Well haven't blogged in a while - not since seeing my old doctor again, and the discovery of Akathisia. Having seen my old doctor who performed my major bowel resection in 2000 was fantastic. She ordered a small bowel follow through on March 11th (that was fun).
The test requires drinking 3 12oz bottles of thick barium, while having standard x-rays and live x-rays highlighting issues in the bowel. I have issues drinking the barium oral as I always vomit it. This time the barium was administered via NG tube (tube down the nose into the stomach) in hopes of getting in in and keeping it down. The first 12oz went down - they x-rayed and waited 15-20mins to administer the next 12oz. The next bottle went down but didn't stay down - lost about 13oz. Luckily they were still able to see a fair amount of barium in my bowel. Finally the last bottle was administered and stayed down. The tests lasts until the x-rays show the barium as traveled through the small intestines and gets to the beginning of the colon. It took 4.5hrs for it to reach my colon which is a very long time. I now had to wait until April 23rd to see my doctor again to discuss the results and what to do next.
After seeing the doctor and discussing the results which showed narrowing it was decided it would be a good idea to have the GI scope me and then some exploratory surgery. My doctor personally called the GI I had seen once who informed me my doctor was back in town. They decided working as a team would be the best situation - which is great. This past week the GI personally called me and he assured me that they were going to take care of me, and work on getting my quality of life where it should be.
I can not tell you how much of a relief it was that he personally called me, and the conversation we had. I felt such a relief and joy speaking with him ...that finally making progress - moving ahead and proactive! I get scoped on May 7th and will know more after that. I appreciate everyone's concern, support, advice, and shoulders. I am in pretty good spirits - focusing on these awesome doctors working together and for a light in the tunnel again. I also can not express enough how much CDSN helps keep my spirits up. Waking up and knowing I am a part of such an incredible community is truly cathartic; thank you.
All my best to all,
Jason
