Echocardiogram and broken hearts.
2005-10-29 12:21 p.m.

I went in this morning for my echocardiogram. The technician was a pretty young woman around my age. We dished about being single and how tough the dating scene is. I teased her about meeting single doctors in her occupation and she said she was not interested in doctors. Period. Apparantly she was married to one for three years and now he's off traipsing around Europe. I guess doctors aren't the catch they appear to be. It was strange seeing my heart beat and watching the valves flop around. Everything looked good to me but I'm not a physician. When she was finished and I was wiping the weird gel off my left breast I asked: "So, how did it look? Can you tell?" I know the technicians are not supposed to interpret the tests, but I always ask anyway. "Yes, I can tell," she said slyly. "You don't have anything to worry about. Your doctor will call you in three to five days with the report." Nice. That's a load off my mind.

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You can't take me anywhere and yum cheesecake.
2005-10-28 11:11 p.m.

This morning I met with the Rheumatologist who told me that I have sarcoidosis and that my joints are all f*cked up. Yep. Could have told him that, in fact I did, but it was good getting reassurance. We discussed the whole issue of steroids and decided to hold off until I get my cat scan and echocardiogram. I�ll let HPD (handsome pulmonary doc) make the call when all the results are in.

I stayed home tonight and ordered in some food from Noodlin� after my mother admonished me to eat more food of a wider variety than toast, soup and apples. I swear, Delivered Dish is a God send for us shut ins. They sent me enough Cajun pasta to feed a small country; I�ll be eating it all weekend, and let me tell you the marionberry cheesecake was out-freaking-standing.

A friend attempted to entice me to the Brody theater tonight with the promise of free admission but I was exhausted and just wanted to curl up with my kitties. I didn�t really sleep last night and I have to get up early to hang out at my favorite place � the hospital. I�m waiting for the day when everyone in the ER yells out my name when I come through the huge automatic doors.

I just realized that my pants are on inside out. It�s probably a good thing I stayed home tonight.

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More doctors and more improv.
2005-10-27 11:03 p.m.

The eye doctor actually squealed and clapped her hands together when she looked into my eyes. The KPs are clearing up and I no longer have macular edema. I don't really understand that either. What I do understand is that my eyes are responding very well to the steroid drops and I can start tapering over the next three weeks. Hurrah. More good news: my liver is holding up well and my calcium levels are normal. The bad news: my EKG was funky and I have to get an echocardiogram this weekend. Then tomorrow I go to the rheumatologist. Ack. I actually have a calendar that is completely filled with doctors and testing appointments. I'm hoping that by December everything will be settled down to me seeing just one physician montly, or even better, quarterly.

Tonight John gave a really good workshop on long form improv. We managed to ignore most of his excellent advice and played around on stage. Actually, I think we could have used another two hours to get the format down. We were just starting to really explore it when our time was up. I could have improved all night.

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Blah Blah Blah My Medical Condition Blah Blah Blah
2005-10-25 10:21 p.m.

I spent another day in bed. I got up at noon, ate some toast, watched a little Tivo and then went back to bed and slept until seven. Loki thinks this whole napping thing is a fabulous idea and spent the afternoon under the covers curled up against my belly. Sometimes he snores which is very cute. I've been taking a lot of pain medication and anti-inflammatories which have led to some really fantastic dreams.

During the time I was conscious today I spent an hour on the phone with a nice appointment nurse who helped me get all my tests and specilialist appointments sheduled. For some reason the dermatology department is uber snotty and gave me the "don't call us we'll call you" speil. I seem to be getting that a lot lately, mostly from boys, but whatever. I try to be Zen about the whole dating thing. When the right guy comes along it will be all Henry Miller and Anais Nin, only without June. Hell, I'd settle for some June action in the mix at this point in my life. I'm not a prude. I just need some love and affection - boy do I ever. Okay, where the hell was I going with this? Ah yes, the never ending throes of my medical adventures...

Tomorrow I go back to see my spritely eye doctor. I'm hoping that my peepers are continuing to improve. I'm still dumping steroids into my eyes three times a day. They continue to be dry and irritaed but at least they are now white and not that gross milky pink color. I'll find out if we still need to dilate the hell out my peepers or if most of the scar tissue is gone.

Then I'll have to wander over to the hospital and get an echocardiogram. Handsome Pulmonology Dude (HPD) told me that my left ventricle looked thickened; that's a bit worrisome so we're going to ultrasound my ticker.

On Friday I go see a Rheumatologist - HPD specified in his referral I was to see an actual physician instead of their nurse. The nurse guy was very nice and took an extensive history and performed a thorough examination, but upon reading his notes (ah, the joys of reading one's own medical records) he downplayed my complaints and then totally blew me off after the whole facial paralysis thing. It was the whole "not my department" thing. Next week I get my chest cat scanned. Pretty soon I will know what the inside of my body looks like as much as the outside of my body.

I'm considering taking all my posts about my sarcoidosis ordeal and putting them together in a booklet. It's hard finding other people's experiences with this disease online. There's Buccaneer Betty, bless her heart and Beatnik Pad, but that's about it.

Just for the hell of it, here's a list of my symptoms in order of annoyability:

Anterior Uveitis (inflamed eyes, decreased vision)
Excruciating Ankle, Wrist and Knee Pain.
Fatigue / Malaise (that means I sleep a lot and feel like crap)
Nausea and Weight Loss (20 pounds and counting - no huge complaints here)
Chest Pain and Shortness of Breath
Erythema Nodosum (leopard like spots on legs)
Salivary Gland granulomas (decreased spit and TMJ pain)
Bilateral facial paralysis (resolved - fingers crossed)

Enough bitching. Amusing posts to follow.

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Guess which one my cats fight over.
2005-10-24 1:40 p.m.



Store Bought Cat Bed. Faux fur lined cat bed. Has a reversible liner depending upon temperature and cat's personal needs. Fashionable blue fleur de lis design for the cat who is French at heart. Price: $29.95



Amazon.com box with a dirty old towel thrown on top. I threw an old towel I was donating to Good Will into an empty box. Price: Free.

Now, guess which cat bed they fight over and which one has not been used in two years. I'll give you a hint. Look for the one with the cat in it. Maybe I should sell my designer cat bed online. I've got lots of old towels and empty Amazon.com boxes. Hmmmm.

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It's showtime!
2005-10-24 12:17 p.m.

I'm not sure whose brilliant idea it was to put the blind girl on the computer but I ran the video screens last night for the ComedySportz farm team show. The crowd was huge! It was almost a full house which is virtually unheard of for the Sunday night shows. It was a pretty darn good show. There are a couple of players (I won't mention any names) that seem terrified of sharing the stage and they really need to trust the newer players to hold their own. Of course, it's easy for me to criticize because I wasn't on stage! Ha ha!

My 185 joke: 185 Spiders walk into a bar. The bartender says we don't serve Spiders here and 185 Spiders say 'But we read all about this place on your Website!' Get it? Website.

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