Long time no post

There have been a few times that I've had a funny anecdote to throw in here, like how I've been doing these scaled drawings, and the scale I came up with was a complicated algebraic formula based on the scale I'd used for a larger version of the same drawing, only to find that it was much simpler to simply divide the centimeters by 100 to get the pixels! What are the chances that I just happened to chose that scale the long way!

But I have actually been having a hard time for the past 6 weeks or so. First with the spasms in my shoulder, which still haven't completely healed, and then a stomach virus that seems to have aggravated something more serious-- treatible, but something that requires a GI doctor. I can only eat small portions at a time of the simplest foods 4 weeks after the virus. My primary doctor was out yesterday, but his assistant checked me out and said that whatever was going on was beyond her realm of treating, and that I should see a GI doctor and have some tests done. While she went to try to call the doctor at a conference, the RN came in to talk to me and John about it. She suggested going to the emergency room, because they could do the tests, since it usually takes 2 weeks to get into the GI doc's office, and then he'd send me out to get the tests. I've lost too much weight, and am in enough pain, though, that would be too long. So we spent 5 hours in the emergency waiting room on Friday the 13th until I finally got called back where we sat for another 4 hours between waiting for the tests and waiting for the nurse to come back with the results and discharge me.

I'm kicking myself for not telling them about the esophogeal pain, so that they would do the barium swallow (disgusting! but might have shown something.) But the blood work came out alright, so no infection, and the x-rays came out alright so now blockage or inflammation or pancriatitis (I KNEW it wasn't that! A college friend died from that, but he was overweight, and had had a serious alcohol problem earlier in life.)

They sent me home with a different antacid (I'd been taking Nexium for a year, so it obviously wasn't doing it's job), and another medication to help sooth the cramping or something. It makes me pleasantly drowsy at least for a little while. Hopefully, this will help calm things down enough, so that I can eat enough while waiting to see the GI doctor. Thankfully, the nurse knows a GI doctor that she HIGHLY recommend as being caring and really listening. It is so nice when doctors actually listen! I don't believe the nurse who registered me at the hospital really listened or believed me. I swear he didn't take my temperature, even though he told the nurse who did my blood work that it was done. I did have a slight temperature at the doctor's office, but they recommended NOT telling the ER that the doctor told me to go, but that he said to go if it got worse. Otherwise, they might have told me to come back Monday! Why do things always have to happen on Friday!

The purpose of the visit was to rule out things that the doctor's office couldn't check for, so even though I'm disappointed with the seemingly belittling diagnosis of gastritis (As if I didn't know that there was too much acid present) and unexplained abdominal pain, I guess those 9 hours served their purpose. I'm just disappointed with myself for not mentioning the esophagus and heart burn, but I didn't have that much of it then. Shucks.

The morning is the most difficult. Thankfully, after taking all of my medication and talking to several friends and one of my brothers, I'm feeling less overwhelmed and better in general.

Unfortunately, the long day yesterday, the lack of sleep last night (we got home at 1:30am and I begged John to go get my medication at 6 or 7 this morning) and then a two hour rehearsal, John is sleeping off a migrain before he has to go to the next rehearsal. :(

It's now time for the drowsy pill, so I'll talk to you all later.