Fated Strife

Current Mood: Disappointed

Well this past week has been incredibly boring.

I had my endoscopy on Monday, they had to take quite a few biopsies. Barrett’s was there and they got a good chuck of that out for some reason. They also found the following:

Duodenitis (Inflammation of the small intestines)
Esophagitis (Inflammation of the esophagus)
Esophageal Stricture (Narrowing of the esophagus (which causes dysphagia which is difficulty swallowing))
Gastritis (Inflammation of the stomach)
Hiatal hernia (stomach tissue pushes into the esophagus and chest cavity. I had surgery that repaired that but looks like it didn’t)
Reflux (notable damage to esophagus, due to reflux)

They did the following:
Small bowel, esophageal, stomach biopsies, they stretched my esophagus (dilation) and the LES coagulation to treat the reflux.

So will hopefully get those results back soon, some (Barrett’s) is a bit worrying.

Angel was on Monday but he got offline before I woke from my after endo nap, missed him by a few minutes. =\ He hasn’t been on any in the past week, haven’t actually spoken to him since the Thursday before last. Hopefully things will get better.

Cory hasn’t been talkative either for some reason. So no idea there.

I started playing a bit more on the Silent Hill Origins game and beat that the other night as my previous review post describes.

Adam now uses my Super Nintendo and they got some parts to get it all working, so he’s been playing my old games. He seems to like Yoshi’s Island quite a bit. He’s getting pretty good at it now as he can fly and hold over enemies and all. So helped him with that some the other night and killed Bowser since he enjoys doing that (watching mostly).

The pain from all the stretching, coagulating, and biopsies has been pretty bad surprisingly. They changed what they give you after the coagulation and such now from 40x Lortab to 20x of those and a bottle of GI Cocktail (Mylanta, some lidocaine to numb the tissue and donnatal which can make you sleepy cause of the phenobarbital in it. The cocktail didn’t work very well as Wednesday I think the pain in my chest and below the sternum was severe. The Lortab barely did, I nearly ended up going to the ED cause of it but decided best not to.

eh well, thats all for tonight I guess. I need to sleep, hopefully Angel will be on in the morning.

Tags: adam, Angel, barretts, biopsies, biopsy, cocktail, cory, depressed, duodenitis, endoscopy, esophagitis, gastritis, gi cocktail, gloomy, hernia, hiatal hernia, hydrocodone, lortab, mario, pain, snes, sullivan, super nintendo, yoshi's island

Current Mood: Sleepy

Hopefully the only one too.

Monday I have an endoscopy scheduled (they called to confirm on Friday and I erroneously said 6am rather than 6:30 and got it changed to 6, which is fine with me as I prefer to be there early as things go quicker). I am going to be stretched and my LES coagulated. I was able to make it 8 months after the last dilation of my esophagus before the dysphagia got to the point where food became more difficult to pass. So I hope this will last at least that long if not all year, as it seems the treatment is lasting longer.

The coagulation is to help with reflux, causing scarring of the sphincter to the stomach which causes it to tighten better (in a way doing the opposite of the dilation but in a place where it’s needed) thus preventing the acid from splashing into the esophagus causing more damage.

My Barrett’s needs to be checked on also as well as one area where I’ve been having quite a bit of pain and spasms. Hopefully the Barrett’s hasn’t worsened any and that the painful/”spazzy” spot isn’t anything bad.

I also need to mention the pylorus and see if it has a stricture again, as when it was stretched back in May 07 it seemed my GI motility had improved a bit though I don’t believe the motility problem is just from that but it did help.

I’m looking forward to it in a way, by that I get some relief from the difficulty swallowing and some reduction in reflux. Plus I get to attempt to brighten the nurses and tech’s days (Maybe Dr. Sullivan too!). I’m also going to attempt to get a copy of the pictures they take during it to post for those of you interested. (Is anyone interested actually?)

In other news, got to talk to Angel for a few minutes the other day which was good I guess. Otherwise things have been unremarkable.

Tags: Angel, coagulation, dilation, egd, endoscopy, LES, pylorus, stretching, sullivan

Current Mood: Sick

Well I went to see Dr. Sullivan on Tuesday. They moved the offices that the NPs work in to a few doors down, the entire building is being renovated and this new office they’re in is nice. Hardwood flooring, more room (this was a problem in their old office cause there was only 5 or so chairs in there, now there’s a dozen or so), just generally more area for work to be done and all that.

