Health Update

It’s been a few months since I’ve given a health update on myself.  The reality is that things are constantly in flux.  I have good days/weeks and bad ones.  This is a bad one. 

 

This fall I’ve undergone a new round of testing.  Once I got to the one-year mark on this illness I was feeling very frustrated and started pressing my doctors harder for answers.  I’ve since had an abdominal CT, some blood work and an upper GI series.  All have been clear.  This is, of course, good news.  But it gets me no closer to getting better.

 

About a month ago I started a new medication.  My doctor says that it should take about 6 weeks to see the full impact of it.  So far I have mixed feelings about it.  It has helped.  I’ve had entire days of feeling well.  That has been a rare occurrence for me over the last 15 months so any day that’s sickness free is a good one.  But this week has been tough.  I’ve had a lot of unrelated issues that all seem to be coming to a head at once.  In some ways I feel like my body is just giving out on me.

 

In other news… during my abdominal CT they noticed something on my lungs.  So I added a new doctor to my list and went to see a pulmonologist. He ordered a follow-up chest CT.  They are still reviewing the results of that but their preliminary guess is that it is an pulmonary arteriovenous malformation.  An additional radiologist will be reviewing my results before my pulmonologist makes any recommendations on how to proceed.  I really don’t understand what this means yet.  I can’t tell from my own research (read: Google) whether this is something to be concerned about or not.

 

I’m trying very hard to stay positive about all of this.  Some days that is easier than others.  But I’m working on improving the things I can and leaving the rest in the hands of God.