Appointment updates

Jacob's appointment went well. She thinks he has somehow managed to hit his eye with something and hit the vein. I'm supposed to wait a month, and if there is no improvement by that time, we'll see a specialist. Whew! He does have the start of some allergy problems, so she gave us some allergy meds for that.

My appointment was ok, I guess. He listed to the blood flow over my thyroid gland and has determined, based on the bruit he heard and my bloodwork, that apparently my thyroid is putting out not only the antibodies for Hashimoto's, but for Grave's disease as well. Nice, huh? He can't do anything for me right now. We have to wait for my stupid gland to decide which way it is going to go. He believes that it will go to hyperthyroidism for a short time, and then finally settle into hypothyroidism, at which point he will be able to treat me. Right now, my thyroid gland is pretty inflamed and tender to the touch. He said the only thing he can do for that is steroids, and the risks outweigh the benefits quite a bit...so a no go for me. So, basically all my crap symptoms are just going to have to continue for who knows how long. I left my appointment more frustrated than I was before.

The good news I suppose is that even though my BP is up at their office and at every other doctor's office I go to, at home it is averaging 115/70, so he is happy with that part. I know my doctors never believe me when I told them it isn't always up. LOL My blood sugar 2 hours after eating was 92, so another good thing....and that was after having pasta for dinner the night before and my 15 grams of carbs in the morning. And despite his look of disappointment, I did lose 3 pounds. I know it isn't much at all, but given the fact that I had only been on the diabetic diet for 3 weeks and Thanksgiving was thrown in there too, I really don't think that was awful.

Sooo, that's my update. I get bloodwork this month, go back in May for more bloodwork, and then two week after that I will have another thyroid ultrasound and appointment.

Not much else to report. I'm working on my next kit and a collab kit for S2B. Can't wait!

Changes

Ahhh. A week of changes.

First, I have made th switch to Blogger Beta. So far, so good.

Secondly, I resigned from Scrapbooker's Playground. However, the same day I signed on at Scrap2Basics. It is actually the new site that I was chosen to be on the CT for. LOL The other designers are wonderful, and I think I will learn quite a bit by being there. Pamela Gibson, whose CT I am a member of, is also a designer there. Pretty neat, huh? I am so excited about designing with these ladies and can't wait to get the details of my first collab kit. :)

So, I also have a brand new kit, "Sweet Elena". Wanna peek?



We have a busy week ahead. I have bells on Monday, an endo appointment for me on Tuesday, a TRU sale function to go to on Thursday night, and Friday will be two field trips and Silas' work Christmas party. Thank goodness for weekends, huh? I'm going to need it after this Friday!


Jacob's right eye has got something going on with it now. He looked to the side a few nights ago and I thought he had something in it. I pulled his eyelid down a little bit and he looked to the left. He has this really dark and large looking vein in it. It almost looked at first as though he had a large piece of string in there, but it isn't. I asked if it was hurting or itching...nope. Did he hit it or poke it? Nope. Did someone else hit or poke it? Not that he remembers. Does the light bother him...doesn't appear to. So, my first thought is that something maybe flew into it. Silas had an eye appointment a few months ago and didn't know he had a piece of metal in his eye. There were no signs of it at all that he noticed, but the eye doc mentioned there were veins growing towards it. So, I am wondering if this is what is going on. I brought him to my parents' house yesterday to make sure I wasn't overreacting and that it does look abnormal, and they weren't sure what was wrong with it either. So, if it is still there on Monday, I am making an appointment with the ped to see about getting a referral.

I told him this as the plan and he quickly went to the living room and just sat quietly. I asked him if he was ok and he started crying, telling me he is scared. I don't know what to do about his fear of the doctor. He is petrified. I held him and explained that doctors make a promise out loud to other people and to God, "First do no harm". I explained this means they are supposed to do their best to help people that are sick and do their best to not hurt them. We talked for a little while about it and though he is still very scared, I think he understands that they are not trying to really hurt him. This is one reason we are waiting until Monday to make an appointment. I want him to be seen by our regular ped on Tuesday. He has built a trust with her, and after the last time I brought him in and the new ped sprayed his ear, well, I think we need to do our best to stick to who he feels most comfy with. My heart breaks that he is so fearful that they will hurt everytime he goes in. :(

Anyway, I am off to get some more work done before bed. :)

My poor tooth

If you read this blog back in March or so, you might remember I had some issues with my teeth. I worked up the nerve to get into a dentist (I am SERIOUSLY afraid of dentists due to a bad childhood dentist) and had a couple of fillings done. One was temporary and I was told I would either need a root canal or an extraction and told the prices. There were no pros or cons given, just prices, and I have put off making a decision with all of the other medical junk going on.