Anyway, they are doing some more blood work and I have an endoscopy (EGD) setup on January 7th at 6:30am (I only do these at 5-6am unless no openings are available for awhile). Hopefully we can find something, if not at least I’ll get some coagulation and dilation done so that should help with the reflux and swallowing problems.

Not heard from Angel yet, was hoping he’d get on today before school but he didn’t, maybe he’ll get on tomorrow for a minute since his hospital stuff starts later in the evening. Friday he’s doing another ambulance ride along supposedly so I’m really hoping Saturday he’ll be on and somethings can go back to normal.

I picked up the new FFXI expansion, Wings of the Goddess on Tuesday. It was a pretty quick install, and only 2 updates and was ready to go. I finally got to work on some quests last night with Cory but he had to leave while we were working on a job quest. We got back to that today and got Dancer unlocked, working on Scholar and a mission quest but he went AFK and then disconnected so maybe tomorrow. The new story is, well lacking at this point but I’m sure an update will be out soon to add more to it. Running back and forth to the past is a pain cause you can only go back to the past at the same location you went to the present from. Also no chocobo use there either yet, but I think we’ll be getting those soon.

Not much else going on, adult swim is playing the rest of the Shin Chan episodes to finish season 1 so been TiVoing that and such to watch. Not much on TV anymore, at least not on basic cable.

I added a mood thing to the blog so now my mood displays at the top of the posts now. I have a ton of various moods I need to add but got the basics. I’m planning on a new look for my blog soon too. This might help the slow problem and can have some fresh code to start with.

I think that’s all for now, no wait.. The Square-Enix online store has a FFXI category now!! I really want the baby Chocobo plush, the nation rings are really nice too, maybe I can get one sometime.

Thats all.

Tags: Angel, appointment, chocobo, cory, egd, endoscopy, FFXI, gastroenterologist, office, piroke, playonline, shin chan, sullivan

Well, where to start.

Angel and I finally got to talk after a week and a few days of not being able to. It wasn’t a great long chat but still was good to be able to have talked with him, though past 2 days were only messages as he had to do some other stuff.

Unfortunately though, due to some problems there he had to get the money back from the tickets so he won’t be coming out here, at least for now. We are still friends so thats a big plus as I was worried about it most of that week. So some prayers or mojo or whatnot for him and his family would be appreciated.

I finally got to shoot my Glock 38 that I’ve had for the past few years. I know, took me long enough. I was able to procure permission to shoot on some county property and it was pretty fun. The first shot, the shell hit me in the forehead but otherwise it was a neat experience. It didn’t seem to have much recoil as the Glock 32 I had. I’m going to try to take it shooting again sometime when I have more ammo with me, and not the $26 pack of my Speer Golddot hollow tip ones. Too expensive to be shooting those for practice when I have a box of 50 or so Winchesters I can use for that. I did have to do a bit of walking through the woods and such to reach the spot in 30F weather.

Mary, Kim, and Heather are coming up for Thanksgiving on Wednesday.

My weight is at 176lbs right now, which I’m surprised I got that low and am staying around that range. This seems to be a good weight for me. I could probably do with 180-190 but dont want to put all that weight back on.

I dont think I’m going to have any problem with losing more weight at this time due to some horrible stomach bug I’ve got. I’m not sure just yet what it is, I thought maybe something I got at Pal’s was contaminated with someone else’s sickness. Salmonella, C. Diff, all sorts of things. It ended up causing some abdominal cramping, diarrhea (which turned green tonight, thus the title of this post), I’ve had low grade fevers on and off the past few days too which may just be coincidence but never know. Feeling pretty lousy now.

Mine and my mom’s internet went down a few minutes ago, so I called to see what was going on. They said maintenance until 3am but it seems to be working now, so was writing this offline but may move over to the site and work from there.

My head has also been hurting quite a bit lately, more so than it had been. These head pains aren’t migraine class, but they occur in the same region as the migraine pain. Which seems to be frontal lobe area, right side. It is a sharp pain, exerting causes it to hurt too at times. I also still have the migraines which are relentless but I’ve been able to keep them under control some with more dark room no noise sleep.. or resting in my case.

To add to this, I have (as some others have too) that I have problems finding words or that I seem to get stuck on a word then lose my concentration. Which can be side effects of migraines from what I’ve read. I am going to have to mention this to my doctor as this is really getting scary and worrying me.

