it all out. It’s one of those complicated patterns that is different on every row — you know, K5 P2 (K6 P2) repeat 4 times K5 P1 K2 and then the next row is something else and then like on row 12 you repeat rows 6 through 10. Oy. The scarf was all knit stitches and it took me how many months to do?
• I’m feeling uninspired to take a photo today.

Tags: discombobulated, Seventh Generation, Joy, project365, knitting, gardening, wellness, the puppy, bottled water, Brita, HBO\\\\\\\'s Rome

Just Shoot Me

O.K. So, I think I forgot to take my meds yesterday morning and I’m paying for it today. Otherwise, I’m just really sick today.

Pugly woke me up at 7am because he wanted to go out.  I got up, took him out to do his business, put some birdseed in the feeder, fed the animals, and went back to bed.  I woke up again at noon feeling much worse and with a migraine.  I’d been having weird dreams mixing HBO’s  Rome with HGtv’s whole line up of home improvement and house hunting shows.

I’ve been very ill since then.  I’ve been wishing I would throw up. My stomach hurts so bad that it’s painful to touch and when I got up to do something my mother has been asking me to do (she wanted a photo of a curtain she mailed me hanging up to see if it fit before working on the next one), I felt a sharp pain where my gall bladder is.

I’m dizzy.  Not sleepy.  Even blinking hurts my migraine.  I’m horribly thirsty, but the act of drinking makes my stomach hurt and aggravates my migraine.  I’ve had a Diet Coke and water plus some tuna salad today.  Oh, and I’ve taken my meds and a Maxalt for the migraine.

There’s so much I wanted to do today, but I’ve gotten nothing done.  I don’t even trust myself to walk down the stairs to the basement to wash clothes.

Tags: migraine, wellness, health

Project 365 (Day 3): Good Morning, Starshine

I start my morning with all but two of those bottles on the bottom two rows, thanks to all my medical problems. One of these, two of those.

Don’t think the other two bottles get ignored. Those are the night meds.

The top shelf has the pain meds for those days when the migraines and fibromyalgia is unignorable. Though, technically, I don’t take the aleeve or ibuprophen anymore. They’re just there for company now.

I vaguely remember when I used to just take a vitamin C every morning.

Tags: medications, photo blogging, project365, fibromyalgia, wellness, photoaday

Radioactive Eggs

I got all distracted telling you about the alternative medicine and nutrition thing and forgot to mention how I spent Monday afternoon.  That’s when my stomach emptying test was scheduled.

So, I went to the Nuclear Medicine department at the hospital and they had me eat radioactive eggs.  I’m not kidding here.  I had to wear a bib and latex gloves so as not to get any on me, only in my mouth and the guy doing the test stood like 5 feet away from me while I was eating them.  They were kind of flat scrambled eggs like they’d been made in a microwave and they definitely needed some sort of salt and pepper.  They weren’t green, much to my disappointment.  I also got to have a slice of regular toast and some Dasani water.

You do have to eat it all in 10 minutes so there is some pressure there and I’m kind of a slow eater.  I didn’t eat all of the toast or drink all of the water.

Then you have to sit on this table with your legs wide open and hug this machine that takes an x-ray of your insides — concentrating on your stomach.  Then they take on from your back.  They did this again 50 minutes later, I think and then 20 minutes after that.  Really I’m not sure on the timing.  I do know that the way I had to sit messed up my leg muscles and I walked funny for 2 days and the radioactive eggs sat in my digestive system ruminating for 2 days.  Talk about your toxins.  Not particularly fun with all the news about the dead Russian spy who’s been poisoned by digesting radioactive something or other…

Anyway, I won’t know the results until next week or something.  I’d have to check my calendar.  The question isn’t how fast the eggs left my body but how fast they left my stomach.

Tags: digestion, stomach emptying test, nuclear medicine, green eggs, wellness

Trying Something Alternative

I spent Monday focusing on my stomach.

Well, sort of.

Monday morning, I met with two GPs, who specialize in alternative medicine, specifically nutrition.  Rather, I was referred to them to get counsellings on what changes to make to my nutritional diet to decrease inflammation in my body since I can no longer take anti-inflammatory drugs due to my kidney disease.  I guess I kind of expected to get a list of foods to avoid and a list of foods to eat and a sample diet and have that be it, but that’s not really how it went.

First, I’m being referred to an acupuncturist for the pain.  I’m going to try it out.  I’m not all that excited about the needles thing, but at this point, I’m willing to try it.  They got me after a week of moving and being slave-driven by my parents who don’t believe in taking rest breaks, so I was particularly tender and in no mood to argue.

