Yes, It's Been a While

Where do I start on this one? It has been a time of surprises and of healing since I last stopped by to lay my thoughts out for the world.

I had given up, you see.

I had problems and I knew it. I have tried repeatedly to get in to see my surgeon, making perhaps five trips to Johnson City to see him, to try to get answers to my questions about why I feel tis way or that, why my weight loss had slowed down to such a crawl early out, etc. This past trip was during Christmas break - I call his office and very clearly explained why I wanted to see him. I haven't seen him since I was in the hopsital, I explained. I don't feel well. I am not losing weight - as a matter of fact, I have *gained* at only eight months out, despite only eating about 1200 calories a day. My PCP does not know how to deal with my since I have had my bypass, and he constantly refers me back to my surgeon. The appointment clerk sounded horrified that I had not see the doc since I was in the hospital, and she promised me an appointment with him on the only day that he would be in the office over my holiday. Great! Maybe I would get some answers.

I showed up with my notebook of questions and went to the window sign in. When asked for my check, I declined to hand it over, suggesting that it would make it far easier to wait until we established that the doc was really, actually going to see me - especially last time he wasn't even in the office I had to argue to get my copay back.

Guess what?!? That's right, he never even came in at all that morning, and his office didn't bother to pick up the phone and call me, saving me a THREE HOUR ROUND TRIP for apparent reason. I just thanked to the girl at the front desk (somewhat snottily, I'll be the first to admit) and left. Husband stood there and clowned a bit, loudly explaining to the crowd in the waiting room that once you were paid up by the insurance company then you were on your own.

So by the middle of January I am back at my PCP, complianing about the same problems that I was bitching about in October: serious fatigue, major irritability, insomnia, lack of weight loss, mental fog, difficulty concentrating, lack of motivation on all fronts, and now, very irregular periods as well. I told the doc that I was there for a referral to an endocrinologist as I was certain that there was something wrong hormonally. Doc said that was fine and that he was not going to send out my regular labs to include a thyroid test as it had already been tested "out the yin-yang" before I ever had my surgery. I had been talking to two ladies that I work with, and they were very insistant that I should have my thyroid tested - BOTH levels of it. So I asked the doc to do so, telling him to please just humor me. It wouldn't hurt anything and just might ease my mind. He agreed, wrote down "mood disorder" on my diagnosis page, and offered to increase the wellbutrin that he had put me on in October. I declined, explaining that it wasn't doing anything at all for me. He said that he would call with my results that next day, and yes, he would check both levels.

No one called on Tuesday as he said, but Wednesday the nurse let me know that my appoinment for the endocrinologist was for March 28th and all of my labs were just fine, except that dlkgjhsdfkgjhsdklfjhg. Pardon? Can you slow down, please? I want to make sure that I understand everything after the "except" part, as I am pretty sure that just might be something important (ya think?). Turns out my TSH level is 5.89, but that's okay, the endocrinologist can get me straightened out when I see her in March. His nurse also tells me that they very thoughtfully faxed the results of my bloodwork to my surgeon. WTF? I had just gotten through explaining to this man that I couldn't get in the see the surgeon, that I hadn't seen him, and probably was never going to get to.

The endocrinologist will start me on something in MARCH?!? I am supposed to just keep feeling like this for another two and a half months because the doctor says that he doesn't know what to do with me because I am a gastric bypass patient? I am a patient with a thyroid problem - this has nothing to do with my surgical history.

So the next day I changed my PCP with the insurance company and go to see my husband's a doc - an internist. (Husband calls and begs me in, explaining that I am not in very good shape and need help.) The new doc immediately put me on 100 mcg of levothryoxin and asked why my PCP did not do this as soon as he got the test results back. I explain the whole thing and I am so relieved to actually find a PCP who has an idea about how to deal with bypass patients.

New doc also tells me that the NSAIDS old doc had me on for cramps could kill me, that the idea that old doc had about them being okay for me just a couple of times a month just wasn't accurate. Yay.

So now I have been on meds for this for a grand total of four days now, and I already not only feel beter but have lost a little bit of weight again for the first time in a couple of months.

Weight this morning: 191 (again - finally)

PS - all that crabbing about not being able to sleep before... poor husband.... it wasn't really his fault at all.