This year I decided to grow tomato plants from seed (this is my first attempt at real gardening). I started them back in March and now they're taking over my whole kitchen table. This week Charley is working on building me a raised garden bed in our backyard...and I can't wait to get these babies in the ground. I've got six varieties, including two heirlooms. I will also be planting orange bell peppers, two kinds of summer squash (both heirloom), and beets. I can't wait for the harvest!
Sunday, May 15, 2011
The Tomatoes Are Taking Over...
This year I decided to grow tomato plants from seed (this is my first attempt at real gardening). I started them back in March and now they're taking over my whole kitchen table. This week Charley is working on building me a raised garden bed in our backyard...and I can't wait to get these babies in the ground. I've got six varieties, including two heirlooms. I will also be planting orange bell peppers, two kinds of summer squash (both heirloom), and beets. I can't wait for the harvest!
Thursday, April 21, 2011
Bye Bye Gallbladder...
Last Monday, after 6 month of sickness, pain and medical tests, I finally had my gallbladder removed. I'm not recommending surgery...but I'm so relieved to have it gone. I started having classic symptoms of gallbladder disease at the end of August, but was originally diagnosed with an ulcer. Then an ultrasound revealed that I had gallstones in December. But apparently my symptoms were not typical enough and my doctor wanted to run many more tests. Which after months of pain and not eating, all lead back to my gallbladder (see my past entries) which is apparently also lazy, meaning it didn't function properly.So...it's finally gone. And good riddance! The surgery went really well and my surgical team was fantastic (note how they used little hearts to dress my incisions...hilarious!). I came out of anesthesia smoothly and with out nausea (which is not my history with surgery).
The surgery was done laporoscopically, so the pain has been minimal (I just feel a little like I've been in a knife fight) and I was home from the hospital the same evening. The first 24 hours went smoothly, but I ran into trouble on the second night. At about 3:00 am on Wednesday I woke up in terrible pain, nauseous, and feeling like my bladder was going to explode, but not able to urinate (I know, I sound like I'm 80). My wonderful husband rushed me to the ER, where they gave me a chest x-ray and a CT scan to rule out any serious issues like internal bleeding...everything looked fine, so they were able to relieve my bladder (I'll leave the details to your imagination) and send me home feeling MUCH better. Last night we had a similar scare, but by this afternoon I was feeling much better.
All in all, this surgery was worth it (it was really a piece of cake), and I know that before I know it I'll feel my old self again...and I'll even be back to eating my favorite foods again soon...cheese...chocolate milk shakes...pasta...mmmm
Friday, March 25, 2011
A Diagnosis…Sort of
Since my last entry about my health I’ve undergone two more test, a HIDA scan and a hydrogen breath test. And I finally have some answers…kind of.
The HIDA scan is used to map the flow of bile from the liver to the gallbladder and from the gallbladder to the small intestines. It shows if there are any leaks or blockages in the bile dusts or if the gallbladder is sluggish or malfunctioning.
I had the HIDA scan on Monday, and it was one of the more unpleasant tests I’ve undergone, but it wasn’t horrible. First I was injected with radioactive tracers into my bloodstream, then I had to lay on a table inside a huge gamma ray camera. As soon as I lay down I could see an image of my liver on the monitor above my head. The image was basically just tiny white dots clustered together on a black screen…my liver looked like a bean shape cluster of stars in the sky.
I had to lie there completely still until the tracers reach my gallbladder, which took an hour. Once my gallbladder show up on the scan the second part of the test began, and that’s where it got uncomfortable. Next I was injected with a hormone called cholecystokinin (CCK) that makes the gallbladder contract. This triggered the painful symptoms that brought me to doctor in the first place. The purpose of this part of the test is to map how quickly bile moves out of the gallbladder into the small intestines. For me it seemed to go fairly quickly and the test was over in about 30 minutes.