As for nutrition:

• Gradually decrease the caffeine in your diet.  For some reason, they think I’m an addict.  Who didn’t see that coming?  They said not to do it cold turkey though…apparently I’m not as young as I once was.
• I have to do half my morning coffee as decaf.  Bah!  That’s just wrong!  A crime against nature.
• I need to start cutting my Diet Pepsi with Diet Rite (which is not caffeinated).  Another crime.
• Take out foods with aspartame.  Substitute with non-aspartame products.
• Again with the Diet Rite.  Though Pepsi One is made with Splenda.
• I need to find a yogurt I like that doesn’t sweeten with aspartame.  I loved Blue Bunny in the South but haven’t been able to find it here.  I’ll be making my own again once I get settled in my house, so it’s just for a short time.
• Use Olive and Canola Oil.  (I already do that.  Vegetable oil is too heavy.)
• Decrease how often you are eating out down to 1-2 times per week to keep dinners healthy.  They got me there.  I had gotten to the point where I was eating out pretty much every night and you can’t control what other people put in your food.  It’s a good thing I love cooking.
• Add Ginger and Tumeric to foods.  Apparently these have anti-inflammatory properties but they take a few weeks to build up in your system.  They said to just toss a little into my soup or whatever I’m having for lunch.
• Substitute Soy and Seafood for red meat and poultry.  Apparently red meat and poultry have pro-inflammatory properties.  I already wasn’t eating much red meat.  The poultry will be harder to give up.  I find it a little odd that I already had been unconsciously making this move toward semi-vegetarianism.  I’d been naturally making the choice to use Soy substitutes of meat for about half a year on my own, not out of any pro-animal or anti-meat industry ideology but just because I felt it was better for “me” personally.  Who knew?
• Increase fruits and vegetables.  The goal in anti-inflammatory diets is 6-8 servings a day.  Damn, 5 servings a day was hard enough.  Well, I just have to work at it.  V-8 here I come.
• Try adding small amounts of nuts or seeds (especially almonds) for a snack.  About a handful a day would be good.  Almonds have particularly good anti-inflammatory properties.

As for exercise, they checked on my water physical therapy referral which is still in the queue and suggested I start wearing my pedometer again and start increasing my steps.  Like I’m going to be able to find my pedometer in the chaos.  The idea is that I should take short walk breaks at work.  Do these doctors have time to take short walk breaks at their job?
They wanted to suggest some vitamin supplements but decided to hold off until my next appointment so they could do some research on how the supplements my affect my IgAN.  I like doctors that research how things will affect your illnesses.

Tags: Wellness, alternative medicine, nutrition, acupuncture, IgAN, fibromyalgia, anti-inflammatory diet

Trying Alternative Medicine

Well, I saw my GP on Monday.  You know, to follow up on all of those new diagnoses and to get my ambien dosage increased per the Rhuemy and get the water PT referral, etc.  She and I discussed my concern with not being able to take anti-inflammatory meds anymore what with the whole kidney disease thing and especially since I was still in pain with the whole fibromyalgia thing.  In particular, my left elbow, right knee and lower back have been really bothersome and are only getting worse with the packing and the move.

Well, of course she asked me if I was taking my Tylenol twice a day.  No.  Of course not.  I’m wary of taking too much Tylenol because that could lead to liver damage.  *sigh*  Well, she scolded me, of course.  She told me to get back on a regimen of  2 extra-strength Tylenol twice a day (when I get up and in the afternoon), but no more than that.  Of course, I pointed out that the Tylenol doesn’t do a whole lot because I’m not treating the inflammation too.

I mean, I’m trying all sorts of things here.  I’ve been trying cold packs and heating pads.  I’ve tried wearing a brace on my left elbow.  The pain doesn’t go away while I’m sleeping.  Neither she nor I could find a tender area where you touch around the elbow and it’s particularly more painful. It seems to be inside the joint itself and it just aches.
I said that at this point I was willing to try anything.  I even mentioned that I’d read a blurb in one of my health magazines that some journal had done a study that found that cherries were a natural anti-inflammatory.  I told my GP that my mother laughed at me when I said I was going to buy some and start eating a bunch every day.  (The study had the women eat 45 every day.)  I’d drink juice if I could find it, but I’ve not been able to find pure cherry juice, which I hear is really bitter.

So, apparently there’s an alternative medicine program I can get into, a nutritionist I can see who’ll put together an anti-inflammatory diet for me — you know, tell me what foods to avoid, which ones I should be eating to help reduce the pain.  So she put in a referral for me.  So, I’m going to try it.  My mother thinks it’s crazy.

Tags: alternative medicine, anti-inflammatory diet, wellness, fibromyalgia

Finally, A Reason To Sleep In, Mom!

