Feeling Good

Just an update with what's been going on with everything...I have actually started to feel better the last week or so. I have been calling Dr. Smith every week and letting him know how I'm doing. He hasn't really known what to do. First he increased my prilosec dose, which I think helped some but I was still having lots of other problems. I had a couple bad nights where I was in a ton of pain and the pain pills I had didn't do a thing. Sometimes I see Dr. Smith at the hospital when he's on call and one day he had me meet him at the 3rd Floor nurse's station and he gave a prescription for stronger pain pills right there (that's right, I know how to work the system). :) Anyway, then he put me on prednisone (of which I'm not a huge fan). He had me start with 40 mg for 2 days and then taper down, but I really didn't see a difference at all. He said he never has this much trouble with pouchitis. So he had me go back to the 40 mg, only this time for 10 days. I'm on day 4 and I feel SOOO much better! I can't believe it. It's a little scary though because I have bad memories of never being able to get off prednisone. Before I had surgery I took it for a year because every time we would try to lower my dose, I would get sick again. Then I dealt with all the bad side effects like bloody noses, poofy face, cravng junk food, grumpy mood, down to my adrenal glands in my kidneys failing and landing me in the ICU. Hopefully I will be able to get off of it quickly and I will still feel good. But it has been really refreshing to be feeling better.

On another note, I went to an Ear, Nose, Throat doctor in Twin the other day. I have been wanting to go to one for a long time and figured that since I've met my deductible that now was the perfect time. Dr. Smith referred me to him. His name is Dr. Mayes and I was really impressed. He had me get a CAT scan of my sinuses, and then let me go right back and talk about the results. Apparently I have a really deviated septum, which was nice to know. Also some other stuff up there is too big and making it so I can't breath and feel congested all the time. He said he could do surgery and I would definitely breath better. He couldn't guarantee that it would help the sinus headaches, etc. though. But I think it would be worth it to just be able to breath (although I hear sinus surgery is pretty miserable). I've always thought that most of my problems were related to my sinuses themselves, not allergies, but he said some allergies could be contributing too. He said he wasn't going to tell me what to do, but he brought up the fact that it would be a great time to do the surgery since I've met my deductible (it starts over in April, which is a bummer). So I scheduled it, but as I was thinking about it I decided it wouldn't be a good time. We are really swamped at work right now. The only day I could do it was March 31st (because of other people being on vacation, my brother coming to visit from Boston, etc), but that meant I would miss the first week of April. That is when I am supposed to start working 5 days/week and one of the other dietitians will be working more hours at the cancer center. Plus I'm planning to go see my brother in Boston in April for a few days, and I don't feel like I could take time off for both. To add to everything, my boss announced a couple days ago that she is leaving and her last day is March 25th, so we might even be out of a boss at that point if they havn't found someone new yet.

Friday I called and cancelled the surgery and Dr. Mayes' nurse is going to call me on Monday and let me know if he thinks we should do anything else in the meantime (allergy testing, etc.) I had allergy tests when I was in like 6th grade, but I guess it wouldn't hurt to do it again. I'm just tired of having a sinus headace every day of my life. So I will for sure do the surgery, but probably not until like July, when we've moved to the new hospital and can take vacations again, and have a new boss, and things have hopefully settled down. This week I've been dealing with a bad cold and cough, and today I don't have much of a voice. My boss sent me home early on Friday, I think because she was afraid I was going to get everyone else sick. I hope not...I would feel really bad. I feel like I catch everything that goes around and have it worse and for longer, but I guess that comes with a messed up immune system. :)
Anyway, I feel like things are looking up and I have had more energy. I have been staying very busy with church activites and hanging out with friends and family. Sorry if this rambled a bit, but there it is. :)