Pancreatitis Continua

Fed Up With Belly Problems

A disappointing week for me.  The pancreatitis continues to plague me with stomach pain and a particular kind of headache you get with pancreatitis plus my struggle with dehydration continues.  My leg problems persist and Dr. SassyPants who was so optimistic a month ago is now not optomistic at all.  I am going to delay my appointment with Cleveland Clinic because I am just not well enough to travel by myself, and my driving assistant who was going along is not able to drive this next week either. 

I was feeling very ill Monday, stayed home Tuesday with some severe pain and nausea went to the ER Tuesday night - found to be dehydrated, finally got fluids and got home around 1 am Wednesday (arrived at the ER at 3:30 PM Tuesday).  My lipase levels were normal which was good but I needed liquids.  Doctor orders were to go home, rest, TAKE my pain meds, take more nausea medication for at least one more day, and if it still persists go to my regular doctor. Already feeling dehydrated again this evening, even trying to take in more fluids.  Took the oxycontin and my other meds, just feel sick in an odd way.  I've had pancreatitis make me feel this way before.  Sigh. Last time it was this bad it took eight months to resolve.

The Headache has been on the edge of taking off  maybe because of the headache I get when I have pancreatitis.  It is sticking with me well past the hospitalization - not sure why - and it is over the whole head, just worse on the left side.  The fluids last night helped some of the pain, so it might partly be a dehydration headache also.  The inability to eat is sticking with me well past last week also, not feeling too whoopy without any real food either.  Very tired yet can't sleep, except when I try to do something that needs my complete attention (like driving) then I can't stay awake.  I think my mind is in Reverso land, everything the opposite of what it should be.

Dr. SassyPants plans for my treatment disappeared Monday.  I was rather stunned, but again he has probably read the eval by the physical therapists by now, and I reported that the epidural actually seemed to make my legs worse (weaker - having problems getting up from squatting or sitting on the floor) and my urinary incontinence much worse.  He suggested yoga or aqua therapy to keep me limber, and when I said my concern was I was to be at a hospital site in August and wanted to be able to stand and do the work even with the travel he said not to count on being able to do that.  In fact he said I may not be able to do much of anything soon with The Legs, since problems have seemed to accelerate this year. 

He encouraged me to see the pain management doc and get evaluated for a spinal stimulator to see if it can help the pain. He said no more epidurals, and did not mention the botox in the piriformis muscle again. I am upset and at a loss, because it seems I am back to square one again - except it is three years later from the first time I tried to get help and the disability is much worse.  No return appointment - just a referral to a book on pain and how it effects your body - not sure if I need a book on that - think I already know too much about it already!  Guess it means you are not going to get any better by any means of modern medicine.

I missed my appointment with the pain management person Monday because I was befuddled and forgot (Dr. SassyPants through me off my stride and the dehydration was starting to make itself known) I rescheduled for Wednesday and missed that because I have been very sick today.  Hope I can make a third appointment and keep it.

I am sick enough tonight I can't think very well, and am just doing this post so I can take up some time without thinking about hurting - but then what do I write about but how much I am hurting.  Doesn't make sense but I am feeling very confused.  A dark cloud is hanging over me the last few weeks.  I actually broke down and cried for a while yesterday when the pain was at it's worse.  I am not sure what to do, and as confused as I am not sure I should even be trying to make plans until I feel a little better.

On a side note, the Skunk eradicator device just turned out to be a Skunk Amusement device.  My sister watched two skunks stop and look at it - they seemed to bob back and forth looking at the little red motion detector light, then popped it a few times with their hanneypaws, milled around, stood on their back legs and swayed to the rythm of the red lights, then went right back into the hole under her porch.  She said it was like a little video game for skunks.

Diana Lee has posted her blog carnival for this month, and it is a great source of information about summertime and migraines.  Check it out at Enjoying Summer Despite the Heat at Somebody Heal Me.  Great advice in many of the posts about how to handle being out in the summer time heat while suffering from migraine disease.

Buzz Kill - Occipital Stimulator No-No

WeedEater from Hell

Tried weed eating my yard this weekend in order to help out with the maintenance.  I used a gas powered weedeater rather than my light weight wimpy cut one blade of grass at a time regular electric weedeater.  I was only able to get about 15 minutes of weed eating in until The Headache interrupteth.

It seems the vibration from the weed eater completely conked out or negated any buzzing sensation from the stimulator.  Not sure if the same area at the top of my neck where the occipital region is at was being directly buzzed by the little gasoline weed whacker, or if it just confused the nerves in the region, but for about thirty minutes after I realized something was wrong and quit terrorizing the grass I thought I was back in no stimulator land hellacious agony for good.  The pain was as bad as I remembered.  I just tried to breath through it and remained calm.  It did fade, but took several hours to get back to the normal low level I have become accustomed to.  Ouch!

No more powerful weedeating for me.  I may just get some of those children's blunt end scissors and gnaw the grass off with that - it's faster than using my electric weedeater.  Maybe I can just chew it off like my dogs do when they are sick at their stomach - make The Belly behave at the same time!

Overall, feeling better today.  Got some no-fat cottage cheese and new tomatoes from the garden in my stomach and I think the pain is not too bad.  Going to see if I can get by without any pain medication at all tonight.  I am totally caffeine free now for three weeks, so thinking about staying caffeine free for awhile to see if it helps both The Belly and The Headache.