Monday, while Silas was out of town, I bit down while eating and the tooth with the temp filling actually broke. In one corner, there was no more tooth. I cold actually see nothing but the filling there. I wasn't having any pain, but I freaked out nevertheless, because I knew this would mean another visit to the dentist. I was trying to wait until after the first of the year when I would not only hopefully have the money to get it fixed, but also know exactly what is wrong with me medically. I call my dentist office and the woman that I spoke to was so incredibly rude about the situation. Basically, once again, I was given my options of root canal or extraction, and once again was given my prices for each. They wanted $800 for JUST the extraction, and then according to her I would need to have the tooth replaced with something. This option would run me anywhere from $1600-$2400 depending on whether I got a partial or an implant. The root canal and the build-up and crown would total about $1600-$1800. Oh, and no payment plans for any of these options...the most they would do is split the cost into two parts. And you know we have that kind of cash growing on the tree in my backyard like they do, right? Ugh. I was in tears because I was forced to make a decision before any pain would start and I had no clue what to do since neither option was truly financially feasible for us at this time.

So, when I talked to my best friend, April, that same day, she reminded me that she got her wisdom teeth taken out by the School of Dentistry at the University of Florida. I was willing to drive if necessary, so I spent the next day researching my options. Turns out they have a local dental school here in town that I never even knew about. I called to find out how I could get in and was told I would for an emergency visit, which this would be considered, I would need to be in line by 7:30 in the morning and hope and pray I was one of the first ten people or so to ensure I would be seen.

I made it to the dentist yesterday morning by 6:30 and was the third person there. The first guy, Dr. W., took my pressure and it was 160/103. Ha! I wasn't scared or anything. Yeah right!

They sent in a guy with an extremely thick indian accent to talk about the x-ray and go through the two options I already knew about. I told him that I knew my options and nobody has wanted to give me pros or cons to each, so I didn't really know which would be better. So, he uses dental talk to explain to me and I still couldn't understand half of what he was saying. Something about knobs and removing something, but that was about it. He finally leaves telling me that the guy will explain it again when he comes in to work on me. Silas was actually in the room with me and couldn't understand anything being said either.

So, Dr. W. comes in and goes through the options explaining thoroughly and answering all of my questions. I asked about the whole replacement bit since my other dentist said I would need it done. He said the second molars are basically bonus teeth and if it were a first molar he'd probably say yeah, but it isn't necessary with the 2nd molars and did not have to be taken care of right now. So, I guess that means that my lovely dentist truly was just after money, which is pretty stinky.

Once I made my decision to have it extracted and Silas left, I asked Dr. W. how bad it was goign to be. HE told me if I could tolerate the sights and sounds then it wouldn't be bad at all. Now, after getting me lying back and he and the other guy are basically trapping me I hear him tell me not to worry if I hear a lot of cracking noises because it is perfectly normal. OH MY GOODNESS! NOW they tell me! ACK! They had a lot of trouble getting it out because my wisdom tooth was actually pushing on the molar, which is something he warned might happen. They were having to call for tools they didn't have at their station. LOL I had warned them that the other dentist had trouble numbing me for the fillings, so he said just let them know that I need more anesthetic, which they did have to do in the middle. The tooth pretty much sectioned itself in the middle of them loosening it because of how weak it was. The wisdom tooth is actually visible now, and he said there is a slight chance that it might just grow in and occupy the space. The only major concern this causes is that I may eventually have to lose the top 2nd molar on that side because it might shift a little bit, but no biggie according to him.

So, other than the fact that he dated my pain prescription for today instead of yesterday (which thankfully the pharmacy called and got changed), I would recommend the dental schools to anyone. They were incredibly nice and straightforward in answering my questions. They were as gentle as they could possibly be in this situation.

My mouth was absolutely killing me last night. I am allergic to NSAIDS (Ibuprofen and the such) so they gave me a prescription for Vicodin. I took one pill and it zonked me out for three hours. When I woke up it was past time for another pill, so I went ahead and took it at dinnertime. We had spaghetti and my child-sized plate full took me a good hour to eat. LOL I guess it must have been too slow to eat with the med since I was extremely nauseous the rest of the night. I had to stay in bed in order to get it to be bearable, and my head was hurting worse than my usual migraines. I woke up at 3am and surprisingly my mouth felt fine. I still had a killer headache and decided against taking another Vicodin and instead took my Excedrim Migraine. Awesome stuff! I feel almost back to normal this morning.

So, that's it for now. I have to update on Jacob's ENT appointment sometime soon. For now though, I am off to go to garage sales with my mother, aunt and a couple of cousins. Should be fun!

Finally! My endocrinology appointment

Ok, he went by the blood test and ultrasound results from back in April. That was BEFORE my dietary changes and the huge changes in my cholesterol and such. He has no idea what those results were showing, so everything we are doing right now could completely change after my bloodwork later this month.