My mom is one of those God-awful early-risers.  You know, those people who are awake before 5 am and have had breakfast, are dressed, and have read the paper and gotten started on the day by 7 am?  Those are my parents.

The battle to sleep in on Saturday mornings began the moment I turned pre-teen.  Or maybe it was when Saturday morning cartoons stopped being interesting.  I don’t know.  Either way, I always wanted to sleep until 10am or later.  My Mom thought sleeping past 7am was a crime against nature.

Even after I moved out, it was not unusual for her to call me at 8 am and act surprised that I was still in bed.

Now, with me being on the East Coast in the Eastern Time Zone and them being in the Mountain Time Zone.  It actually works out quite well.  I’ve actually called and woken them up a couple of time and had the pleasure of saying, “Oh, did I wake you?”

Anyway, it turns out that catching a few extra zzzz’s may actually help you stay slim.  According to a study of more than 68,000 women presented at the American Thoracic Society meeting in San Diego this year, those who slept seven hours weighed 7 (seven) hours weighed 5.5 lbs less than women who slept 5 (five) hours or less.  Frequent all-nighters may slow your metabolism.

Talk about getting your beauty sleep!  From now on I’m going to tell my mom that I’m getting my skinny sleep.

(Source: Self, August 2006)

Tags: sleep, health, weight loss, wellness, interesting trivia

They Want Me To Eat Green Kryptonite

It’s been a day.

The office is being repainted this week so I’ve been breathing in fumes since Tuesday.  To top it off on Tuesday I forgot to take my morning meds which was like the 3rd or 4th thing I forgot that morning and by that time I really couldn’t go back home again.  It’s been a week of forgetting at least one or two things every morning — stupid time change.

Anyway, normally missing one day doesn’t really affect me.  Missing two in a row is a nightmare.  Well, apparently those days are over with the new blood pressure medicine.  Or it could have been the Italian food I picked up on the way home.  Who really knows at this point?  The real point is that Tuesday night I started feeling sick to my stomach and completely bloated, like stick me with a pin or I’m going to explode bloated.  I cradled my throw-up bucket all night and despite taking my usual night meds, including the ambien, I didn’t get any sleep — and no I don’t think that it had anything to do with being anxious about the elections — and really, what’s with Mainers?  Why wasn’t any money spent on getting Snowe out and why do they love her?  I don’t understand.

But I digress.

So, Wednesday, I was exhausted but feeling less queasy.  I ended up going home early and went straight to bed.  I kind of slept for about 12 hours, but I had the runs so there was a lot of getting up and running to the bathroom.

Today I felt rested and not quite so queasy or “runny” but still bloated and thanks to the paint fumes, I’m feeling like a nice migraine.  Yay.

But that’s not all.  Today I went to meet the GI Specialist.  We discussed my condition, my history, what’s going on, etc.  He thinks it might not be IBS or IBF or Crohn’s or colitis or whatever the previous doctors have labeled me with or whatever is trendy these days.  He thinks there might be something wrong with my stomach muscle.  He said it sounds like my stomach muscle might not be squeezing properly and digesting properly and food might be hanging around way too long in there which would cause the bloating, gassiness, acid reflux, 90% constipation/10% diarrhea episodes.
So how do they determine if this is the case, you might wonder.

Well, they feed you radioactive food after you’ve fasted for 4 hours.  Then they take x-ray pictures every 30 minutes of your insides to see how fast your stomach and digestive system processes it.  Yum.

Having fed on the Green Kryptonite before (only it was white and chalky and tasted very, very nasty no matter what they claimed), I’m fairly sure it’s going to be an unpleasant experience about 4 - 8 hours later.

In the meantime, he wants me to start taking the Prevacid twice a day since it isn’t really working completely anymore.

This would be o.k. except that when I went to get the prescription filled since I’m out of Prevacid, it turns out that my insurance doesn’t agree with the doctor.  It thinks I should only have 30 of those little pink and black capsules in a 30 day period.  Prevacid apparently isn’t cheap either.

Since tomorrow is a holiday and it’s late in the day, I now have to wait until Monday to call the doctor’s office and see what they can do to straighten it out.

The good news is that my BP was only 106/70 a week after switching my med so my mother can stop harassing me about getting it checked.

Tags: wellness, acid reflux, stomach emptying test

Work-Based Wellness Incentive Programs — Yay or Nay?

Back in 2003, USAToday.com had a story about the rising cost of insurance and how this could and would probably lead to employers taking a personal interest in the health and wellness of employees in an effort to find ways to cut costs — not because they genuinely like you, though that might also be the case too. Who knows, right?

