Still Here

I am still here.  Just been busy and without much to talk about.  We had a death in the family last week and that has kept me distracted.

The neck is healing well.  It's been dry feeling and scabbing so the wound itself is itchy.  Still no word on the additional pathology.  I 'm not worried about it and feel it can wait until my April follow up appointment.

The baby front is slow moving of course.  As you know, we aren't trying too hard right now.  May will be the big month for us.  Maybe by then all of these medical bills will be gone.  Anyway, I am expecting AF to appear any moment now and if she doesn't then I'm going to start getting excited that maybe, just maybe we did it on our own.  We shall see. I'll keep you posted.

Lumpy

I'm still alive!

Lumpy will be leaving my life on February 22nd.  Here is the low down.

On Monday, January 30th, the swelling hadn't gotten so bad, I wound up going to the ER that night.  They did a CT and bloodwork.  They explained that it was not abscessed so there was nothing they could do for me until I had the results of my biopsy.  The additional sudden swelling was probably a result of the biopsy and showed up on the CT scan as fluid.  So they pumped with with fluids, gave me prescriptions for Keflex (antibiotic) and Percocet (pain killer).

The swelling increased more.  It was frightening.  It went along my jaw line, down my neck, around behind my ear, to the base of my brain.

On Thursday I returned to my Endo for the results of my fine needle biopsy.  He said all results were benign.  No sign of cancer.  I begged him to tell me who to fix the problem.  This was getting out of control.  He started me on steroids hoping to reduce the excess swelling in my neck.

The steroids helped in the smallest littlest bit.  The swelling down down an inch and stopped.

Friday night I couldn't stand it anymore again.  I went back to the ER.  Another CT scan showed the mass had grown since Monday.  The ER doc seemed to think that the biopsy my Endo did was a waste.  Said it was looking for a needle in a haystack, then droned on about how it might be cancer afterall and the only way to know for sure is to remove it.  He told me the lymph node was not the size of a golf ball.  He gave me the name of a Plastic Surgeon ENT.

I saw the ENT on Tuesday of last week.  He seems so young.  And he looks like someone famous but I can't place him.

Well he says that I am an interesting case.  He feels that it was infected at some point but it got out of control and hardened.  There are still small pockets of liquid in it.  It can not be drained.  He also felt the additional swelling was caused by my Endo nicking something when he was doing the biopsy and I hemorrhaged.  Could explain the extreme fatigue.

So we have scheduled a neck dissection surgery to remove the affected area.  Joy.  Have you seen one of these?  In my case, he will use a "cute little crease" on my neck to minimize scarring.  From there he will lift it all up, cut up the muscle, bypass my arteries and nerves and get in to where the node is.  He will then remove it, cut it into three pieces and send each piece off to the lab to be biopsied.  He'll then close me up and observe.  If he feels that I need a tube put in to drain fluids, he will do so the next day.  The tube will hang out of my neck and not come out until it leaks only 25 ml a day.  Which means someone in my family will have to bulb the tube out every few hours and measure the liquid.  Ugh.

Surgery has been scheduled for Wednesday the 22nd.  Wish me luck!

Let's play a game

It's called how many health issues can one person have.

Ready?  Go.

I have RA, Hypothyroid, Degenerative Disk Disease, Sciatica, Chronic Epstein Barr Virus, Infertility, oh and now a HUGE lump in a lymph node in my neck that just won't go away.

Do you ever feel like someone has a voodoo doll of you?

Four years ago I had an accident that caused me to herniate 4 discs in my back, break my tailbone, and cause arthritis in my back along with a wicked case of sciatica shooting from my butt to my toes in my right leg, sometimes my left too.

A year later I was diagnosed with hypothyroid.  It took a year to get it under control.  Every once in a while, it acts up and I have to have my dosage increased.

Two years ago I was diagnosed with Chronic EBV (chronic mono).  I had been having horrible tiredness and every bone in my body was hurting.  It was severe.  I don't know if the three are connected or not, but at the time I was also diagnosed with tendinitis in my shoulder and a severe vitamin D deficiency.

Last year I was diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis.  Probably the most debilitating of these issues.  And the one with the most consequences.

Do you see the pattern here?  Every year I am diagnosed with something new.  Can we please just skip a year?  How about you silly doctors diagnose me with PREGNANCY???

Despite all of these medical issues, it is still safe for me to get pregnant.  Can you believe that?  But a diagnosis of something lymphatic might stall that.  Or worse, even dash any dreams I had of being pregnant again.

I go for a biopsy this week.  I'll keep you informed of the results.  I have a follow up appointment with my Endo for it in two weeks.  Wish me luck.

Clomid Day 1

Drama already.  At about 7:30 last night, my husband called to see how I was doing.  He asked how I was feeling on the Clomid.  Doh!  I forgot to pick it up.  I wasn't scheduled to take it until today anyway, but that was a close one!  So I hoped in the car and drove down to the pharmacy.

They couldn't find the script.

After much searching, the pharmacist found the medication under a similar, but very different name.  He changed it after some long processing.  Then told me it wasn't covered by my insurance.  What?!?!  This was a huge surprise because I have great insurance and because I work for a drug company, they cover just about everything under the sun!  He explained the med would need a prior auth.  Great.  My insurance changes at the begining of the year, so if there is a need for a second cycle, I will have to go through all of this again next year.  Ugh.

I paid the $31.09 out of pocket and will submit for reimbursement today.  I hate dealing with the insurance.  Ugh.  I guess I should just be glad it wasn't one of the 1000 something dollar medications.

Taking my clomid now.  Wish me luck.