You all missed the lovely sight of me having a wire taped to my neck and face, going up my nose, down my throat and into my stomach. With a medical devise at the other end secured around my middle I looked lovely and it was so comfortable to spend 24 hours like that. How this came about is i was laying on the hospital bed at Beth Israel. The doctor was about to start my special Bravo endoscopy when he asked me if i had certain symptoms. When i said no, he looked surprised as that test was for very specific symptoms. After much discussion, and although my Gastro guy asked for the Bravo test, the Specialist decided to do a different kind of endoscopy which resulted in me being wired from the outside, rather than an implant from the inside.
I started crying as i laid on the bed, and the doctor and nurse, probably thinking i was having a moment of regret from refusing the general anesthesia, said are you scared? I said, no, i’m crying because i think the medical community is incompetent!
I’ve had to push all my doctors to give me the right tests. I told the Gastro guy i wanted further tests to determine if i was having issues processing fats (since i knew i was.) He told me to go to my GP for those tests. I went to my GP and he said the Gastro guy should have given you those tests. I refused to go back to the Gastro guy and insisted he order them. One test, which is a fat fecal matter (I won’t go into the 48 hour pleasantries of that test!) came back super high. Normal is 14g for 48 hrs. I had 300g. And that was even though no one gave me instructions for the test — which i learned only today by searching the internet. That test required that i ate a very high level of fat for 3-5 days before the procedure. I didn’t — i ate my normal low to moderate fat diet. Yet my results were still super high. What does this mean? Well as my doctor said, if the test comes back high it means you have a problem with your pancreas or liver. I’m waiting for my appointment with him to tell me this. Meanwhile i looked up the results and remedies myself.
The special ph test that i was wired for after the endoscopy, also confirmed the same. That my stomach acid production is all wonky and is likely killing all my enzymes before they have time to do their pancreatic and liver jobs. I’m awaiting further test results, but the moral of this story is, BE PROACTIVE. Do your research. If you don’t feel 100%, don’t let the doctors tell you it is “chronic”. Be your own best friend. Make them keep searching for answers. My mother died when she was not much older than i am, having symptoms not that different from mine. The doctors didn’t do much to figure out why and eventually she was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and died quickly. People with autoimmune diseases typically have genes that contribute to these kinds of problems. You deserve to live a healthy life. Now make your doctors help you get there.