They’re offering wellness assessments that ask about vegetable and alcohol consumption, smoking and exercise. They’re tracking lab tests and prescriptions to predict which workers may fall ill. Some employers are offering bonuses for keeping cholesterol in check. A few are penalizing smokers or those who don’t wear seat belts.

Personal responsibility is the latest buzz.

“The secret of health care is not passing along costs to employees. The secret is asking employees to take control of their health,” says Howard Leach, human resources manager for Logan Aluminum in Russellville, Ky., where workers get an additional $200 a year for voluntarily filling out a health risk assessment.

[…]

Yet many question just how far employers should go in offering incentives or disincentives.

Should smokers be charged more for their health insurance as an incentive to quit? What about coach potatoes, fast-food addicts or those who enjoy high-risk sports?

“There are a number of consumers saying, ‘Why should my health insurance premium cover people who have made the choice to smoke?’ ” says Peter Lee of the Pacific Business Group on Health, a coalition of employers. “But … you get on a slippery slope. Where do you stop?”

Privacy is also a big concern. Most employers say the programs are voluntary, and they don’t review individual data. But consumer advocates are skeptical. Even new federal privacy laws may not cover some programs.

“People should be nervous about giving information about their health status to their employers,” says Robert Gellman, a privacy consultant in Washington, D.C. “It may be perfectly reasonable, but the questions to ask should always be: ‘How will the data be used? Who will share it? How will I be helped by it, and how might I be harmed?’ ”

Lawyers say some programs could run afoul of federal law if they discriminate against workers with health problems, say by charging overweight workers more, or if they single out pregnant workers for treatment that differs from those who are not pregnant. Requiring seat belt use, however, may be OK if the requirement is clearly spelled out in the health insurance package.

[…]

As yet, most employers have preferred the carrot approach — incentives to stay healthy — rather than the stick: fees or disincentives for living an unhealthy lifestyle.

“I see companies taking an approach of trying to put incentives toward involvement in (health) programs,” says Alan Spiro, a medical doctor and consultant with benefits firm Towers Perrin. “In terms of charging people more if they smoke, I haven’t seen that in any kind of widespread way yet.”

He says incentives that encourage people are best. “You don’t want to punish people for bad health,” he says.

But some say bad habits should be targeted.

“Automobile insurance rates rise appropriately for those who won’t drive responsibly, and life insurance is more expensive or unattainable for those who have high-risk behaviors,” writes John McDougall, a doctor and nutrition book author, in a January opinion piece on the Web site Health Leaders. “Why not apply the same standards for health insurance?”

While some agree with promoting greater individual responsibility for health, they say McDougall’s ideas currently will not fly.

“The reason is we have a society that says this stuff is not within my control,” says Kelly Victory, vice president of medical operations at Whole Health Management, a Cleveland-based firm that works with employers to create on-site medical centers and wellness programs.

“We live in a society where people sue McDonald’s because they are overweight,” she says. “Until we adopt a society where people take personal responsibility for behaviors, we won’t be successful in employing that type of incentive.”

Still, give it another year or two of double-digit premium inflation and employers may try anyway.

“It’s been politically incorrect in health care to charge more and to ask people to take personal responsibility for unhealthy behaviors and practices,” Victory says. “I think that’s going to change.” [“Employers get nosy about workers’ health” (USAToday.com]

Our health insurance is actually charged currently based on whether or not we are smokers.  It’s been that way the last two years.  My understanding is that it’s been that way for much longer than that.  I work for a rather larger, very well-respected hospital.

This year, we’ve been notified that our 2008 insurance is going to go up a lot.  Not just the usual expected two to five or so dollars per year it’s  been going up.  They haven’t said how much but apparently, it’s going to be nightmarishly high.  To compensate, they’ve set up a wellness incentive program that could lower our 2008 insurance.  I’m not quite sure I understand how exactly each incentive counts toward lowering the cost.  Here’s some examples:

• 5 Points for filling out a risk assessment
• 5 Points if you’ve seen your GP between Oct 1, 2005 and Oct 1, 2007
• Variable Points added for age and gender appropriate screenings like cholesterol, blood pressure, pap smear, dental exam.  (This seems kind of unfair.  There are more female appropriate screenings on the list than male.)
• 3 Points if you complete 9 weeks of a 12 week Weight Watcher program.  (Again this is unfair.  Weight Watchers only accepts people who need to lose 10 lbs or more.  Skinny people do not benefit from this  incentive.)  Oh, and they’ll give you a $50 rebate voucher.
• 3 Points if your body mass index is less than 25.  Muscular people will never be able to get this.
• 2 Points if you always wear your seatbelt.
• 2 Points if you get the flu shot.
• 5 Points if you complete a 6-week class on managing your health.
• 3 Points per class up to 2 classes for attending wellness or health education classes
• 1 Point for completing WebMD’s Online Stress Assessment
• 1 Point for enrolling in WebMD’s Online LEAP Fitness Program.
• 1 Point for completing WebMD’s Cardiovascular Health Assessment.
• 1 Point for completing WebMD’s Online Nutrition Improvement Program.
• 1 Point for completing WebMD’s Online Back and Neck Assessment.
• 1 Point for completing Fall 2006 Physical Activity And/Or Nutrition Program.
• 1 Point for completing Spring 2006 Physical Activity And/Or Nutrition Program.
• 5 Points can be earned for seeking treatment for various chronic conditions like diabetes and depression and for quiting smoking too.

