Main » November 2005
November 30, 2005
A balancing act with Pepto Bismol
Well, the diarrhea and I have reached a fragile truce with the assistance of Pepto Bismol the past two days. The Asacol medication does seem to be reducing the inflammation in the colon and this was a pretty good day at school. We watched a video on the brain and reviewed the chapter material with a Jeopardy game. Afterwards we played with the biofeedback monitor after a discussion about the role of hormones in producing anxiety. I am a firm believer that students learn best when they are allowed to use their imagination and 'play' in class with various demos. The interest level in this chapter on the nervous system has been high and I hope they do well on tomorrow's exam.
The rosacea is still in remission! It's good to not have to worry much about flushing, especially with the other health problems I've been dealing with lately. I'm still on the Topral beta blocker and religiously use the anti-redness Eucerin cream each morning. That's been the extent of my dealing with rosacea for the past week.
Posted by at 07:14 PM | Comments (5)
November 29, 2005
Give me a D, give me an I, give me an A, give me
What does that spell? DIARRHEA! Yea!! Yep, the big "D" has been my companion for the past three days. I've been off of the antibiotics, I've been carefully monitoring my diet and taking probiotics, and nothing much helps. Last night I finally tamed it with loparimide an Pepto Bismol by 3 AM. All was well until this evening when it hit again. All I can figure is that the colon is still inflamed and this is my body's way of dealing with it (not a great way, if you ask me). So more loparimide and Pepto Bismol and things have settled down somewhat by 9 PM. I sure hope it doesn't keep me up again tonight as I really could use the sleep.
Today we wrapped up the chapter on the nervous system. I gave the kids an informal I.Q. test whic led to a discussion of what exactly this type of test measures and the limitations of this test. We then had a discussion of Eastern philosophy of the relationship between mind and body, chi, and other aspects foreign to Western science. We had a great discussion of a comparison of the two philosophies along with possible validation of some aspects of Eastern philosophy. We concluded with a brief set of tai chi exercises. The kids were fascinated by all of this and it had the desired effect of getting them to think outside the box about the nervous system for a few minutes. The class ended with a little pop quiz on the nervous system. Surprise!
Tomorrow we will end the chapter with a review followed by watching a video on the brain. This chapter is a fun one for the kids as well as for me.
The rosacea is still in almost complete remission. I have a small number of facial vessels that show up but almost no redness or flushing.
I have an appointment next Monday with the gastroenterologist to get the results of the colon biopsies. Other than the diarrhea the colon conditon is somewht better. The tenderness is less now so the medication may be helping with the inflammation to some degree. Things are certainly not well down there but it's a great deal better than it was 2 weeks ago. I'll take what I can get at this point.
Posted by at 06:06 PM | Comments (0)
November 26, 2005
Disabling Colitis
I've been on a medication for colitis called Asacol for the past 5 days with no improvement. This is an antiinflammatory and it's supposed to take 1-2 weeks before any improvement is seen, according to the literature on the internet. I still have cramping, burning sensations in my colon and diarrhea. I'm off of the antibiotics now but I just can't see any change for better or worse now that I'm through with these. It's very discouraging knowing that the colon is still inflamed after all of the antibiotics and the liquid diet. I hope that the biopsy will tell something when it comes back in a week or so. I have the feeling that this may be an autoimmune problem that will not clear up with conventional medications. Surgery will probably be the only hope to get rid of the bad section of colon. My main fear is that I won't be able to make it until Christmas to get the resection while I am off for Christmas break. If I have another major flareup or abscess I may need emergency surgery as a 2 stage process. This means I will be wearing a colostomy bag for a couple of months before the final repair. I don't know how teaching would be possible with the bag in place. The potential odor and visual grossness would make it very difficult to keep the attention of a group of high school students. In that event, I am at a loss of what to do. I am very frightened of this possibility since it would make teaching almost impossible. I've tried so hard to stay in teaching through all of this nightmare. Sometimes life is not very fair.
I slept until 11 AM this morning. My wife Karen went into Petco to volunteer for cat adoptions at Goliath and Bebe's World rescue group. I joined them for a couple of hours and helped out but had to leave early due to cramping and burning. I felt so bad at having to leave early. There were some cute cats who were needing good homes and I couldn't do my part to help them. Somethng has to change soon because I am not willing to have my life ruled by this disease any more. It has wrecked my teaching schedule and volunteer work.
Posted by at 06:52 PM | Comments (0)
November 22, 2005
The CAT scan, hospitalization, and colonoscopy
Sorry for not posting lately, but the past weeks have been insane. I went in for an abdominal CAT scan for the diverticulitis. When I got home the phone was ringing. It was the gastroenterologist's office telling me to go to the emergency room immediately and have myself admitted into the hospital. The doctor met me there and told me that I had an abscessed colon and a large area of microperforations that were thankfully sealed off. I was pumped full of antibiotics for a couple of days with no real improvement. Then test results came back showing that I had picked up a secondary staph infection that was resistant to almost everything. They broke out the heavy stuff then, vancomycin, and put me on that for 3 days. I improved enough to send me home with three antibiotics, including a new one that cost $1800 for a 2 week treatment.
I was still pretty weak, but managed to return to school for a few days. This Monday I went in for a colonoscopy. He found one small polyp and removed it as well as segmental colitis inflammation which he biopsied. Today I felt pretty good teaching and had more energy than I've had in awhile. The gastroenterologist has called in a new prescription today for some type of antiinflammatory medication. I'll let you know more when I find out about it.
The rosacea has been great lately. I tried the Eucerin cream for redness and it worked really well in reducing the cheek redness.
I feel completely disconnected with teaching lately because of all of the absences and illness. I do try hard when I'm there but the kids have seen more of substitutes than of me this month. I hope things will get back to something approaching normalcy at school next week. I also hate missing the cat adoption days for the past 3 weeks at Petco.
I go back for a followup at the gastroenterologist in 2 weeks. After that, we'll see if a colon resection is in my future.
Posted by at 12:56 PM | Comments (1)
