Wow, having one of those “Fun With Health Care” weeks.
First, the good news: went to the gastroenterologist yesterday and she said that the fatty liver thing was pretty much nothing to worry about. I’m doing what is called for to relieve it – exercising and losing weight (or I will be losing weight after a while, anyway. I hope). She could have called for a liver biopsy (basically sticking a needle in my abdomen a few times and pulling liver samples) but since there’s really not much to do for the condition regardless of what the results may be, she opted not to. Whew.
Then we got to the fun part. I’ve always had a problem with heartburn, and typically have relied on Pepcid Complete about four or five times a week. In the last few months have had an occasional problem where, while I’m asleep, stomach acid creeps up into my throat and I wake up feeling like I’m about to vomit. Bleah. It’s about as pleasant as it sounds. Turns out these are all classic symptoms of Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease (GERD). What this means is the sphincter at the base of the esophagus into the stomach which is supposed to act like a one-way valve has been weakened and allows stomach acid back into the esophagus. This is a pretty common condition, really.
The biggest concern is that while the stomach lining is made to deal with stomach acid, the esophagus is not so there concerns that ulcers or scar tissue have formed. The only way to know for sure is to get an esophageal endoscopy, where they stick a camera down your throat and see what’s up down there. I get to partake in this little bit of entertainment in about a month. Sounds like it’s going to be interesting – intravenous sedation, have someone there to drive you home, don’t plan on doing anything else for the rest of the day. Still, it’s a necessary evil – I’d rather know what’s going on down there, I suppose.
*erf* I hope everything turns out okay for ya, Dunc..
I wonder if the Purple Pill would help any. 🙂 I’m getting a bit concerned with drug companies marketing medicines by specific colour, but that’s another story. 🙂
Eh. the doc put me on Protonix, but pretty much said that all of the available pills – Nexium, Prilosec, Protonix, whatever – are all about the same. Me, I’m just happy she gave me six weeks worth of free samples 🙂
Turns out that a few years ago the big treatment for GERD was laproscopic surgery, the theory being that you can put the patient on expensive pills for the rest of their lives or give them expensive surgery once up front and be done with it. That was great until the realized that the surgery sometimes didn’t work, or had unforeseen side effects, or led to other problems, while the nonsurgical approach was 100% safe and effective. Thus the switch to an emphasis on nonsurgical therapies – something which, I might add, is a Very Good Thing in my book. I’ve had people cutting on me before, and it ain’t no fun at all.
This reminds me, a couple of years back a friend described seeing a short film made by a performance artist in which the artist inserted an endoscopic video camera fairly deeply into each of her various orifices in turn. My friend said he couldnt detect any cuts in the footage during which she could have cleaned the equipment, so I hope she gave careful consideration to the order in which she addressed her various parts.
As for your own upcoming medical adventure, good luck, and its good youre keeping on top of these things. Myself, Ive got an appointment to be nasally violated by a friendly man with an endoscope and a speculum next Tuesday. Isnt health maintenance fun?