The stomach stuff is something else I really need to get looked at. (not what I mentioned above unless it persists for too long) The reflux, which at times can be unbearable, the dysphagia and odynophagia become a problem when trying to eat. I have done pretty well though after my last stretch and coagulation on my LES. I think this may have been the longest I’ve been without those done so I’m probably past due for the stretching at least.

I’m going to go to sleep before the Lunesta takes me out of it.

Tags: Angel, diarrhea, dysphagia, Family, friend, gastroenterologist, glock, Guns, heather, ill, kim, lunesta, mary, migraine, mom, pain, sick, stomach, sullivan

This makes my 800th blog post, can’t believe I’ve posted that many.

House was on tonight, it was pretty good but I’m just not enjoying the season so far. It may be where the cabins aren’t part of his team now (though they’re still around to participate, and Foreman is back with House) and probably just need to get used to the new potential team members. Also, House doesn’t seem to be popping Vicodin in as many scenes as the previous seasons, at least not that I’ve noticed.

Past few weeks have sucked a lot, haven’t talked to Angel since last Wednesday or so, hopefully he’ll be on tomorrow.

My cough started back up some today, the last round of antibiotics seemed to have rid me of this crap. Which for the most part it did, but either my asthma has went nuts or I don’t know why this cough has stuck around for so long. It’s also unnerving with these headaches. When I’m not in migraine mode I occasionally get these sharp stabbing pains in the same place that tends to hurt the worst when I have a migraine. It also happens if I’m straining or if I get up too quick or such (though I get more lightheaded than I used to when I would stand up too quick). Hopefully one of my doctors will be able to figure out what the deal with that area is and to get these migraines under control some.

Not surprising, my reflux has been getting progressively worse again, I’ve been without coagulation on my LES and dilation of my esophagus for quite awhile now which I am happy about but I believe I’m due for a stretch and burn soon. Bobbie had mentioned it would be around this time when I would probably need one if things didn’t improve. I’ll have to call Sullivan’s office up here soon and see my new nurse practitioner to see what they want to do. Anymore they just let me decide when I think I need to have that done.

I received both my Darth Malak/Darth Revan and Holographic Commander Cody figures today! I was surprised to not only get them this soon but to get them both on the same day. They’re pretty cool, though the Darth Revan figure doesn’t stand up well. His robe probably unbalances him thus causing him to fall over but I’ve got him propped up some. I’ve decided to leave the Cody figure in his package for the time being, since I already have a Cody figure out (though he’s the non holographic one).

Silent Hill Origins is finally out! This is something that can be considered on my wishlist now. I didn’t see it in any stores when I was out at them last week so guess I can just hope I get it for Christmas since it’s coming up soon. I hope it’s good and has controls like SH3 or better. I’m not sure how it’s going to do since its on PSP, the only other game I have and actually play on it is the Dracula X Chronicles and you can only choose to use directional OR analog stick to move but not both (which I would like to have both for SotN).

Having just seen one of the new Pepto Bismol commercials, I have to complain about how much I despise Hardee’s/Carl Jr’s commercials. You have these “manly” men on there, basically taking huge bites of food, chomping their food loudly, smacking their lips, mouth open. ripping the cheese off the wrapper. I find people eating like that rude, disgusting, irritating, too many to list. Makes me want to eat there even less. Then again I don’t really want to eat a burger that has more calories than I consume in a week.

I’ve also got a post planned in my head, basically about Stairway to Heaven backwards. Most people know about it, probably have heard it. But, theres a part in the song where its just the music going without vocals and it really sounds like this baby crying. It does it twice and I have yet to hear it in any of the other parts of the song and I’m pretty sure its not the guitars causing it as you can clearly hear them as well during that part. I’ll get some clips and such made up here soon and see what others think about it.

I guess that’s all for now, time to sleep so I can just wake up tired. I had a horrible time falling asleep yesterday though, I’d be drifting off and then jerk awake. The first time was because of my own hand, I was lying there and my right hand was near my left by my hand and it just felt like someone else touching my hand. Then people being loud downstairs kept keeping me from dozing off. Finally I was going to sleep again and it sounded like gunshot near my head. Wasn’t as loud as one but was pretty loud. I’m still not sure what it was.

Thats all.

Tags: Angel, asthma, blog, christmas, cough, darth malak, darth revan, Dracula X, headache, house, house md, lightheaded, migraine, migraines, pain, reflux, sleep, SotN, star wars, sullivan, tired, wishlist