I can’t find anywhere on the website or in the rules what these “points” really mean or how they lower my insurance.  I’ve also looked around on the website.  There’s places to enter my “conditions”, but once I’ve entered them I’m not really sure what it does with them.  I did notice that once I’ve entered my medication, it will show me alerts about my medications when new information comes out about such things.  I haven’t figured out where to enter where I’ve accomplished any of those things on the list of things I can do to earn points either.  The website is way too complicated.
So, here’s the worry.  I know that a third part is running and maintaining this website that’s tracking my “conditions” and medications, but how do I know that my information isn’t getting back to my employer?  (Ignoring the fact, of course, that my employer is also my healthcare provider and I work in the IT department and I know that we regularly run reports against employees’ names to make certain that employees aren’t accessing employees’ health data inappropriately — a fact I’m sure of because I have to report when I have tests run or hospital stays so such reports can be run and I know who runs the report.   And it’s one of the reasons why I was so impressed with this IT department to begin with. ;)  However, ignoring what I personally know…)

After all, it was only last year that Weyco instituted a policy that employees couldn’t smoke not only onsite but ever.  The owner did this due to rising insurance costs and he does test for tobacco usage.  If you test positive, you can be fired.  Michigan law doesn’t protect smokers from this kind of discrimination.

But some workers wonder how far it might go, if one day your boss might instruct you to eat all your veggies or go home without pay. [“Smokers Need Not Apply Here” (CBS News)]

One of my co-workers is quite incensed by the whole thing.  Well, of course, he’s one of those people who’s not happy unless there’s something to be unhappy about, but that’s just something else entirely.  I wonder if he doesn’t have a point, but I haven’t made up my mind yet.  Basically his attitude is that he feels that we should get paid for doing our job.  Lately, he complains a lot about other people not doing their jobs.  He seems to think that the incentives and the rewards are payments for things that don’t involve actually doing our work and that some of the hubub surrounding the rewards programs is distracting people from *gasp* doing their work.

Like this latest thing.  E-mails and fliers have been going out and up about the new program.  Without even looking at it in detail, I was turned off…and I like healthy eating, but it sounds stupid.

“Colorful Choices”

Colorful Choices is a healthy eating program with a fun, color theme. Your goal is to eat at least 5 servings of produce (1 from each color group) each for 56 days.  Easy-to-use online logging and tracking tools provide instant feedback and positive reinforcement for your accomplishment.

By the way, I couldn’t find anything about it when I signed on to the actual online tool, though supposedly it starts today.  (Oh, and you get 1 Point if you log 42 of the 56 days.)

Anyway, I haven’t decided if these incentive programs are a good thing or a bad thing.  I think they have the potential to be either good or bad.  And, yes, it bothers my paranoia a little that my employer is getting a little pushy about my health.

What do you think?

Tags: wellness, incentive programs

How To Find Real Health Websites

There are a lot of websites on the web offering all sorts of advice to anyone searching for help and relief with real health concerns from hiccups to cancer. How can you tell which websites are the real deal from the ones that are snake oil salesmen or just random chit-chatters thinking they’re helping by offering their own version of advice?

1. Stick with recognized authorities. Sites run by the government, which end in “.gov”, universities, which end in “.edu”, professional medical associations or health insurance companies are good sources.
2. Read the “About Us” section. If it says something like “I was diagnosed with cancer,” it’s not as reliable as the sites mentioned in #1.
3. Look for a way to contact the organization. If you can’t easily find one, be suspicious of the site. (A good rule of thumb for any site, actually.)
4. Avoid websites that claim to evaluate your health problems online for a fee. You’re unlikely to get an accurate diagnosis without being examined by a doctor in person.

Source: Woman’s Day, May, 30, 2006, p.20

Tags: Wellness, health websites

2 Specialists Down, 1…or 2 To Go

It’s official. It’s a relief to know that I have two diagnoses and two treatment plans now.

The kidney biopsy results apparently led to both diagnoses.