Did what any self respecting woman does when she gets down in the dumps, got a new hairdo this weekend!  I'm adventuresome with hair dressers - rarely see the same one 2x in a row, and almost never get the same haircut 2x in a row - kinda like haircut roulette.  What the hey, it'll grow out in three months anyway!  My hair is very limp and straight and my pictures were starting to look scary with the wacky hair, so it's smooth and sleek and short for a few weeks anyway!  Decided while staring at the ceiling and getting my hair washed that Wal-Mart should dedicate some maintenance workers to clean the roaches and beetles out of the light fixtures in the hair care area - might make you a little more confident on the cleanliness of the food in the store.  I guess you can tell I go to really high priced salons when getting my hair cut!

Took time to shear my poor old dog Bingo so she got a new hairdo too!  She wouldn't let me comb her underfur out this year, maybe just too achy and old, so I cut her hair with clippers.  She was much happier outside this afternoon.  She is definitely a winter loving dog, and summer is hard on her.

I'm tired, but got my work project done - except there didn't seem to be more than one facility in the download I got Friday afternoon, and there should have been two, so I may have more work to do Monday.  Sigh.

My sister said she had a neighbor come by and tell her she had skunks under her house - FOUR skunks they saw run across her yard and under the house.  I found an motion detecting Skunk eradicating electronic high frequency alarm and got it for her, we'll see if that deters the determined Skunk family.  OMG if she had one skunk two years ago, two skunks one year ago, four skunks this year - they are redoubling each year! That would make it eight next year, and the year after that my sister will have to install gas masks for visitors...scary!  Here's hoping the nonlethal skunk screamer will keep them away.  After all - it had a picture of a skunk with a circle and a line through indicating no more skunks!

Tired and Mouse Infested

But At Least I Don't Have Skunks

Today only worked a few hours, and had to decide not to go to my scheduled training session at a client's. It's very disappointing, but I just am not able to suck it up today to go tomorrow (which is today now I guess!).

I'm feeling very very tired, yet I'm unable to sit still because I am very definitely having Belly issues which include pain. That Belly is just a nuisance lately. Maybe I should just get a food magazine and stare at pictures of food and just imagine I was eating something. Eating isn't getting me much except pain, so maybe imaginary eating would just give me imaginary pain!

I heard back from Dr. Gnomes office about my blood test for autoimmune pancreatitis. I officially don't have autoimmune pancreatitis, just stinky old uncurable chronic pancreatitis. Their suggestion (since I did not want to take time off for another ERCP) is to keep eating a low fat diet and taking pain medication. If it gets where I can't bear the pain or feel much worse then I need to schedule another ERCP, although they recommended I have one now.

I am not eager to repeat the ERCP process since I had such a bad allergic reaction last time to the dye they use for the fluoroscope during the ERCP. I'm not sure what another ERCP would accomplish, unless they would stint the pancreatic duct. I don't want the down time for an ERCP either - last time it was a week in the hospital and a week to recover and I came out of the procedure with The Headache so heaven knows what I would come out with this time.

My pain control at this time is inadequate. I am in pain most of the time, and especially bad at night. The perscription for trammadol was just for occassional use, not for the dosages I am taking every day. I made an appointment with my PCP for Thursday morning to see if I can find some other alternative to what I am doing now. If I could get trammadol in time release form (I know they make that) it might give me better control of overall pain.

The Headache is acting up today, and of all things I got pins and needles all down my right side today. It lasted about 15 minutes and is the opposite side from The Headache so would be the side controlled by that portion of the brain. I wonder if its just another new manifestation of The Headache just like the scintillating scotoma I had the other day. I am having more right sided head pain again also. I'm afraid that my trammadol might be creating a drug headache, but it could also be The Headache morphing into something else less noxious. That would be great, so I'm going to keep that thought foremost!

I heard Mr. Mouse again last night. Augie my dachshund mole hunter extraordinaire is ignoring Mr. Mouse. I think he has made some kind of deal with Mr. Mouse not to catch him just like Garfield the Cat in the comics. My sister with the ongoing skunk issue gave me a new insight into my mouse problem - at least I don't have skunks mating and living under my house. She is running a skunk bordello if you can judge by the amount of wild skunk loving you can hear under her office floor! Mr. Mouse is quiet and does not seem to be smelly, so that's a plus. And he doesn't appear to have any visitors which is also an improvement on the skunks.

Rainy Sunday

Blade Runner?

Dreaming of ice skating, skimming on feather thin blades, twisting in the air to alight on tiny tip toe and spinning in the light. Not sure of the meaning of the dream, but part of the imagery was the jagged tips of the skates used to brake and stop. Larger than life, they glimmered in icy silver jackolantern grins of zig zag metal, digging into the soft ice directing my gliding path but failing to halt my frosty dance. Maybe I just need to slow down?? Hard to slow down when you are already just moving at a crawl.

Rainy today and a restful Sunday. Have just slept and sat, doing nothing today. I have not had to medicate The Headache or The Belly today so that bodes well for tomorrow. Going to bed in a few minutes hoping to sleep some more.

Talked with my sister, who has a skunk infestation under her house. If anyone has any ideas on how to get rid of skunks, let me know! We have tried all the tricks we knew of, and my sister is down to either trying to live trap the skunks or kill the skunks. Last winter the lady skunk had wild skunk sex underneath my sister's house and knocked the duct work down and then sprayed because she got scared. Peeyew!! This is the third year this has happened and my sister is pretty sure they are the same skunk family each year. They are nice fat skunks who are used to central heat in the winter!

Ready for a new week. Hoping for a productive week at work and that my electrified head buzzer will keep The Headache at bay.