Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Pleased to meet you...

won't you guess my name.
After five long, stinky, painful, gastrointestinal distress filled months I finally went to get a second opinion. Dr's Weaver & Miller had made the diagnosis of Celiac, and it seemed pretty close. Being that I do not want to give up bread, pasta or beer I opted to go with a little more in depth medical expertise.
I got the call from the doctor's office that I needed to call back to speak with the doctor. OK, no problem, something is amiss. At least now I can pin it down. Well I call and am told I am positive for Helicobactor Pylori bacteria. Well at least I have a name for the proverbial face. The shit of it is (no pun intended), that is akin to walking on a Ford dealership lot and the dealer pointing to the lot and saying there is your new Ford. WTF!?!? Which one? What does it do?
I do not even know if it is a live and thriving bacteria, or if it has been in my belly for years. Supposedly H Pylori causes/predicts ulcers. I have no symptoms to suggest that. To make things worse the past two days have been bad GI days for me. Pain, bloating and repeating like a howitzer. I can not believe I am looking forward to having fiber optic tubes inserted and threaded through the old upper and lower openings in the near future.
There are a few other values that are mucked a little high, that may or may not be additive and point to other things. That is for the specialists to figure out. It has been five full months already, another month surely can not make matters worse.
I will say this. I am sick and friggin' tired of being sick and tired.
On another truly depressing note.
It takes, on average, ten years for someone to get correctly diagnosed with Bipolar disorder from disease onset. One in five people with Bipolar disorder will commit suicide. These are the fun things I learn and get to speak about every day.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

ooo... h. pylori - I used to work and study a little with Dr.Katherine Baker at Penn State Harrisburg - she's one of the foremost researchers in the world on h.pylori. the bug is very, very small, and is found in well water around the globe. she's trying to figure out how to eliminate it. it lives in your stomach and attaches itself to your stomach lining...it releases urea to protect itself from the acid in your stomach and that messes with your stomach lining. well, I'm sure you've learned all of this. get well Mike!