IgA Nephropathy

It’s an autoimmune kidney disease, as I said. The Nephrologist said the prognosis is very good. We have caught it very early — though probably I had it 4 years ago when I saw that Nephrologist who didn’t really run any tests and just dismissed me so I could have caught it even sooner. My kidney functions are still excellent and don’t appear to be damaged yet. She is changing my blood pressure medication to one that will treat both my blood pressure and the IgAN. Unfortunately, this will have to be monitored for the rest of my life at the very least annually if not quarterly to watch for deterioration of my kidneys. Worse case senarios are total renal failure and kidney transplants.

Fibromyalgia

The Rheumatologist is now convinced that my consistantly high SED rate is the result of the IgAN as he’s eliminated everything else it could be in his arsenal and the kidney biopsy proved it’s not vasculitis. He’s given me the official diagnosis of Fibromyalgia and is requesting that my GP increase my sleep med dosage (b/c she prescribed it) and is prescribing water exercise therapy, which I now need to see where my insurance will cover sending me to. Again, I have to go back in 3 months. Unfortunately because of my kidneys, I cannot take any alleve, advil, or asprin to help with the soreness in my muscles or the pain in my hands.

The frustrating thing is that for the most part, there’s not a lot to change from what I’m doing. Just make sure I get more and better sleep at night and get some exercise, preferably water-based since regular exercise aggrevates the muscle pain. Weight loss will also help but without exercise I possibly can’t lose any more without starving myself.

Next Up

I’m seeing a GI specialist next week finally who I’m supposed to discuss the lack of Gallbladder surgery and possible IBS and acid reflux issues. Good timing as the Previcid seems to be no longer working on the acid reflux.

And the GP wanted to wait until after the kidney biopsy to send me to some sort of pulmonary work-up regarding that persistant cough I’m still having, though not as bad or frequent. I’ve got to try to see her next week about a flu shot too. Oy.

So, there’s good news and lots of moving forward finally! Yay!

Tags: IgAN, fibromyalgia, GI specialist, kidney biopsy, SED rate, rheumatologist, nephrologist, blood pressure, wellness

One Diagnosis And A Trip To The ER

Well, yesterday, the Nephrologist gave me a diagnosis about my kidneys. Apparently I have IgA Nephritis, which is an autoimmune kidney disease. I don’t know much about it except that I’m taking the wrong blood pressure med for it and that she’ll be changing that to something that will treat both my high blood pressure and the IgAN — apparently high blood pressure can be caused by kidney malfunction. I’m seeing her on Nov. 2nd to get more details.

However, she did say that IgAN is not the cause of my muscular soreness/pain and many of the symptoms that sent me to the doctor in the first place. (I did see that IgAN does cause fatigue though.) So, I’m back to the drawing board there.

Also yesterday, I ended up in the ER where the Nephrologist sent me after I complained of pain in my kidney area that kept me up all night the night before. Tylenol just wasn’t doing anything and they’ve banned me from anything like Alleve, asprin, advil, etc. The pain was radiating across my back and I was feeling queasy. She wanted to get a cat scan of my kidney but the hospital refused to “fit me into it’s schedule”, so she sent me to the ER, which meant that I got a cat scan of my kidney at the hospital plus some blood work, but it took all friggin’ afternoon. I was starving when I left.

It turns out I have a hematoma, but it’s just the hematoma I had as a result of the procedure that they knew about and didn’t tell anyone. It’s actually smaller now than it was the day of the procedure. They think what’s happening is that my body is just getting around to re-absorbing the hematoma which is why the increased pain. So…they’ve given me a prescription for Vicadin, told me to put heat on it 4 times a day to speed up the process, and call my doctor on Friday if I’m not feeling better…oh, and rest a lot.

So, now I’m at work, about to fall asleep at my desk with a bunny-shaped heating pad stuck to my back…

And it still hurts.

Tags: IgA Nephritis, ER, autoimmune kidney disease, hematoma, health, wellness

The Good, The Bad, & The Deficient

I keep trying to remember that each test that I go through is about data elimination, but to be honest, when the Rheumy’s nurse called this morning and told me that my CT-Scan of my lung from Friday was also normal, I got teary. I really did almost start crying in dispair. She sounded quite sympathetic on the phone. That must be difficult for a nurse to have to sympathize with a patient because the tests came back without finding anything wrong.

So we still don’t know why I get short of breath so easy, but they didn’t see any cancer or anything big and bad.

I just would like some sort of hint, you know, as to what’s going on in there. Why is it that today all of my fingers were numb? Why do my hands hurt holding the steering wheel? Why do I sometimes get leg cramps just watching t.v.? Why did my foot go to sleep when I walked to the corner yesterday? Why does it hurt to hold my arms over my head? And why is it that some days, everything’s fine and dandy?

