Friday, January 22, 2010

So the PCMO (Peace Corps Medical Officer, the doctor here) is going to call Washington and fill them in on all that's been happening and see if they will approve allergy testing or whatever other kinds of tests. She said that they have never before approved it, so we'll see on that one. But I've got to stay in the city until at least tomorrow until she lets me know what's up.
She talked to the GI doc again and updated him on my tummy woes. So I have a new med to take at night, and he gave the okay on taking the pills for my face (antifungal). What I didn't know, is that when he went in, he found that my liver was also inflamed some, which is why the dermotologist was concerned with giving me the antifungals with the other meds. OYE!!! I hate this, but really hope that this new one works. "It helps relieve stomach spasms, abdominal cramps, and anxiety related to gastric disorders." At least this will calm my tummy down. I'm banking on it. If not, I'll be visiting you soon! I just really want to get the teacher training done and perhaps finally a bird festival in before I go.

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Oye, I'm not happy. So turns out that the anit-itch cream I got from the PC med office had a corticosteroid in it, which caused the initial flare-up. Then the allergist prescribed a cream that also had the same stuff in it, which resulted in a super huge blow up/fungal infection. And now i have a huge patch of tinea incognito (like ringworm but caused by corticosteroids) on my face, covering half my lips, down my neck, up my cheek, and to my ear. ...And it took them a whole month after telling me I should see a dermatologist (Dec 30) to actually make me an appointment as it grew. And the whole thing was caused because of a mistake in the first place. Not happy!
As for my tummy, it still hurts, I still have diarrhea (though not liquid style anymore), and I still don't believe that all these symptoms (tummy, face, and blood levels)are unrelated. I'm gonna talk to the PC doctor and make her do more tests instead of just giving me drugs to treat the symptoms of whatever might be underlying this all.
I'm considering bowing out March 15th and heading home. It would be right after a close of service conference for all the volunteers I came in with. I heard it might be possible to petition for a full COS (aka it would be recorded that I completed my service and I'd get full benefits there-in instead of an ET which is early termination).

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Tummy woes

All went well at the hospital, but it was kinda weird... Like everyone was asking who was with me, friend, husband, etc. Nope, I came alone. By about the fifth nurse asking me, I was getting a little nervous, should someone have come? But yeah, total hospitalness... check in with admissions downstairs, put all my valuables (cell phone included) in the safe (so then I had no concept of time and just twiddled my thumbs), and then had to sit in a wheelchair waiting to be taken upstairs. On the fifth floor, I signed some more papers, then was taken into a dressing room to strip (but given cool little capri pants to wear under my gown... that had a flap for my butt LOL!), and then all my clothes and my magazine went into a locker. Then I waited some more in the wheelchair, got an iv, and my doctor (Lambraño from before) came. It was so nice to finally see a familiar face, even to know that that same face would be looking up my butt soon enough. Then I was wheeled into another room, and hopped on a bed, where the hospital people read a security kind of statement... which I had them repeat cause I heard something about a "baño" and didn't realize that they were just talking about my Dr. Lambraño. hehe So yeah, he repeated it in English and I was like, Ohhhhh. And then they put the seditive in the IV. I think I was knocked out for all of it, and I definitely took a nap in another room.
When I checked out, I got the results (or at least some of them). There´s some pictures, and a paper with his notes. Basically my colon is red and inflamed, with some spots (ulcers? I'm not good on my medical Spanish). He took biopsies of each of those (seven of 'em). And hopefully that will tell me what I've got. So currently my diagnosis is "nonspecific colitus" with a note that it's probably due to some type of infection. We'll see! Oye, this sure has been a long lotta months of this!

>>Turns out the spots were all sites of infections, but none were active infections. So still no answers but I another round of meds to try to kick start the peristalsis again.