Medicine sucks. They can diagnose structural things, and chemical things, but anything functional and they are basically useless. To be fair, scanning organs on a cellular level to tell what's wrong with them is very Star Trek, but one would think they could do something.
I had a CT (structural) following a bunch of blood work (chemical) and an endoscopy (both). The only thing anybody could find wrong with me were some cysts on my kidneys that were so small that ultrasound missed them. One of them had bled a bit, but a urologist assured me that this could not possibly be the source of my pain. The gastroenterologist says he found nothing else on the CT indicating any problem. My general practicioner told me what I basically already knew: medicine can't help me, and I just have to learn to live with it.
A relatively disturbing comment: "I just have to keep you alive until you graduate." said the doctor at the UCR Health Center. I'm guessing it was a joke.
It's not all so bad. My pain is considerably less severe than when this whole thing started, and with a prescription for Donnatol, I am able to manage my pain when it gets bad enough to keep me awake at night. In practice, this has been about 1 night a week. I can eat most of the things I used to, although I'm refraining from pizza and other really bad foods for awhile.
2 comments
Julianna
7/26/2007 at 3:32 PM (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Hey Reuben,
I've been thinking of you and hoping you would update regarding a diagnosis. What a pisser.
Is Donnatol an anti-inflammatory? The only thing that seems to help me when I get the pains is Naproxin (sp) which is an anti-inflammatory.
I went back to South Carolina and my symptoms disappeared after 3 days. I immediately came home and bought a new coffee maker, I keep hearing about coffee and proper filters and that was the only thing I could pin-point. I have still had infrequent tiny bouts of stabbing pain on my lower left but nothing at all like before.
I hate "living with it" as a prescription when I know there is something wrong.
My NP sister thinks I have diverticulitis. The ONLY thing I have not had done is a colonoscopy.
I totally get what a pain (literally and figuratively) it is what you are going through.
I hope you feel better and get completely healthy. Once a week in pain still sounds horrendous to me.
Take care and give my best to Jessica,
Reuben
7/27/2007 at 11:42 PM (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Donnatol, I'm told, is an anti-spasmotic. It's normally given to people with irritable bowel, because it seems to "settle down" the GI tract. Nobody really knows why this helps the symptoms, because it's something functional on a cellular or tissue level. Anyway, it's quite safe to take long-term, and I don't have much choice anyway.
It's interesting that your problems were apparently environmental. I think I've eliminated any environmental causes to my problems, including taking breaks of more than 3 days from work and cutting out coffee, soda, etc. I solve equipment problems for a living, but all my troubleshooting skills haven't helped here.
Thanks for your concern