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Monday, February 16, 2009

HEALTH ISSUES



For those of you who don't know, lately my husband has been suffering from some health issues. A few months back he was having severe heartburn & indigestion to the point where he was barely eating anything at all because everything he ate was causing him pain. He finally went to the doctor about a month ago & his bloodwork came back positive for a bacteria called H. Pylori. This bacteria develops in the lining of the stomach & can lead to yucky things like ulcers, gastritis, & even cancer in some cases. They put him on prescription-strength Prevacid to ease his indigestion & heartburn as well as a combination of antibiotics to try & eradicate the bacteria.

He's been steadily losing weight because even though he's been taking medication, his stomach is still very sensitive to anything that basically isn't bland. So it's been a monotonous diet of plain chicken, plain potatoes, plain toast, plain eggs, not really anything of sustenance. This past Wednesday he had an appointment at the Gastroenterologist to get an endoscopy just to check for ulcers, abnormal cells, etc. in his stomach. The scope came back clear...they couldn't see anything wrong with his stomach at all but they did schedule him to have a look at his gallbladder.

Well, by Friday he was in such pain that he hadn't eaten anything but toast & pretzels for the past 3 days & had lost 6 pounds in that amount of time. He was so sick that we ended up going to the ER that night around 8:30. They immediately hooked him up to an IV to give him pain meds & anti-nausea meds while they ran blood tests. Most of the tests had come back by midnight & none of them were showing anything out of the ordinary, but there was one test we were waiting on that had been "overlooked" in the lineup. They finally got the results from that test & it showed that his electrolytes were low so they had him give a urine sample. This confirmed that he was pretty dehydrated & they started him on fluids right away. This went on until the last test came through around 4am & they finally came back & said there was nothing else they could find wrong other than his dehydration. So they gave him a couple prescriptions & released him to go home.

This morning he had an appointment for an ultrasound on his gallbladder to check for gallstones. Alot of the symptoms he's been experiencing seem to be linked with the gallbladder problems we've been Googling lately, so we've been worried they would find something in there. But he just called & told me that they won't let him know the results for another 3-5 days. So now we're playing the waiting game. Hopefully this week when all of his latest test results come back we will get some answers.

It is just so frustrating to watch him suffer after being the epitome of a strong, healthy, young male for so long & not have any way to help him. And it's scary to watch him lose so much weight that his wedding band falls right off his finger & not have any clue what's causing all of his problems. So please pray for us that the doctors will find SOMETHING that they can at least diagnose & treat so that he doesn't have to suffer any more.

1 comments:

Mrs. Rebekah Simon said...

Goodness! It sounds so so serious. I will be praying!