You Don't Want to Be Sick

On one of the low carb message boards I frequent, there is a person who maybe needs to be evaluated for Cushing's. Maybe.

I do think Cushing's is more frequent than we realize. There was a study that found many diabetics also had Cushing's. There's also a number of PCOS patients who actually have Cushing's. Not that they will ever be evaluated for it. Because it's so rare, you see. So why ever test for it, right?

Just to make it more fun, in case you didn't know, the care for Cushing's is poor, usually requires travel, is expensive and it's all on the patient to make medicine work for them. Which is like pulling teeth and very stressful.

A Cushing's diagnosis is not a magic bullet.

I gave my advice to the person and warned them to keep their expectations low of endocrinologists. Not only do endos routinely see thyroid and diabetic patients (seemingly) to the exclusion of all else, I suspect they also get a decent number of patients who think their weight issues are hormonal.

Which they are, technically, but, practically, medicine has little to offer.

Hormonal anything is a crappy diagnosis. We can't even get consensus on thyroid testing and care, which is a common problem! The care just gets worse from there.

So they came back and wrote something to the effect 'is it wrong that I want my weight problem to be Cushing's?'

*bangs head against wall*

After the hell I've been through? Yeah, it's wrong. There is nothing easy about a hormonal problem.

What should they want? What I want! Which is an easy diagnosis that tests well (plus doctors willing to do the tests) with an established and effective solution.

Given my experience thus far as a patient, I think that kind of diagnosis is a pipe dream.

What was the last slam dunk diagnosis you had? I think mine was pregnancy.

Pass the Kleenex

We are not having the best week ever over here. More of a horrible, no good, very bad week.

The last time I was a single parent for a week, things went pretty well, better than anticipated. This time, I, of course, thought 'piece of cake' and, of course, it's been downhill ever since.

First we started with the toddler suddenly peeing through the diaper necessitating frequent mid-night diaper changes and washing of bedding. Which, despite being tall, I have short arms and basically have to Heimlich myself over the crib railing to get the sheets on and off. This is why the hubby always does this, but he's not here. No he's in Atlanta, in a hotel with on demand air conditioning, cable television and a pool.

Then the toddler caught a cold along with the requisite crank.

The dog then decided to have a transcendent colonic spa cleanse all over the kitchen floor. That I discovered at 2 am. Barefoot.

I went in for a simple mole check and came out stitched up like Frankenstein. They told me it would hurt and I was all 'pshaww'. But now? OW! It does hurt. And as a bonus I am sensitive to the band-aid adhesive. It makes me itch. So I hurt and itch. Especially at night.

So, of course, the toddler slept through the night for the first time in 5 days last night, but was I sleeping? Nooooo. I was sitting on my hands trying to keep from scratching myself bloody or attempting to find a way to lay without putting pressure on any of the stitches because that hurts.

Is my life awesome or what?

Wait, it gets better.

So I make all these plans today with the toddler, right? We were going to have a blast. Story time. Park. Bubbles.

The day started out great. I exercised for once. My capris are super loose which means weight loss. The toddler is hyped about our plans. Life is good, yes?

Except the car seat has self-destructed. I can't tighten or loosen the straps for some reason. So we are stranded until my engineer genius relative gets home and fixes it or I go out and buy a new car seat while the engineer baby sits.

We were demoted to blowing bubbles on the front stoop. Only the bubbles wouldn't blow. Seriously.

The toddler is crushed. I am irked beyond all reason.

Also, I think I have a sore throat.

And my cell phone broke. (At least I have a back up.)

And I finished my birth control pack which, you know what that means. (Nothing good in case you are particularly obtuse.)

Am I wrong to want to cry? Or drink large amounts of alcohol?

Mundane Muck

Nothing much new to report here. Things are fairly calm on the health front.

Mostly I am cleaning.

Yes, I finally feel better and what do I do? Go dancing? Go to the movies? Retail therapy? Visit Disney World? Indulge my bibliophilia?

Nope, none of those (well, except for a little bit of retail therapy).

No, what I do when I'm healthy is mop the family room floor at 11pm and then do the dishes at 11:30.

No one has ever accused me of being a neat freak so all this cleaning is a little unusual. Perhaps this is an unreported side effect of Prednisone use? Hmmmm.

I haven't quite found my balance yet. I'm still doing tons of housework and not very much work work, so I need to work on that. (I did ask for and receive some deadline extensions by the way.) The way I try to look at it is the backlog is immense on all fronts so it's going to take a while to even out.

I'm also more tender than veal, sooooo out of shape. It's frustrating and I am working on it one knee lift at a time. I hate starting over.

I am tired, but it feels like regular ol' tired. The kind of tired people probably feel after a long illness. So I nap sometimes. Other times, I just suck it up. The fact I can even suck it up is amazing. There's nothing I love more than powering through!

Don't worry about things getting dull over here. There are tests and more tests coming up. The nodules, the thyroid, the adrenals are all very much front and center. This is just the lull before the medical mayhem, the eye of the storm so to speak.

I did want to tell the world that, the pill turns me into an absolute bitch. Gah. Look, I didn't have cycles for several years unless I was on fertility drugs. I am not used to being hormonal anymore. Neither is my husband who bears the brunt of my bitchery.

It just sucks. I am used to having just one personality--can't really say even tempered per se since I'm not really a calm zen-y person, but I was always the same level of Def Con 5 prior to the pill. Now, with the pill, the Def Con level goes nuclear with a side of sonic boom and electric cattle prod. I don't like it. The hubby doesn't like it. On top of that, I'm still bleeding so why am I doing this again?????????

At least the pill I'm on now is better than Yaz. That sh*t made me think ripping people's heads off was an excellent idea. I'm not alone in that experience either, but, for some strange reason, homicidal rage is not listed as one of Yaz's side effects. Huh.