Cindy’s Multiple Myeloma Blog

Son, niece, and sister took me to the ER yesterday.  I was just miserable and having a hard time breathing.  I feel like I’m 9 months pregnant and catch my breath. 

The ER was great, listened, and thorough.  Of course, I tried to just focus on the issue at hand: my swollen abdomen, the pain and pressure it was causing, and feeling short of breath.  My blood pressure was 201/128 (or 112) I can’t recall, but think it was 128.  It was off the wall.  We got it down to 143/90 something..or something like that.  I’m in that much discomfort that it affect my BP.

They gave me a CT Scan.  I drank some nasty Crystal Light stuff with the dye, had to wait an hour, then had the CT Scan.  There did not inject the contrast dye because with Multiple Myeloma and I think Lymphoma, they dye does something with protein in your kidneys and shuts your kidneys down.  But they said with the CT Scan without the contrast, that they’d still see if there was anything in there, whether in my liver, ovaries, whatever.

Ends up, I’m FULL of gas.  The doctor said if you poked a pin in me I’d probably spin all around the room like a popped baloon.  Funny.  He said I didn’t have any poop in there.  So, no obstruction. 

This is the exact opposite results that I got the other day from my doctor’s office.  They said I didn’t have gas but that I had poop just sitting all through my bowel. 

The ER doctor told me that he thinks I’m making my own problem by taking the Senna (8), Colace (2) every day plus then taking Miralax.  Well that is the instructions Dr. D gave me.  I guess her instructions are wrong. 

So, I’m stoppinng the Senna.  Maybe can take a softener, like Dulcolax every day, but to go natural.  This doctor said if I feel like I need to do something, like if I’m not going, to just get one of the Fleets phosphates — or whatever they are that has that salty little bit of stuff you have to swallow.  It gets you going in a few hours.  He said the stuff I’m doing takes 3 days and gets me in trouble  At least he had some answers and ideas.  Plus, his advise is opposite from what my oncologist gave me.

My next plan of action is this:

1. Tomorrow I’m checking on an oncologist I know of that specialized in MM, near here, and goes to Centerpoint Hospital.  The ER doctor spoke highly of him and his partner and also said that they act like your PCP.  That’s what I really need with this type of condition.  I need to check if this oncologist’s office accepts my insurance plus will he take on a new patient.  Oh I hope so.  It will be such a disappointment if this part falls through.  I’m so through with my current oncologist. 
2. If I get an appointment with the new oncologist, I can then cancel my other appointments with Dr. D and the GI appointments she’d made. 

I’m so ready to make this change now. I just pray it all works out.  One way or the other, I’m changing doctors though.  Once I get on with the new oncologist, I’ll have to have help with my neurological problems.  Maybe some type of therapy.  I’m not sure what we’ll do in that area.  That “spot” has disappeared, so for now I don’t know what there is to do. 

I need to consider urology given I have to self-catheter.  I have a really good urologist I used to go to.  I just need to set up an appointment with him so that he knows where I stand now.  It’ll be heaven seeing him versus the unprofessional doctors I saw before. He’s good, thorough, and very professional. 

Then, once I get all this settled down, maybe I can just rest and enjoy life a bit more.  I’m still horribly uncomfortable.  That pressure has not gone away, though I’m less fixated on it now that I feel comfortable that adequate tests were done on it and no obstruction shows.  I think the way the GI doctor did not even touch my stomach made me have doubts how thorough he was checking me.  He only ordered an ultrasound after the insistance of my niece and sister.  There’s results from the ultrasound that may require further testing, but I’ll let my new oncologist decide if we just lay low for a while or what. 

It’s going to be a little bit of a rough ride in the next few months getting this organized, but in the end, I think things will be more manageable.  If I do get the doctors I’m hoping for, my appointments will be close to home and if I ever have to go to the hospital, the hospital is close, clean, and every room is a private room!  Can’t beat that!

Filed under: Doctor Appointments, Multiple Myeloma and