The nurse for the Kidney Spec called today too. Busy day. Apparently my bloodwork came back for them and I’m low on Potassium which they were apparently frowny about.

Now we’re getting somewhere, I think. Anyway, I actually have a prescription for Potassium now of all things.

So, I’m a curious person and I get to wondering about why I would need a prescription for Potassium. What could result from a Potassium deficiency in a persons body?

(It’s interesting to note that if you Google “potassium deficiency symptoms”, there are far more links to articles about plants than people…)

Well, looking around, I do have some things going against me.

• I take Hydrochlorathiazide for my blood pressure and apparently that’s a diuretic. Diuretics can accelerate the removal of potassium from the body. Hmmmm.
• I drink a bit too much caffeine. That’s a naughty.
• I might not be eating enough high-potassium foods like beef, fish, leafy greens, tomatoes, oranges or bananas.
• Plus, I have those weird GI issues.

And wouldn’t you know it? Symptoms can include muscle weakness, myalgia, headaches, mental confusion, slow reflexes, depression, dry skin, and even hypertension in some cases. Hmmmmm….
This is definitely all something to keep in mind.

Tags: potassium deficiency, myalgia, CT Scan of the lung, wellness

Wanted: One Nag

Okie…I feel like I’ve been through the ringer the last 36 hours, but I at least have a final-ish schedule for all of those tests and procedures that seemed jumbled up into one week or as my boss put it — “Looks like your taking a full sampling of all that [our hospital] has to offer…” (I’m going to be visiting all three of the big complexes.)

Anyway, for those who are keeping track (and I hope someone is for me :P), the brain MRI is on Monday morning, the CT of the lung/chest is next Friday afternoon, and they have kindly scheduled the kidney biopsy/hospital stay for Oct 19th-20th so my mom can be here to spoil me and the grand-pets and she can still be home to celebrate my dad’s big 65th birthday next Tuesday.

Hopefully something will come out of this, even if it’s an elimination of possible diagnoses.  I had a long session with my shrink last night and she reminded me that this is really about “data gathering”.  It’s important to gather as much data about what’s going on in my malfunctioning body so we can determine what’s wrong and start either working on the cure or at least working on making life livable.

Really, I just want to get to the diagnosis part so I can get to a treatment part.  If I just had a remote with a fast forward button for my life…

For someone who relies heavily on routines to cope with life, all of this erratic testing is stressing me out. :P  It’s bad enough that people keep rearranging my weekly work meetings, but all of this sudden running over to the hospital for bloodwork and changes in my schedule due to doctors appointments are really throwing me off.  Seriously, I need a personal assistant to keep track of everything. :P  Writing everything down and keeping them in my Palm Pilot isn’t enough.  I need a “Nag.”

Preferably one who vacuums and changes the litterbox.

Tags: wellness, kidney biopsy, CT Scan of the Lung w/ contrast, MRI of the brain, Nag, personal assistant, diagnosis

Totally. Freaked.

So my visit to the kidney specialist has left me completely freaked out.  All of my doctors have done such a good job draining me of blood already that there was very little apparently for her to do.  We’re jumping right to the big procedure.

Kidney biopsy.

A biopsy is a sample of tissue collected from an organ or other part of the body. A biopsy can be done by cutting or scraping a small piece of the tissue or by using a needle and syringe to remove a sample, which is then examined for abnormalities, such as cancer, by a doctor trained to look at tissue samples (pathologist). [webmd.com]

A percutaneous kidney biopsy is done by inserting a long needle through the back (flank) to remove a sample of kidney tissue. The tissue sample can then be sent to a laboratory and examined under a microscope to help a doctor determine the condition of the kidney and look for signs of infection or other diseases. [webmd.com]

Ouch.

The procedure itself apparently takes about 30 minutes, but then you have to lie flat on your back for 8 hours to prevent things like bleeding into the kidney or the muscles or your lungs.  The doctor said I would have to stay overnight at the hospital.

She wants to do this next Tuesday or Wednesday.

So, I’ve already called my Mommy and asked her to come back.  She’s talking to my Dad about it.

I’ll need a sitter for Pugly, someone to cover me for on-call…

Did I mention that they don’t put you under when they’re sticking that long needle in you?  The doctor said they can give me some valium to keep me calm.  Basically, you’re awake and you have to hold still.  Why?

What am I going to do for 8 hours lying flat on my back in a hospital room?  I bet they don’t have any good cable channels and I bet they don’t have high speed internet.

Did I mention fliggin’ long needle?

