I have to ask you all something.
I got a call from the student health service with the results of some blood tests. My crit is 32 (no real change there) but the nurse was really concerned about my actual iron count (15, she said normal is >35). Now, I have been on supplements for almost a month and eating whatever I can that has iron in it. Any thoughts?
without looking at the whole group of studies, it’s a little hard to put this test in context, but my first thought is that you really depleted your iron stores and it’s going to take a good long time to build them back. The iron you’re taking now is going directly into RBC production - you needed more red blood cells bad! So once your body takes care of that immediate priority, it can then go to more long-range planning of being able to make RBCs in the future. You can’t make your body change its priorities. Keep taking the iron supplements. When you get to where you’re not anemic, AND you have replenished your stores, you’ll probably be able to switch to a standard level of supplementation such as that contained in a multi-vitamin.
Your Hct rebounded nicely - congratulations! You are probably feeling a little better; don’t let that fool you into thinking you can ease off on the Fe supplement any time soon, though. I hope you can enjoy feeling better for a good long time!
My crit was even better this week – 34.5. That’s the good news.
The bad news is after another endoscopy, the ulcers are not healing and my GU doc wants to ‘present the case to a surgical conference on Wednesday’ to see what they think. I am very anti-surgery. Any thoughts? They seem to be deeper and larger than before. I have a CT scan scheduled for tomorrow. At 7:30 am (it was my sleep in day!). The odd thing is they look worse but feel a lot better, really there is no pain with them at all. Well, maybe a little but really very little.
Ps. I am not sure what this means but I had this dream last night that a little monkey (a spider monkey I think) was chasing me trying to give me a shot of demerol, very strange indeed.
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My crit was even better this week – 34.5. That’s the good news.
The bad news is after another endoscopy, the ulcers are not healing and my GU doc wants to ‘present the case to a surgical conference on Wednesday’ to see what they think. I am very anti-surgery. Any thoughts? They seem to be deeper and larger than before. I have a CT scan scheduled for tomorrow. At 7:30 am (it was my sleep in day!). The odd thing is they look worse but feel a lot better, really there is no pain with them at all. Well, maybe a little but really very little.
Ps. I am not sure what this means but I had this dream last night that a little monkey (a spider monkey I think) was chasing me trying to give me a shot of demerol, very strange indeed.
Hey Alison,
Non-healing ulcers are one of the indications for surgery. I know that you don’t seek out the knife but sometimes, it might be what you need. See what you doc has to say and then get a second opinion before you do anything.
Natalie
Yeah, they said they would have the results from my ct on Wed or Thurs so they are going to call me after they talk to the surgeons. I hear what you are saying but really want to give the medication a little longer to work.
Rachel,
Sorry to hear that you are having such a time of it this semester. I know how being ill can really get you behind. Take care of yourself.
Kathy
Thank you for that – it has made this hard semester a little harder. The waiting for tests results is making me crazy!
Alyson
Alyson,
OOPS got you mixed up with Rachel. 
I know you are both in the same vicinity. You had red hair. See I do remember. Hope you’re feeling better
Kathy
No worries!
One funny thing has happened of late. I have been getting tons of advice and offers of help from random places. The guy at the pizza place has some ulcer remedy from Slovenia or some place. Someone else gave me a book with the ‘lemonade diet’ to cure them (why does putting nothing but citric acid in my already upset stomach not strike me as the best plan?). I appreciate all the help and support but some of the remedies have made me laugh (a good thing for sure!).
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No worries!
One funny thing has happened of late. I have been getting tons of advice and offers of help from random places. The guy at the pizza place has some ulcer remedy from Slovenia or some place. Someone else gave me a book with the ‘lemonade diet’ to cure them (why does putting nothing but citric acid in my already upset stomach not strike me as the best plan?). I appreciate all the help and support but some of the remedies have made me laugh (a good thing for sure!).
Try beer!! It may not help the ulcers but it’ll kill the pain for a short while.
Disclaimer: This post was made in jest. At no time do I actually recommend, suggest, or prescribe alcohol for medical conditions.
Funny you mention beer, I had a Guinness last week because it has a lot of iron! I have read they give it to blood donors in England and I’d be willing to bet you’d get a few more blood donors here if we got that rather than juice after. (It actually has less alcohol than other beers).
Now, I am not sure this is true so maybe our friend studying across the pond can tell us?
So the thought now is I need to have this ulcer laproscopically removed as it is so much bigger, thoughts?
I almost posted this earlier but thought it was a TMI thing but then thought what the hell…
Ended up back in the ER on Monday night because I threw up some blood. My count was ok so they released me with the instructions to follow up with my GI doc. I called him on Tuesday morning. He called me on Wednesday morning but I missed the call so I called back. Long story short, atfer trying to get through all week, it never happened. When I finally got a GI doc to talk to him his response was that there is nothing more they can do for me medically and I am now surgery’s problem.
My main problem with this is I am really scared and upset that an ED visit didn’t warrant a phone call back, which just compounds my fears about what kind of follow up support I can get at Georgetown, am I totally crazy on this? Anyone know any other GI docs?
Adding more here feels very self indulgant but writing about this makes me feel better (I have always found typing to be very soothing).
Was back in GTown hospital last week with more bleeding and the GU doc and surgeon were convinced I needed surgery. The plan was to do another EGD and see – they wanted to do it in the OR to save time but I was uncomfortable with the idea of going to sleep not knowing if I was going to have surgery. They opted to do the EGD in the edoscopy suite and found the ulcers may finally be healing. I am convinced they would have gone ahead with the surgery if the EGD had been done in the OR (just my opinion) and I am glad they didn’t!
I have not seen the pictures from the most recent EGD but have decided I need a new GI doc and have an apt with one next week. This whole experience has been very educational – people at Gtown treated me a lot better when they heard what I am studying.
I just wanted to once again thank you all for being supportive and helpful througout all of this. I feel like I have been really whiny – this is the first time I have ever had a sickness last thing long so I am sorry if I have been complaining or whatever.
No, no, to qualify as “really whiny” you’d have to call me up every day and say, “My kneeeee hurts. My stommmach huuuurts. Bring me ice cream!”
And you don’t even have my phone number. I remember all too clearly how much the universe sucks when you’re dealing with pain and illness. You’ve been fine.
Hey, it sounds like things are improving? I hope so! And don’t worry about whining–just hang in there. Keep us posted.
You’re planning on applying to med school this summer, right? Wow–it doesn’t seem like more than a few months ago we were all in DC, and were talking about just starting organic chem or whatever. And now more and more of us are applying! Yay!
Thanks. I feel really whiny and annoying. I also hate calling people with “I am back in the hospital.” HATE IT! Your support means a lot.
Hey there,
You can’t be objective when you are the patient. Be whiney but most importantly, get well. It’s a funny thing, the real pain in the a-- patients don’t contact you when they should and feel like they should be able to “tough it out”. Well, there are things I WANT you to whine about. When you stop whining, I start to get pretty worried. Nothing makes me happier as a physician than to check out a patient and find nothing. I would rather see you than not see you when I should be seeing you.
Just remember that your future patients are going to have all sorts of empathy from you because you have gone through this experience. While it’s not fun at present, it will get better. You are very wise to pay very close attention to what you body is telling you and yell very loudly if things aren’t going right.
If you whine too much, I will bring you cheese instead of flowers.
Natalie
Thanks for that – I appreciate it and keep telling myself that this is a good learning experience. Am going to see a new doc for this on Wed – just don’t feel that the communication between me and the current GI doc is what it should be. Hopefully it will get better.