debutaunt.com

Immuno What?

Ok. So I had my endoscopy. The doctor was beyond cute. It was unnerving. "Uh, hello waygoodlooking doctor. Welcome to my esophogus." But they knocked me out, so I didn't really care.

According to cutedoc and the pathologist, I do not have graft vs. host. Nor do I have any perforations or ulcers. My doc, Dr. B, wants to re-run the pathology just to make sure. He also scheduled me for some barium test to see if maybe my esophogus works incorrectly. Like it may be uncoordinated or something, so they want to check it. I also am scheduled to meet with some psych lady. Just in case this anorexia is all in my head and not some side effect of the poison they've been giving me for months. Yay! Fun! More tests!!

I can tell you now, it's so not in my head. I dig food. I'd be skinny were it not for the superfantastic that is Mexican food.

But I still can't really eat. Yesterday I had 2 bites of a taco and four grapes. Later we met for dinner, and I ate a bit more. But I still feel super lousy. At least I've lost like six pounds to make up for this agony. It's the diet nobody wants.

So yesterday they had told me my IGG levels were way low and that they'd be giving me some Immunoglobulin. Never heard of it before, so I looked it up. That links it to platelets, but it's also used to help out your immune system.

Apparently it's also the IV from hell for me.

It comes in this huge glass bottle. It's too sticky for a normal IV bag.

You can't really tell from that picture, but it was ginourmous. Like HUGE. The Big Gulp of globulin. It was going to take at least four hours to run. They give you tylenol and some benadryl in case you have any reactions to it, since it's a human blood product. So I'm sitting there bored:

Taking picture of stuff, chillin' in my kicky recliner chair, letting the benadryl work it's sleepy magic...

(I love my New Balance. They give me balance for shizzle. See, I only ate the four grapes. Made an attempt at a strawberry, but I just couldn't do it. So I drank two butt-tons of water instead.)

And I'm bored and it's all cool thanks to my trusty iPod Nano and a new playlist I made, when it hit me. First it started off as this throbbing, crampy pain in both of my kidneys. It was like way way bad. I changed positions. Then stood up. But nearly fell the paid was so bad. So I buzz the nurses and tell them I need a little help.

And then... *BOOM* My body had it's own earthquake. I couldn't stop shaking all over. I get tremors in my hands from time to time from the anti-rejection drug, but this was like my entire body. The nurses all came in and started freaking a bit. They immediately turned off the IV, and asked if my chest hurt, which it did a little; so they gave me the tubey up the nose oxygen. But I was practically hyperventilating at this point. The pain was excrutiating.

Then they called my doc. One nurse had her arms around my bent knees to keep them from shaking. She said I'd be ok, and I told her that I knew that. I just was hurting, but I knew I'd be ok. It was so surreal. They then gave me demorol, lots of it, and told me to take some of my darvon. Now I'm still shaking, but getting big time high.

They said that if they started the IV again, they'd have to give me steroids, otherwise I'd have the same reaction. But instead, they gave me more benadryl. I finally stopped the shaking, but was soooooo Spicoli high. I was a drunk. Totally. The IV ran until after six o'clock. Good thing because I was too high to drive, and by that time the high wore off.

I sure hope I don't need that stuff anymore. It was some evil stuff. How people get high on purpose is beyond me. I can understand the wanting to do it, but the actual being high, well I think it totally sucks. I hate drugs. Hate them. Necessary evil I guess.

I read in the paper about this woman who had a lung transplant. She said that having a transplant was like having another disease. But at least this is one she can live with. Some days I feel that way, but some days I am so sick of the seemingly neverending sick. Truly.

I can do this. I was 6.5 on the richter scale.

Your assignment for today is to learn something new. Take a subject that you are totally unfamiliar with and read about it. (like the richter scale, or poison ivy). I don't know, anything that would be of interest to you. I've been reading up on San Antonio. Trying to find stuff for me and Baby Changa to do. It's a pretty cool city. Zoe says she wants to live here forever. Hmmmm.

My life is eversoquiet without you. I don't like it.

Posted by debutaunt at August 16, 2006 08:12 AM