While I was waiting for results of the HIDA scan I went in for a hydrogen breath test. The hydrogen breath test is used to test for Small Intestine Bacterial Overgrowth (SIBO). SIBO is an overgrowth of the good bacteria, which is supposed to live in our large intestines, in your small intestines – it is not good to have it in the wrong part of your digestive tract and can cause many of the symptoms I’ve been experiencing. I was actually excited for this test and hopeful I would be positive for SIBO. SIBO is curable with antibiotics and I found a study linking it to Rosacea, which I also have. In that study, 47% of subjects with Rosacea tested positive for SIBO, compared to 4% of the control population. Of those with SIBO, 95% experienced remission of their Rosasea symptoms with the eradication of the SIBO. Hooray! Maybe I could cure two health problems that have plagued me for years with one ten day course of antibiotics.
And I did indeed test positive for SIBO…I’ve never been so happy to receive a diagnosis in my life. But that’s not the end of the story. Yesterday I receive a call from a nurse in the GI clinic. He told me my doctor had reviewed the results of my HIDA scan and she has referred me to a surgeon. Apparently, my gallbladder is not functioning properly and I my need surgery after all. But here’s the catch, I still haven’t been able to speak with my doctor, so I don’t know exactly what the results of the HIDA scan where or what might be wrong with my gallbladder. When I tried to get a hold of her again today, a different nurse told me I would have to wait to speak with the surgeon. Someone is supposed to call me to set up an appointment with a surgeon on Monday…hopefully I’ll be able to get in soon to see him. This has dragged on long enough.
The HIDA scan is used to map the flow of bile from the liver to the gallbladder and from the gallbladder to the small intestines. It shows if there are any leaks or blockages in the bile dusts or if the gallbladder is sluggish or malfunctioning.
I had the HIDA scan on Monday, and it was one of the more unpleasant tests I’ve undergone, but it wasn’t horrible. First I was injected with radioactive tracers into my bloodstream, then I had to lay on a table inside a huge gamma ray camera. As soon as I lay down I could see an image of my liver on the monitor above my head. The image was basically just tiny white dots clustered together on a black screen…my liver looked like a bean shape cluster of stars in the sky.
I had to lie there completely still until the tracers reach my gallbladder, which took an hour. Once my gallbladder show up on the scan the second part of the test began, and that’s where it got uncomfortable. Next I was injected with a hormone called cholecystokinin (CCK) that makes the gallbladder contract. This triggered the painful symptoms that brought me to doctor in the first place. The purpose of this part of the test is to map how quickly bile moves out of the gallbladder into the small intestines. For me it seemed to go fairly quickly and the test was over in about 30 minutes.
While I was waiting for results of the HIDA scan I went in for a hydrogen breath test. The hydrogen breath test is used to test for Small Intestine Bacterial Overgrowth (SIBO). SIBO is an overgrowth of the good bacteria, which is supposed to live in our large intestines, in your small intestines – it is not good to have it in the wrong part of your digestive tract and can cause many of the symptoms I’ve been experiencing. I was actually excited for this test and hopeful I would be positive for SIBO. SIBO is curable with antibiotics and I found a study linking it to Rosacea, which I also have. In that study, 47% of subjects with Rosacea tested positive for SIBO, compared to 4% of the control population. Of those with SIBO, 95% experienced remission of their Rosasea symptoms with the eradication of the SIBO. Hooray! Maybe I could cure two health problems that have plagued me for years with one ten day course of antibiotics.
And I did indeed test positive for SIBO…I’ve never been so happy to receive a diagnosis in my life. But that’s not the end of the story. Yesterday I receive a call from a nurse in the GI clinic. He told me my doctor had reviewed the results of my HIDA scan and she has referred me to a surgeon. Apparently, my gallbladder is not functioning properly and I my need surgery after all. But here’s the catch, I still haven’t been able to speak with my doctor, so I don’t know exactly what the results of the HIDA scan where or what might be wrong with my gallbladder. When I tried to get a hold of her again today, a different nurse told me I would have to wait to speak with the surgeon. Someone is supposed to call me to set up an appointment with a surgeon on Monday…hopefully I’ll be able to get in soon to see him. This has dragged on long enough.
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