Health Problems

I am officially done with chemo. I threw the towel in after 11 months when walking up 5 steps made me feel like I climbed up 5 flights. CT scan results today showed about 50% shrinkage from start to finish. It went from 7cm x 4.5cm down to 4cm x 2cm. And I'm down about 50 pounds thanks to the keto diet that I'll be sticking with. I'm pretty happy with the results and my doc is even more happy. Back to monitor mode and a scan every 4 months.

Whelp, blood in the toilet today. Either my diverticulitis is back or I've got colon cancer. What's worrying me this time is no tummy pain.. Appt at the gastro on Thursday..

Getting old sucks.

I got the most definitive diagnoses yet. 3 doctors finally agree. It's two things. Not good. MS and systemic lupus which was throwing off the diagnoses since they share a lot of symptoms. Also learned lesions from MS and systemic lupus can't be distinguished. Had a seizure Sunday night.

I'm sorry man. No one wants to diagnose shit there's no treatment for until it's the absolute last possibility. But if you got the mask it's hard to say there's much doubt.

And blood without pain isn't great. Cancer is a possibility. It's not the only one, but it's on the list.

Camera in the butt time.

Eat a lot of corn the night before.

My wife is having a mass on her thyroid biopsied soon. The ultrasound showed that it was partly fluid and partly solid, which increases the chance that it's malignant (though statistically it's still most likely benign). I know thyroid cancer is very treatable if caught early but it's still a terrible feeling to just wait and hope.

Doesn't help that the doctors offices are inept at sharing data so scheduling the biopsy has taken almost a month even with her calling every day.

She was told that the office that had done her ultrasound forgot to attach her scan results to the appointment request, so the doctor kept declining the request each time they faxed it over. Unfortunately, nobody had the brains to actually communicate the issues to each other so the first office kept mindlessly sending over the same request and the second office kept mindlessly declining them. At no point did the two offices bother to communicate with each other despite as I mentioned my wife calling them every day asking for updates. The scheduling office just kept telling her that these requests should always be processed within 24 hours and they just couldn't figure out why she wasn't received in the system yet.

Just venting a little bit because a bunch of idiots working in healthcare are potentially delaying diagnosis of a condition where time matters. Almost tempted to see what kind of action we can take besides complaining. Hopefully it's benign and it just costs us some stress, but it's insane that between insurance approvals and scheduling hold-ups she can't get a doctor to actually look at her without a month of fuckups and jumping through hoops.

I'm cautious to say I've actually felt "halfway" decent this week. I got out and did some exercise and walked a few miles and did some light weight lifting. My doctor got my Copaxone prescription changed from 7 days a week injection to 3 which is the same equivilent but more expensive. Only recently did they come out with a generic that more insurances would cover. The name brand one was $3500 premium to go from 7 days down to 3 days. Now the generic is covered. There have been a lot of changes just in 5 years. Before when I took interferon I had to pay for it and at that time it was hard to find a insurance that would cover it. Now it's covered, but I have no plans to take it. 6 years is coming up with no new lesions and no MS medicine for most of tha time. That's one good sign.

For lack of a better phrase. I think I'm actually having a nervous breakdown. I'm going to the mental health clinic in the morning.

Borzak said:

For lack of a better phrase. I think I'm actually having a nervous breakdown. I'm going to the mental health clinic in the morning.

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I had one last year when my health went to shit. That's why my Dr. Put me on Cymbalta/duloxetine. Fear of death comes at you fast, bro.

Borzak said:

For lack of a better phrase. I think I'm actually having a nervous breakdown. I'm going to the mental health clinic in the morning.

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It ain't easy, what you're going through.

iannis said:

It ain't easy, what you're going through.

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That I understand and I think I can deal at least on the health issues. Other issues now.

There's a chance my ex from 25 years ago was doubly upset her fiance was dying of pancreatic cancer. I go next week for a blood test. Possibly he was raising my daughter. It's all above board. My wife knew about her and our past together. I know she flat dropped off the face of the earth for a while. I don't know. We shall see. When we sat down and talked about getting a blood test she did produce a legal document signed by both her and her daughter that they were making no legal claim. I don't know how legal something like that would be. At this point it really wouldn't matter either way. Blood out of turnip now. She never once said "I'm sure it's yours". I just want to know, and my daughter mainly wants to know.

We shall see. My wife is taking it much better than I thought possible. She knew of me and her when we started dating way back. She's also met the woman several times over the years. Being the redneck that I am I never once asked about the father and neither did my wife. They were making it OK from all appearances. Her family is very well off which I assume didn't hurt. Sadly my first thought if true she needs to have a long list of medical test for possible things that can be genetic.

Well, cancer averted for now.

Had 5 polyps removed, four 5mm buggers and a juicy 1cm one. Also diverticulosis in sigmoid and descending colon. Now I gotta get scoped every 3 years. Guess it beats colon cancer.

Ah, well, I can see how that would be a mindfuck.

50 years ago you would have had to guess. There's a relatively simple paternity test that the two of you can do to answer the question these days.

Heritable disease is probably on the top5 list of things that should go through your mind when confronted with a grown child you didn't know existed. It's not about money, it's not about roping you into some responsiblity... that decision was made 25 years ago and you weren't consulted. That's the power that women earn through bearing children. Her dad is whoever raised her.

But for this girl medical family history IS relevant. It's not gonna be like some hallmark movie. You'll probably talk to her a little bit... you've both got reason to be curious of one another. But you're not gaining a daughter out of this, you're gaining a personal introduction to a young person. Who you may or may not even like, and who may or may not even like you.