Health Report...

Report on my health: I’ve promised some of you an update, so here goes: I have been on antibiotics and a bladder astringent for one month and will be for five more months. So I haven’t had more symptoms of the chronic UTI and should be OK until we get home. I have had overwhelming headaches for six weeks or so. Taking analgesics three times wasn’t cutting it. I attributed them to allergies since they are in the area of my sinus. We accidently discovered I was reacting to the poinsettias. Since those are now gone the intensity of HA’s has decreased but not gone away. When I went to the doctor for my abdominal pain, she noted that my heartrate is pretty low. She feels like that with my height and the high altitude here, and a low heart rate, that might be a cause for the overwhelming headaches and fatigue. She wants me to see a cardiologist. I’m not completely convinced… Besides what would I do? I’m not getting a pace maker put in while I’m in Guatemala and probably the problem can be resolved at a lower altitude. Besides, I still think the allergies are a big part of it and when I get home I will resume my allergy shots to boost my immunity. The other taxing problem has been severe abdominal pains—especially after I eat. Sometimes I have nausea, but not all the time. I was pretty sure it was gall bladder. She sent me for blood work and an abdominal CT scan. It confirmed the gall bladder problem. Dr. Cifuentes says I can wait until I get home to get it out. That was a relief. The radiologist and Dr. Cifuentes both think I should have an endoscopy, because there may be scar tissue or sutures or something from surgery 26 years ago. I’m OK with doing that. It isn’t scheduled yet. In the meantime, she gave me a prescription for a pill to take before breakfast and supper. It seems to be helping, so the pain is lots less and not as frequent. So, that is VERY good news. Just a funny side note: More than half of the radiologists comments were about my back, [OK, so I have rotation, scoliosis, arthritis and degenerative discs] which of course showed up in the CT scan. I have lived with that for all of my adult life, so that is old news and not what I wanted addressed. Dr. Cifuentes was looking at the film and commented, “Hermana, your back is very… (long pause) impressive!” I just laughed and said, “Yeah, I know—it is nice to be impressive in SOME area. I’m including a picture of my bruises. The lab had used my only good vein. So when they needed to inject dye for the CT scan they tried twice on my left arm and twice on my right wrist. Pretty impressive bruises, but they don’t really hurt. I’m just glad they got it in! So… bottom line, back is the same, abdominal pain is decreased and manageable and headaches are better than they were, but still there. I can live with all of it and will just keep soldiering forward! Onward Christian Soldiers!!! PS: You better all be praying for me to come home safely or Spencer might bring home one of his "girlfriends" in the pictures from last week! :)