Good morning... another week has gone by and every day brings more evidence of fall, even though we're still having pretty warm temperatures. It has cooled off though - instead of the upper 90's, it's down to the lower 90's and even into the upper 80's some days, so that's an improvement. Although the lawn is due for a mowing now, I think we're soon getting to the point at which we'll be able to cut back on the frequency with which we have to mow. Yay for that.
There hasn't been a lot going on this past week. I did see my gastroenterologist on Wednesday and it was one of the most productive appointments I've had with a doctor in some time - well, not counting the one with the dermatologist last week, which was also pretty productive, even if it didn't tie any of my conditions (skin, digestive, etc) together as I believe they should be. Doctors simply don't do that anymore, even though we all know that hypothyroidism and/or food issues can cause itchy skin, hypothyroidism also causes acid reflux and other digestive issues, the medication I take for my digestive issues interferes with metabolism of my thyroid medication - the list goes on and on, but no one is talking about any of these things and if I mention them, I get the stare-down and a comment saying, "your thyroid levels are *fine*" from my pcp and the other doctors simply say they don't want to get involved with my thyroid treatment, meaning they don't want to step on my pcp's toes because he's managing my thyroid - this all leaves me, the patient, in a catch-22.
Anyway, my appointment with the gastroenterologist was productive in that he's willing to order some tests that will "rule out" some things. Fortunately, it didn't take too long to get things scheduled, so tomorrow, I have a test called a gastric emptying scan. This is to see if food stays in my stomach too long. This test involves going to the imaging facility with an empty stomach (presumably, it will be empty since I can't eat anything); they'll give me an egg sandwich with some water and something radioactive to swallow - I'm not sure if it's the sandwich or the water that's radioactive or if there's something additional that I have to swallow. They will then do imaging at 30 minute intervals to watch this radioactive "thing" move through my system. They said the test lasts a minimum of 2 hrs so I guess that's how long they expect it to take for this to get through my stomach.
The other "goody" that got scheduled is the dreaded colonoscopy as well as an appointment with a surgeon to check out the bulge near my navel that no one seems to want to take responsibility for, including the gastroenterologist... That doesn't necessarily mean I'll be having surgery; he said a surgeon might be able to look at the CT scan and see something the radiologist didn't see in which case they'd be able to determine what the bulge is and they could go from there.
So - there's still nothing definitive and I still have the skin issues to deal with. The cream the derm gave me for the rash on my leg doesn't seem to be working, so it appears that I'll be having a biopsy on that, plus the spot she suspected is a squamous cell cancer near my nose is becoming more prominent, so she may decide to go ahead and do something with that, as well, whether it be removal or biopsy remains to be seen. My skin is still quite itchy all over, which I believe is a thyroid thing and I'm doing what I can to alleviate that.
Anyway - as you can see, I still have a lot of things going on health-wise, but at least, the ball is rolling and "things" are being done, whether they're the right things or not. We'll just have to see.
Weight-wise, I've bounced all over the map this week - anywhere from being up a couple of pounds to being down a pound from last week. I haven't weighed yet this morning - I'll do that later since I've discovered that my weight is typically, higher when I first get up and it takes a while to get rid of fluid collected during the night. I believe it all has to do with what's going on health-wise, though my pcp tells me to "eat less" - hey, when I'm full after a few bites, I can't do much more!!
I've been trying to get back on a "better" diet, but have to admit that I've had the most horrible cravings for sugar and salt that I've had in a long time. I'm trying to figure out how to break those cravings. I'll get there eventually.
I've also been trying to get back to my evening walk. It's been a while, so my legs/muscles are weaker and get tired easily so I'm starting slowly and will work up gradually. Hopefully, that will also help with the weight.
I've started classes in calligraphy and am still doing my woodworking so I need to get my health back to normal, as well as my weight. I have several pens already sold for Christmas and the possibility of selling more, so I don't have time to dilly dally...
So - that's me... How are you doing? I hope your week turned out exactly the way you planned.
~~Wishing everyone a wonderful, successful week~~