I am a pre-diabetic, which I knew. My thyroid is 1 1/2 times the normal size (the goiter) but he wants to repeat the bloodwork for all of that before deciding what to do. The nodules that showed up on the ultrasound are small in size, common, and sometimes not really nodules when you are dealing with Hashimoto's disease (an autoimmune disorder that runs in familes and my mother happens to have). He is in agreement with my primary doctor that this is likely something I have, and it explains why before when I was placed on Synthroid that I would flip flop between hypo and hyper thyroidism. From what he said, if I were a normal person (yes, that is what he said ROFL) then when they would give me the Synthroid my body should have used what it needed of the hormone and then stopped producing any extra, but my body did not. So, mine would simply keep doing it and this caused the hyper-thyroid results. The reason everything balanced out with my pregnancies is that the baby is half dad's genes, so therefore it helps to control my levels and symptoms. Since I am no longer having pregnanices, my body is giving me issues again. Further testing will prove it one way or the other, but the reasoning made perfect sense when he explained it to me.

He did a thorough exam, including some quick neurological testing. I passed with no problem. He checked my goiter well, and then we talked a while.

He believes I have Metabolic Syndrome in addition to the thyroid autoimmune issue. He is basing this on the extremely high cholesterol tests (again, before my changes were made), the high glucose test readings, the way my weight is distributed (mainly my belly seemed to be an issue though I am huge all over). He has put me on Metformin, which is a drug they use for diabetics, but have found it helps people like me. He described two other drugs that we may eventually use as well. This one is supposed to have weightloss as a side effect, but my mother said it never helped her any. LOL Guess we will see. He said that this would help explain why I didn't lose any weight just from the diet changes. He also cleared me to exercise again, so hopefully that will help, and as he mentioned could be a factor in that as well.

I go in next month for a dietician consult and then the beg of Dec I will have another appointment with him and I guess he will decide what to do about the thyroid at that time.

Just before he left he asked about that weird liver test that the lab did and that my doctor never ordered. He said it came back abnormal and that it is a test for cirrhosis of the liver, but at the same time my liver function tests were normal, so he was really quite confused about that as well. He mentioned repeating that test, but they didn't mark it down on my lab slip. I may call to ask about that or wait and see what he says in December.

I think that was about it. Not really anything I didn't know already, and like I said, everything could still change after I get the bloodwork done in a couple of weeks. Of course, the meds being added was new too.

More medical issues arise

I took Jacob to his late 7 year check up expecting for some reason to have it go smoothly like Elena's 2yr did on Tuesday. The only concern I felt needed to be looked into was his hearing.

So, we go in and we talk and I mention the hearing as a concern. She listens to his chest and says that he has a slight heart murmur, but because of the way it sounds she feels it likely is nothing to worry about.

Then next she tells me Jacob had some blood in his urine and so they are going to send it off for more tests because the hearing and kidney problems could be connected. I was sitting there in shock. I don't know what the heck has happened to my routine and quick planned visit at this point.

So, we talk some more throughout the visit about his development and if there are any other concerns I have and I said other than the hearing not really. She asks him questions throughout, and when she gets to the actual ear part of the exam he starts shaking uncontrollably and tears start streaming down his face. He was petrified and I have no idea why other than the fact that he has always had a fear of doctors. So I hold his hand throughout the rest of the exam.

Next thing I hear out of her mouth is "How does he do with other kids? Does he play with toys normally?" I explained that I knew what she was getting at because I have an autistic child, and though Asperger's has been at the back of my mind with Jacob, I also realize that autism is a social disorder and he does not have problems with social skills with other kids...Is he petrified of doctors? Heck yeah, but other kids he is fine with. I even explained how he did at art class yesterday and how he gets along with everyone except his brother. I told her I do see where there appear to be signs and have felt something is going on with him, but because of his social skills I figured the hearing was what could be causing it.

She said she can tell I am intuitive and that I know the warning signs to look for and though the social areas are ok he may still be somewhere on the spectrum since he does have some of the signs and there is a sibling on the spectrum and it tends to be a hereditary link in most cases. However, she wants to rule out all other organic reasons for the hearing problems before jumping into a psychological eval. She said the good thing is at least I know what services are facing us if necessary in the future since I have already been this route.

So, needless to say I am a bit concerned about my sweet guy. We are having his hearing tested at the ped office on Thursday and will get the results of the urinalysis then as well. I'm trying so hard not to worry, but this was a bit shocking to say the least. I've done a good bit of crying today.

To top it off, on the 21st is Cassidy's appointment and I am dreading it something awful, because I do have some concerns. She has always been ahead of the game and is also showing some signs of being on the spectrum. I don't know what in the world we will do financially if I have three kids on the spectrum, because therapy is expensive and we just found out yesterday we are having a change in the insurance as of November. So, any prayers you guys can spare will be gratefully appreciated more than you can know.

Sorry that this probably was jumbled and made little sense. I'm still trying to wrap my mind around everything myself.