Tags: kidney biopsy, needle, valium, wellness

Malfunctioning

I have just spent 10 days with family, which means that pretty much except when I was asleep, I was interacting with people without a break.

What that really means is that there were witnesses to my increasing “brainfog” as I call it.

It’s been kind of easy to hide it at work by simply staying mostly in my cubicle and since I don’t actually have a social life, I haven’t really had to face it outside of work.

But the final straw for me came yesterday when I nearly started crying in frustration when it took me a few minutes to describe what a “clothes rod” was — that long metal tube thing in the closet that you hang clothes on –  to my mother because I couldn’t think of the word “rod” half way through the sentence.  It’s such a simple, every day word and there are so many simple every day words and I’ll be talking along and suddenly it’s as if they’re just gone from my mind, out of reach, vanished.  It’s like walking into a room and forgetting why, except that I do that a hundred times a day with words when I’m writing or talking.  I’ll just be typing or talking or thinking along and just stop in mid-sentence.

And there was my mother trying to guess what word was supposed to come next like it was a game show…what word logically would come next and I’m saying, “no….no…no…” and my tone is getting more and more frustrated as I’m frantically trying to find the word and then trying to find the right words just to describe the simple word I can’t remember — that long metal tube thing in the closet that you hang clothes on.  And I was truly on the verge of tears because I knew this was something everyone knows.  I felt stupid and angry and helpless.
Later that day, when I took my parents to dinner at The Outback for an early celebration of my father’s 65th birthday, they handed me the check and all I had to do was figure out the tip and total and sign my name.  For a math minor and computer science major, someone who wrote computer programs in her head for fun and aced college accounting because she thought it was enjoyable, figuring out the tip and total should take seconds…right?

Except there I was staring at that little piece of white paper with the gray-black print and those four numbers and their decimal in the middle and they just looked like a jumble to me.  I was frustrated again and I tried to explain as I tried to find paper to do the math on.  My CPA father thought it was amusing as he did it in his head, but my mother had the courtesy to say she was starting to be worried about me.

For me, it was kind of a wake up call…having witnesses.  It was scary.

It’s one thing for my body to betray me but my mind is something I’ve always prided myself on.  Thinking about it, I began to realize that these sort of things have been going on a while and getting more and more frequent, but I’ve been trying to ignore them, hide them, pretend everything up there was o.k.
So, after some talk with my doctors this morning, they me for a MRI of my brain next Monday. This of course also means more blood work too.

Tags: MRI of the brain, brainfog, wellness

The Latest On My Personal Health Crisis

Saw the GP yesterday morning because I’vd had this nasty persistant cough now for a month.

Found out that no one’s happy with my Pulmonary Function tests from last week and that it indicates that my lung capacity is down or something, which is what I’ve been trying to tell them.  I mean, I think telling them that I’m out of breath just walking up the stairs in my house or down the block is pretty much the same thing.

Anyway, they can’t really proceed with any good testing until they they can do some x-rays with contrasts apparently, which they can’t do until they find out something from the kidney specialist, who insists he can’t see me before Oct.5th.  The GP finds this unacceptable now that everything else is on hold.  Apparently, she’s going to call him and try to get me in sooner.  We’ll see how that goes for her.

In the meantime, I’ve got a nifty inhaler to try to help me breathe since the cough medicine wasn’t doing anything for the cough.

Oh, and the GI specialist can’t possibly see me before November 9th.  Lovely.

Is there a doctor shortage in Maine or just too many sick people?

Tags: wellness, inhaler, pulmonary, kidney specialist

A Personal Victory

SQ pointed out something to me this afternoon.  She said that in my personal life, I tend to avoid conflict by waiting for things to happen to me rather than causing things to happen.  For example, I should have left my old job long before the axe came down or I tend to stay in unhealthy relationships and put up with crap way longer than I should because I’d rather not rock the boat and actually stir up shit myself.

So, she said while N2 might not realize the big deal that my sending the email to her last weekend was, SQ realizes that it really was a big deal for me.  I hadn’t thought about it that way, but she’s right.  It was quite an accomplishment for me.  I wrote that email because I was tired of the status quo and I thought that the relationship was unhealthy and heading in an unhealthy direction for me.  Rather than let it continue, I faced the fact that there might be conflict…and trust me, the fact that there is unrest does bother me…the fact that there’s someone all pissed off because of me kind of eats at me.  I prefer to have everyone happy happy joy joy.

I guess I need to accept that not everyone’s going to be happy with me all of the time and in the end, I’ve got to do what makes me happy most of the time, which sounds selfish, but I don’t think I do it enough.

So, I’m giving myself a pat on my back, literally.

Tags: wellness, therapy, depression